Did the US infertility insurance mandates affect the time of birth?

From 1977-2001, several US states mandated health insurance providers to offer coverage for infertility treatment. Although the majority of past literature has studied impacts on older women who are likely to seek treatment, this paper proposes that the mandates may have had a wider impact on the US population. Specifically, it may have given an option for younger women to delay birth due to the reduction of the opportunity cost of having a child in the future. Results estimated by the discrete-time proportional hazard model suggest a significant delay in the time to first birth among highly educated women. JEL classification: I18; J13; J18