The Effect of Abortion Liberalization on Sexual Behavior: International Evidence
نویسندگان
چکیده
Most industrialized countries have increased access to abortion over the past 30 years. Economic theory predicts that abortion laws affect sexual behavior since they change the marginal cost of having risky sex. We use gonorrhea incidence as a metric of risky sexual behavior. Using a panel of 41 North American, European and Central Asian countries over the period 1980-2000, we estimate the impact of abortion law reform on risky sex. Compared to the most restrictive legislation that permits abortion only to save the pregnant woman’s life or her physical health, more liberal abortion laws are associated with at least thirty additional gonorrhea cases per 100,000 individuals. The marginal effect of laws which make abortion available on request is larger than the effect of laws which allow abortion on socioeconomic and mental health grounds. Our results are robust against a set of alternative sample constructions and model specifications. JEL Code: I12, I18, J13, K00, K32, Z13.
منابع مشابه
The Relationship between Abortion Liberalization and Sexual Behavior: International Evidence
Economic theory predicts that abortion laws affect sexual behavior since they change the marginal cost of having risky sex. We estimate the impact of abortion laws on sexual behavior by reported gonorrhea incidence. Our data panel includes 41 countries for which consistent gonorrhea data are available for 1980–2000. Compared with laws permitting abortion only to save the pregnant woman’s life o...
متن کاملTrade Liberalization and International Competitiveness in Iran: An Application of Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Model
Trade liberalization is often the core attention of foreign economic strategies in developing countries. Findings in the literature confirm a significant effect of free trade on developing economies through which the economic sectors benefit from technology transfer and spillovers and increasing production capacities and input productivity leading to international competitiveness. On the other...
متن کاملPerceptions of policymakers in Nigeria toward unsafe abortion and maternal mortality.
CONTEXT In Nigeria, abortion is permitted only to save the life of a woman. Unsafe abortion is common and is a major cause of maternal mortality, yet policymakers have done little to address the problem. METHODS In-depth interviews were conducted in 2008 with 49 Nigerian politicians and officials to assess their awareness of unsafe abortion and its role in maternal mortality, and to determine...
متن کاملThe Impact of Trade Liberalization on Industrial Growth of India: An Empirical Investigation
This paper examines impact of trade liberalization on industrial growth of India. The research problem is expressed as âTo what extent does trade liberalization or openness of the economy influence industrial growth of India?â To identify the impacts of trade liberalization, total time period, 1970-2010, is divided into two sub periods of before trade liberalization i.e. (1970 to 1990) an...
متن کاملStudy the Effect of Meat Market Liberalization on Rural Welfare in Iran
This study aims to study the effect of elimination of government intervention and liberalizationin meat market in rural area in Iran on consumer welfare with time series data for 1981-2007.An alternative partial equilibrium model was developed to examine the welfare effect of meattrade liberalization. Result show that on producer side, government budget (subsidy onproduction), foreign exchange ...
متن کامل