Child vs. Pet: The Effect of Abortion Legalization on the Demand for Pets

Abstract:     
This paper examines whether abortion legalization led to increased demand for pets in the United States. We compare women living in early-legalizing states, whose peak childbearing years occurred in the early 1970s, to women in other states and cohorts and estimate their likelihood of pet ownership and time spent on pets after their peak childbearing years were over. We find the probability of owning any pet is approximately 9.6 percentage points higher for women affected by abortion legalization than for non-affected women, and that affected women spend on average 8 minutes more per day on pets.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 10

Keywords: abortion legalization, fertility, pet, substitutes

JEL Classification: J13, J22

working papers series