Is Education the Best Contraception? The Case of Declining Teenage Pregnancy in England

25 Pages Posted: 4 Jul 2014

See all articles by Sourafel Girma

Sourafel Girma

Nottingham University Business School

David Paton

Nottingham University Business School (NUBS)

Date Written: July 4, 2014

Abstract

This paper examines potential explanations for recent declines in teenage pregnancy, in particular, the promotion of long acting reversible contraception (LARCs). We estimate models of teenage conception, birth and abortion rates using panel data from England which allows us to control for unobservable time and area fixed effects. Although point estimates are consistent with LARC promotion having a negative impact on teenage pregnancy rates, the effects are small and generally statistically insignificant. In contrast, improvements in educational outcomes and, to a lesser extent, increases in the non-white proportion of the population are associated with large and statistically significant reductions in teenage pregnancy.

Keywords: fixed effects, long acting reversible contraception, teen pregnancy, abortion

JEL Classification: C21, I18, J13

Suggested Citation

Girma, Sourafel and Paton, David, Is Education the Best Contraception? The Case of Declining Teenage Pregnancy in England (July 4, 2014). Nottingham University Business School Research Paper No. 2014-04, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2462432

Sourafel Girma

Nottingham University Business School ( email )

Jubilee Campus
Nottingham, NG8 1BB
United Kingdom
+44 0 115 8466656 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~lizsmg/

David Paton (Contact Author)

Nottingham University Business School (NUBS) ( email )

Jubilee Campus
Wollaton Road
Nottingham NG8 1BB
United Kingdom
+44 0 115 8466601 (Phone)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
329
Abstract Views
1,981
Rank
167,723
PlumX Metrics