Effects of lower ages of majority on oral contraceptive use: Evidence on the validity of The Power of the Pill

Cragun, Randy (2019): Effects of lower ages of majority on oral contraceptive use: Evidence on the validity of The Power of the Pill.

Abstract

With the Australian Family Project and 1970 National Fertility Survey, this paper uses between-states variation in the timing of youth consent laws in Australia and the US in the 1960s and 1970s to show that women in Australia who had never used the pill were 2 percentage points more likely to start at age 19 under an age of majority of 18 instead of 21 (from a base rate around 2%). Women living under liberalized youth consent and legal access to the pill in the US were 10 percentage points more likely to start the pill at age 20.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: the pill; contraception; power of the pill; age of majority; early legal access
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I18 - Government Policy ; Regulation ; Public Health; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J13 - Fertility ; Family Planning ; Child Care ; Children ; Youth; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs > J31 - Wage Level and Structure ; Wage Differentials

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