Essays on the Economics of Reproductive Health Care

Pineda Torres, Mayra Belinda

Essays on the Economics of Reproductive Health Care

dc.contributor.advisor	Lindo, Jason M
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Puller, Steve
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Hoekstra, Mark
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Lahey, Joanna
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Dague, Laura
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Jones, Kelly
dc.creator	Pineda Torres, Mayra Belinda
dc.date.accessioned	2023-02-07T16:19:12Z
dc.date.available	2023-02-07T16:19:12Z
dc.date.created	2022-05
dc.date.issued	2022-04-20
dc.date.submitted	May 2022
dc.date.updated	2023-02-07T16:19:13Z
dc.description.abstract	Reproductive health care is the ability to have a satisfying and safe sex life, the capability to reproduce, and the freedom to decide if, when, and how often to do so. Access to reproductive health care has improved due to technological advances and information dissemination in the last few decades. However, this access is still heterogeneous and, therefore, not everyone has the same ability to use reproductive technology and control their fertility choices. In this dissertation, I use quasi-experimental methods and non-experimental data to study the health and economic implications of access to reproductive controls in the US. In chapter 2, we study the long-run impacts of access to oral contraception and abortion on women’s education and earnings. We find evidence that access to these reproductive controls improved high school graduation among Black women. We also observe increases in women’s probability of working in a Social Security-covered job in women’s 20s and 30s associated with early access to oral contraception and abortion, but we find no evidence of positive effects on women’s earnings in their 50s. In chapter 3, we evaluate the effects of a Tennessee law enacted in 2015 that requires women to make an additional trip to abortion providers for state-directed counseling at least 48 hours before obtaining an abortion. We find that the introduction of this policy caused increases in the share of abortions obtained during the second trimester, and we find inconclusive evidence of changes in overall abortion rates. Finally, in chapter 4, we study how women’s exposure to targeted regulations to abortion providers (TRAP laws) in adolescence affects their fertility and educational attainment. We find that the exposure to these policies increases Black teen births in states that implemented these policies relative to states without such restrictions. We offer evidence that these impacts are driven by reductions in abortion access, abortion use, and contraception use among Black teens. We further document that adolescent exposure to TRAP laws before age 18 reduces the probability of initiating and completing college.
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/197340
dc.language.iso	en
dc.subject	health economics
dc.subject	reproductive health care
dc.subject	abortion
dc.subject	contraception
dc.subject	family planning policies
dc.subject	teen fertility
dc.subject	educational attainment
dc.subject	employment, occupation
dc.subject	gender
dc.subject	race
dc.subject	causal inference
dc.title	Essays on the Economics of Reproductive Health Care
dc.type	Thesis
dc.type.material	text
local.etdauthor.orcid	0000-0002-8433-3237
thesis.degree.department	Economics
thesis.degree.discipline	Economics
thesis.degree.grantor	Texas A&M University
thesis.degree.level	Doctoral
thesis.degree.name	Doctor of Philosophy