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Did welfare reform influence the fertility of young teens?
Author(s) -
Lopoo Leonard M.,
DeLeire Thomas
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of policy analysis and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.898
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1520-6688
pISSN - 0276-8739
DOI - 10.1002/pam.20173
Subject(s) - fertility , welfare , welfare reform , total fertility rate , demography , guardian , demographic economics , economics , population , family planning , sociology , research methodology , market economy , macroeconomics
During the 1990s, states made several reforms to their welfare programs designed to reduce teenage fertility among minors. Among the most prominent of these changes, states started requiring teenage mothers younger than 18 to live with a parent or legal guardian and enroll in high school in order to receive welfare benefits. Using natality data from the National Center for Health Statistics, we compare the trend in fertility rates for young women aged 15 to 17 to the trend for a control group of 18‐year‐olds. Our estimates imply that the annual percent decline in fertility rates following implementation of these minor parent provisions was 0.7 percentage points larger for young teens than for teens aged 18, a difference of over 22 percent. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management