Open AccessThe impact of contraceptive access on high school graduation
Author(s) -
Amanda Jean Stevenson,
Katie R. Genadek,
Sara Yeatman,
Stefanie Mollborn,
Jane Menken
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
science advances
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.928
H-Index - 146
ISSN - 2375-2548
DOI - 10.1126/sciadv.abf6732
Subject(s) - graduation (instrument) , educational attainment , demography , census , population , family planning , percentage point , natural experiment , human capital , medicine , baseline (sea) , gerontology , psychology , demographic economics , family medicine , medical education , political science , sociology , economic growth , economics , mathematics , research methodology , statistics , geometry , pathology , law
Does access to the full range of contraceptive methods increase young women's educational attainment? Family planning programs are often justified by claims that it does, but contemporary evidence is unexpectedly weak. We use a natural experiment afforded by a 2009 Colorado policy change to assess the impact of expanded access to contraception on women's high school graduation. Linking survey and Census data, we follow a population-representative U.S. sample, including large subsamples of young women living in Colorado in 2010 and in comparison states. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find expansion of access to contraception was associated with a statistically significant 1.66 percentage-point increase in high school graduation. This increase in graduation represents a 14% decrease in the baseline percentage not graduating high school before the policy change. Results are robust to a variety of sensitivity tests. Our findings indicate that improving access to contraception increases young women's human capital formation.