Abortion legalization and adolescent fertility: new evidence for Uruguay based on the synthetic control method

Autores
Velázquez Battistessa, Cecilia
Año de publicación
2024
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
documento de trabajo
Estado
versión enviada
Descripción
Following abortion legalization in Uruguay in late 2012, adolescent fertility rate fell by more than half. This paper aims at establishing a causality relationship. To estimate the impact of the abortion reform on adolescent fertility I use the Synthetic Control Method by comparing trends of Uruguay with Latin America and the Caribbean countries with restrictive abortion laws. Results suggest adolescent fertility rate was reduced in the postreform period by an average of 8.3 births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19, a decline of almost 15% with respect to the synthetic control unit. In-space placebos indicate this effect is statistically significant at the 5% level. This conclusion holds after conducting an in-time placebo test and a leave-one-out test. To the present time, evidence on the impact of Uruguayan abortion legalization on adolescent fertility that has addressed endogeneity is mixed, and based entirely on identification strategies that exploit different sources of exogenous within-country variation that determines the exposure to the reform. My contribution here is to exploit between-country variation, bringing new evidence to the on-going debate.
Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales
Materia
Ciencias Económicas
Abortion legalization
Adolescent fertility
Synthetic control method
Latin America and the Caribbean
Uruguay
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Repositorio
SEDICI (UNLP)
Institución
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
OAI Identificador
oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/172980

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spelling Abortion legalization and adolescent fertility: new evidence for Uruguay based on the synthetic control methodVelázquez Battistessa, CeciliaCiencias EconómicasAbortion legalizationAdolescent fertilitySynthetic control methodLatin America and the CaribbeanUruguayFollowing abortion legalization in Uruguay in late 2012, adolescent fertility rate fell by more than half. This paper aims at establishing a causality relationship. To estimate the impact of the abortion reform on adolescent fertility I use the Synthetic Control Method by comparing trends of Uruguay with Latin America and the Caribbean countries with restrictive abortion laws. Results suggest adolescent fertility rate was reduced in the postreform period by an average of 8.3 births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19, a decline of almost 15% with respect to the synthetic control unit. In-space placebos indicate this effect is statistically significant at the 5% level. This conclusion holds after conducting an in-time placebo test and a leave-one-out test. To the present time, evidence on the impact of Uruguayan abortion legalization on adolescent fertility that has addressed endogeneity is mixed, and based entirely on identification strategies that exploit different sources of exogenous within-country variation that determines the exposure to the reform. My contribution here is to exploit between-country variation, bringing new evidence to the on-going debate.Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales2024-11info:eu-repo/semantics/workingPaperinfo:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersionDocumento de trabajohttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042info:ar-repo/semantics/documentoDeTrabajoapplication/pdfhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/172980enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/url/https://www.cedlas.econo.unlp.edu.ar/wp/wp-content/uploads/doc_cedlas339.pdf?dl=0info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1853-0168info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)instname:Universidad Nacional de La Platainstacron:UNLP2025-10-15T11:38:12Zoai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/172980Institucionalhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/Universidad públicaNo correspondehttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/oai/snrdalira@sedici.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:13292025-10-15 11:38:12.775SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Platafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Abortion legalization and adolescent fertility: new evidence for Uruguay based on the synthetic control method
title Abortion legalization and adolescent fertility: new evidence for Uruguay based on the synthetic control method
spellingShingle Abortion legalization and adolescent fertility: new evidence for Uruguay based on the synthetic control method
Velázquez Battistessa, Cecilia
Ciencias Económicas
Abortion legalization
Adolescent fertility
Synthetic control method
Latin America and the Caribbean
Uruguay
title_short Abortion legalization and adolescent fertility: new evidence for Uruguay based on the synthetic control method
title_full Abortion legalization and adolescent fertility: new evidence for Uruguay based on the synthetic control method
title_fullStr Abortion legalization and adolescent fertility: new evidence for Uruguay based on the synthetic control method
title_full_unstemmed Abortion legalization and adolescent fertility: new evidence for Uruguay based on the synthetic control method
title_sort Abortion legalization and adolescent fertility: new evidence for Uruguay based on the synthetic control method
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Velázquez Battistessa, Cecilia
author Velázquez Battistessa, Cecilia
author_facet Velázquez Battistessa, Cecilia
author_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Ciencias Económicas
Abortion legalization
Adolescent fertility
Synthetic control method
Latin America and the Caribbean
Uruguay
topic Ciencias Económicas
Abortion legalization
Adolescent fertility
Synthetic control method
Latin America and the Caribbean
Uruguay
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv Following abortion legalization in Uruguay in late 2012, adolescent fertility rate fell by more than half. This paper aims at establishing a causality relationship. To estimate the impact of the abortion reform on adolescent fertility I use the Synthetic Control Method by comparing trends of Uruguay with Latin America and the Caribbean countries with restrictive abortion laws. Results suggest adolescent fertility rate was reduced in the postreform period by an average of 8.3 births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19, a decline of almost 15% with respect to the synthetic control unit. In-space placebos indicate this effect is statistically significant at the 5% level. This conclusion holds after conducting an in-time placebo test and a leave-one-out test. To the present time, evidence on the impact of Uruguayan abortion legalization on adolescent fertility that has addressed endogeneity is mixed, and based entirely on identification strategies that exploit different sources of exogenous within-country variation that determines the exposure to the reform. My contribution here is to exploit between-country variation, bringing new evidence to the on-going debate.
Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales
description Following abortion legalization in Uruguay in late 2012, adolescent fertility rate fell by more than half. This paper aims at establishing a causality relationship. To estimate the impact of the abortion reform on adolescent fertility I use the Synthetic Control Method by comparing trends of Uruguay with Latin America and the Caribbean countries with restrictive abortion laws. Results suggest adolescent fertility rate was reduced in the postreform period by an average of 8.3 births per 1,000 girls aged 15-19, a decline of almost 15% with respect to the synthetic control unit. In-space placebos indicate this effect is statistically significant at the 5% level. This conclusion holds after conducting an in-time placebo test and a leave-one-out test. To the present time, evidence on the impact of Uruguayan abortion legalization on adolescent fertility that has addressed endogeneity is mixed, and based entirely on identification strategies that exploit different sources of exogenous within-country variation that determines the exposure to the reform. My contribution here is to exploit between-country variation, bringing new evidence to the on-going debate.
publishDate 2024
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2024-11
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info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersion
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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