Is Education the Best Contraception? The Case of Declining Teenage Pregnancy in England

This paper examines potential explanations for recent declines in teenage pregnancy, in particular, the promotion of long acting reversible contraception (LARCs). We estimate models of teenage conception, birth and abortion rates using panel data from England which allows us to control for unobservable time and area fixed effects. Although point estimates are consistent with LARC promotion having a negative impact on teenage pregnancy rates, the effects are small and generally statistically insignificant. In contrast, improvements in educational outcomes and, to a lesser extent, increases in the non-white proportion of the population are associated with large and statistically significant reductions in teenage pregnancy