I estimate the effect of state minimum legal drinking ages (MLDA) on teen pregnancy, birth, and abortion rates using individual level data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Results from a discrete-time hazard model indicate that a decrease in the MLDA below 21 years increases the...

The 2006 FDA ruling made Plan B, the popular brand of emergency contraception (EC), available without a doctor's prescription to women 18 and older; women younger than 18 still have to produce a doctor's prescription for the drug. We hypothesize that since unplanned pregnancies are more likely...

The 2006 FDA ruling made Plan B, the popular brand of emergency contraception (EC), available without a doctor's prescription to women 18 and older; women younger than 18 still have to produce a doctor's prescription for the drug. We hypothesize that since unplanned pregnancies are more likely...

The minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) requirements can affect teen fertility rates through changes in alcohol-induced risky sexual behavior. The direction of the effect can vary depending on changes in alcohol consumption context and intensity. Using micro-level data, I find that a decrease in...

Emergency contraception (EC), that gained FDA’s approval in the late 1990s as a prescription medicine, may effectively prevent unwanted pregnancy if taken promptly after an unprotected sexual intercourse. Because EC efficacy is inversely related to the duration between intercourse and the...

We provide new evidence on the effectiveness of microfinance intervention for poverty alleviation. We apply the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method to data collected in a recent randomized control trial (RCT) in India by Banerjee et al. (2014). The PSM method allows us to answer an additional...

Despite a well-established correlation between alcohol intake and various risk-taking sexual behaviors, the causality remains unknown. I model the effect of alcohol use on the likelihood of pregnancy among youth using a variety of estimation techniques. The preference is given to the...

An increase in the availability of emergency contraception (EC) may lead to a decrease in the abortion rate. The 2006 FDA ruling, which relaxed the prescription requirement for EC for women 18 and older, allows us to apply the difference-in-difference methodology on the age-by-year-by-state...

Washington was the first state to ease the prescription requirements making emergency contraception (EC) available behind-the-counter at pharmacies to women of any age in 1998. I hypothesize that the increased availability of EC affects fertility rates beyond the borders of the state that allows...

The minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) requirements can affect teen fertility rates through changes in alcohol-induced risky sexual behavior. The direction of the effect can vary depending on changes in alcohol consumption context and intensity. Using micro-level data, I find that a decrease in...