IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v115y2025i8p2659-88.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Negligible Effect of Free Contraception on Fertility: Experimental Evidence from Burkina Faso

Author

Listed:
  • Pascaline Dupas
  • Seema Jayachandran
  • Adriana Lleras-Muney
  • Pauline Rossi

Abstract

We conducted a randomized trial among 14,545 households in rural Burkina Faso to test the oft-cited hypothesis that limited access to contraception is an important driver of high fertility rates in West Africa. We do not find support for this hypothesis. Women who were given free access to modern contraception for three years did not have lower birth rates; we can reject even modest effects. We cross-randomized additional interventions to address inefficiencies that might depress demand for free contraception, specifically misperceptions about the child mortality rate and social norms. Free contraception did not significantly influence fertility even in combination with these interventions.

Suggested Citation

  • Pascaline Dupas & Seema Jayachandran & Adriana Lleras-Muney & Pauline Rossi, 2025. "The Negligible Effect of Free Contraception on Fertility: Experimental Evidence from Burkina Faso," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 115(8), pages 2659-2688, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:115:y:2025:i:8:p:2659-88
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.20241305
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20241305
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E215841V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/23629
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/23630
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/aer.20241305?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:115:y:2025:i:8:p:2659-88. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.