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The Impact of Unanticipated Economic Shocks on the Demand for Contraceptives: Evidence from Uganda

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  • Olukorede Abiona

Abstract

We investigate the impact of unanticipated economic shocks on the use of contraceptives for childbirth control in Uganda using a nationally representative panel of women. To complement our reduced form analysis, we use both intra‐village and inter‐village variation in rainfall shocks between 2009 and 2012 to identify the impact of agricultural income on the adoption of contraceptives by Ugandan women and their husbands. Our results indicate that women in Uganda, along with their husbands, use contraceptives strategically to postpone childbirth during negative shocks. Our baseline coefficient estimate reveals that a 0.10 log‐point adverse rainfall shock increases the demand for contraceptives by 3.8 percentage points. This translates to a 6.7% increase in the likelihood of contraceptives demand. Results from the two‐stage least‐square instrumental variable estimation for the impact of income complements the strategic birth control story from the reduced form estimates of this paper. More importantly, we find suggestive evidence‐linking preventive childbirth decisions to food insecurity during drought. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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  • Olukorede Abiona, 2017. "The Impact of Unanticipated Economic Shocks on the Demand for Contraceptives: Evidence from Uganda," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1696-1709, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:26:y:2017:i:12:p:1696-1709
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.3487
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    Cited by:

    1. Idriss Fontaine & Sabine Garabedian & David Nortes Martínez & Hélène Vérèmes, 2021. "Tropical Cyclones and Fertility : New Evidence from Madagascar," Working Papers hal-03243455, HAL.
    2. Trong-Anh Trinh & Quanda Zhang, 2021. "Adverse shocks, household expenditure and child marriage: evidence from India and Vietnam," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 1617-1639, September.
    3. Karra, Mahesh & Wilde, Joshua, 2023. "Economic Foundations of Contraceptive Transitions: Theories and a Review of the Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 15889, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Mookerjee, Mehreen & Ojha, Manini & Roy, Sanket, 2023. "Family planning practices: Examining the link between contraception and child health," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    5. Olukorede Abiona, 2017. "Adverse Effects of Early Life Extreme Precipitation Shocks on Short-term Health and Adulthood Welfare Outcomes," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 1229-1254, November.

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