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Abortion, Contraception and the Rise in Non-Marital Births: A Revision and Reinterpretation of the Akerlof-Yellen-Katz Model of Pre-Marital Sex and Men¿s Responsibilities

Author

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  • Saul Hoffman

    (Department of Economics, University of Delaware)

Abstract

In a well-known and widely-cited paper, Akerlof, Yellen, and Katz (1996) proposed a novel and counter-intuitive explanation for the rise of non-marital births in the U.S. that emphasized the way in which improved birth control and legalized abortion altered social norms about the responsibility of men to their unmarried partner¿s pregnancy. Despite the authors¿ own policy recommendations, the paper is regularly cited by social conservatives to show that measures to restrict sex education and access to contraception and abortion are based on respected social science research. I argue that this use of the paper¿s findings stems from what were, in retrospect, unfortunate modeling assumptions about ¿types¿ of women and their motivations concerning pregnancy. I then show that a modest reformulation of their model, based on far more reasonable ¿types,¿ generates precisely the same results, but with radically different policy implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Saul Hoffman, 2015. "Abortion, Contraception and the Rise in Non-Marital Births: A Revision and Reinterpretation of the Akerlof-Yellen-Katz Model of Pre-Marital Sex and Men¿s Responsibilities," Working Papers 15-02, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:dlw:wpaper:15-02
    as

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    File URL: http://www.lerner.udel.edu/sites/default/files/ECON/PDFs/RePEc/dlw/WorkingPapers/2015/UDWP2015-02.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Moffitt, Robert, 1992. "Incentive Effects of the U.S. Welfare System: A Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(1), pages 1-61, March.
    2. Lundberg, Shelly & Plotnick, Robert D, 1995. "Adolescent Premarital Childbearing: Do Economic Incentives Matter?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(2), pages 177-200, April.
    3. Greg Duncan & Saul Hoffman, 1990. "Welfare benefits, economic opportunities, and out-of-wedlock births among black teenage girls," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 27(4), pages 519-535, November.
    4. George A. Akerlof & Janet L. Yellen & Michael L. Katz, 1996. "An Analysis of Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing in the United States," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 111(2), pages 277-317.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Non-marital birth; contraception; abortion; AKerlof;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • 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

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