Family Planning and Fertility : Estimating Program Effects Using Cross-Sectional Data
Although reproductive health advocates consider family planning programs the intervention of choice to reduce fertility, there remains a great deal of skepticism among economists as to their effectiveness, despite little rigorous evidence to suppor...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20110927132145 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3575 |
| Summary: | Although reproductive health advocates
consider family planning programs the intervention of choice
to reduce fertility, there remains a great deal of
skepticism among economists as to their effectiveness,
despite little rigorous evidence to support either position.
This study explores the effects of family planning in
Ethiopia using a novel set of instruments to control for
potential non-random program placement. The instruments are
based on ordinal rankings of area characteristics, motivated
by competition between areas for resources. Access to family
planning is found to reduce completed fertility by more than
one child among women without education. No effect is found
among women with some formal schooling, suggesting that
family planning and formal education act as substitutes, at
least in this low-income, low-growth setting. This provides
support to the notion that increasing access to family
planning can provide an important, complementary entry point
to kick-start the process of fertility reduction. |
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