A01=Phillip B. Levine
Abortion
Abortion clinic
Abortion in the United States
Abortion law
Abortion rate
Abortion-rights movements
Author_Phillip B. Levine
Birth control
Birth rate
Calculation
Case study
Category=JBFV1
Category=JPQB
Childbirth
Cross-sectional data
Deductible
Determinant
Downside risk
Economics
Economist
eq_bestseller
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Estimation
Externality
Family planning
Fertility
Fetus
Funding
Gestation
Health insurance
Illegal abortion
Indication (medicine)
Infant mortality
Insurance
Legislation
Liberalization
Likelihood function
Limitation
Marginal cost
Maternal death
Maternal health
Medicaid
Mifepristone
Miscarriage
Negative relationship
Parental consent
Percentage
Physician
Planned Parenthood
Prediction
Pregnancy
Pregnancy Outcome
Pregnancy rate
Prenatal care
Prevalence
Princeton University Press
Public policy
Quasi-experiment
Random assignment
Rates (tax)
Regression analysis
Reproductive health
Residence
Result
Roe v. Wade
Statistic
Statistical hypothesis testing
Statistical significance
Subsidy
Technology
Trade-off
Treatment and control groups
Uncertainty
Unintended pregnancy
Year
Product details
- ISBN 9780691130453
- Weight: 340g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 22 Jul 2007
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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How do individuals change their behavior when abortion access increases? In this innovative book, economist Phillip Levine uses economic analysis to consider this question, comparing abortion to a form of insurance. Like insurance, he contends, abortion provides protection from downside risk. A pregnant woman who would otherwise give birth to an unwanted child has the option to abort. On the other hand, the availability of this option may increase the likelihood of a pregnancy in the first place. In a very restrictive abortion environment, few women would choose to have an abortion; legalizing abortion would reduce unwanted births. But if abortion becomes readily available, it may cause individuals to increase their sexual activity and/or reduce their use of contraception, Levine contends. Women will become pregnant more frequently, but will abort those pregnancies. Therefore, these abortions will not reduce unwanted births. Levine's analysis suggests that the manner in which individuals change their behavior depends on the extent to which abortion is accessible.
He supports these assertions using data from both the United States and Eastern Europe, comparing areas that have restricted access to abortion services with those that have liberalized access. Using sound economic analysis, Sex and Consequences goes beyond the ideological arguments that frequently dominate the abortion debate, lending a new perspective to this controversial subject.
Phillip B. Levine is Professor of Economics at Wellesley College and a Research Associate in the National Bureau of Economic Research.
