Abortion and Female Power in the Household Evidence from Labor Supply

Legalization of abortion in the 1970s represents a major cultural change: it gives women a higher degree of freedom to directly control their fertility, allowing them to ultimately decide upon children without man’s consent and to decrease uncertainty in their expected labor market returns. This public policy and its implications on female behavior have been so far analyzed through its direct consequences on fertility and fertility technology, primarily on women actually experiencing an abortion. However, it seems relevant to evaluate its indirect effects on female bargaining power within the household, for all women that face abortion as an actual opportunity, without necessarily experiencing one. I focus on the indirect effect of abortion legalization in the United States on women’s position in the household. My findings suggest that the legalization positively affected female bargaining power.

[1]  C. Meghir,et al.  THE EFFECTS OF MALE AND FEMALE LABOR SUPPLY ON COMMODITY DEMANDS , 1991 .

[2]  Lawrence F. Katz,et al.  The Power of the Pill: Oral Contraceptives and Women’s Career and Marriage Decisions , 2002, Journal of Political Economy.

[3]  D. Heer,et al.  The Impact of the Female Marriage Squeeze and the Contraceptive Revolution on Sex Roles and the Women's Liberation Movement in the United States, 1960 to 1975. , 1981 .

[4]  Domenico Siniscalco,et al.  The international dimension of environmental policy , 1992 .

[5]  P. Chiappori,et al.  The Collective Approach to Household Behaviour , 1995 .

[6]  J. Gray.  Divorce-Law Changes, Household Bargaining, and Married Women's Labor Supply , 1998 .

[7]  N. Yuval‐Davis,et al.  Women, Citizenship and Difference , 1997 .

[8]  S. Hoffman.  A Treatise on the Family , 2000 .

[9]  Martin Browning,et al.  Efficient Intra-Household Allocations: A General Characterization and Empirical Tests , 1998 .

[10]  J. Heckman,et al.  Female labor supply: A survey , 1986 .

[11]  R. Blundell,et al.  What Do We Learn About Consumer Demand Patterns from Micro Data , 1993 .

[12]  Leora Friedberg.  Did Unilateral Divorce Raise Divorce Rates? Evidence from Panel Data , 1998 .

[13]  P. Chiappori.  RATIONAL HOUSEHOLD LABOR SUPPLY , 1988 .

[14]  Lawrence F. Katz,et al.  Career and Marriage in the Age of the Pill. , 2000, The American economic review.

[15]  Vito Fragnelli,et al.  Game practice and the environment , 2004 .

[16]  T. Mroz,et al.  The Sensitivity of an Empirical Model of Married Women's Hours of Work to Economic and Statistical Assumptions , 1987 .

[17]  Martin Browning,et al.  Intra Household Allocation of Consumption: a Model and some Evidence from French Data , 1993 .

[18]  Duncan C. Thomas,et al.  Family Bargaining and Welfare , 2000 .

[19]  J. Angrist,et al.  Schooling and Labor Market Consequences of the 1970 State Abortion Reforms , 1996 .

[20]  J. Donohue,et al.  The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime , 2001 .

[21]  T. Joyce,et al.  Consequences for infants of parental disagreement in pregnancy intention. , 2002, Perspectives on sexual and reproductive health.

[22]  Bernard Fortin,et al.  Household Labor Supply, Sharing Rule and the Marriage Market , 1998 .

[23]  Thomas J. Kane,et al.  Roe v Wade and American fertility. , 1999, American journal of public health.

[24]  P. Chiappori.  Collective Labor Supply and Welfare , 1992, Journal of Political Economy.

[25]  Martin Browning,et al.  Income and Outcomes: A Structural Model of Intrahousehold Allocation , 1994, Journal of Political Economy.

[26]  C. A. Jackson,et al.  Review of abortion policy: legality, medicaid funding, and parental involvement, 1967-1994. , 1995, Women's rights law reporter.

[27]  J. Heckman.  Shadow prices, market wages, and labor supply , 1974 .

[28]  Duncan C. Thomas.  Intra-household resource allocation: an inferential approach , 1990 .

[29]  L. Williams,et al.  Determinants of couple agreement in U.S. fertility decisions. , 1994, Family planning perspectives.