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Does Access to Family Planning Increase Children's Opportunities? Evidence from the War on Poverty and the Early Years of Title X
- Journal of Human Resources
- University of Wisconsin Press
- Volume 54, Number 4, Fall 2019
- pp. 825-856
- Article
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ABSTRACT:
This paper examines the relationship between parents' access to family planning and the economic resources of their children. Using the county-level introduction of U.S. family planning programs between 1964 and 1973, we find that children born after programs began had 2.8% higher household incomes. They were also 7% less likely to live in poverty and 12% less likely to live in households receiving public assistance. A bounding exercise suggests that the direct effects of family planning programs on parents' resources account for roughly two-thirds of these gains.