Effects of price and availability on abortion demand. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Over 1.5 million legal abortions were performed in the United States in 1988. Statelevel regulation affecting the price or availability of abortion services may expand given recent Supreme Court decisions. This paper uses statelevel data pooled over time to estimate abortion demand. Using single crosssections of state data, past studies find abortion demand per 1,000 pregnancies to be price inelastic and find income elasticity to be positive and significant. The analysis here shows that price elasticity estimates in a single crosssection are sensitive to the choice of state characteristics used to control for abortion attitudes within a state. Ajixedefects model design with pooled data gives more robust abortion demand price elasticity estimates. The results suggest that any new state regulations that increase the costs of obtaining abortions will reduce abortion use and increase unintended fertility. Copyright 1993, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved

published proceedings

  • Contemp Policy Issues

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Gohmann, S. F., & Ohsfeldt, R. L.

citation count

  • 30

complete list of authors

  • Gohmann, SF||Ohsfeldt, RL

publication date

  • October 1993

publisher