Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/272678 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 16051
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper presents new causal evidence on the "power" of oral contraceptives in shaping women's lives, leveraging the 1970 liberalization of the Pill for minors in the Netherlands and demand- and supply-side religious preferences that affected Pill take-up. We analyze administrative data to demonstrate that, after Pill liberalization, minors from less conservative areas were more likely to delay fertility/marriage and to accumulate human capital in the long run. We then show how these large effects were eliminated for women facing a higher share of gatekeepers – general practitioners and pharmacists – who were opposed to providing the Pill on religious grounds.
Subjects: 
birth control
religion
fertility
marriage
human capital
the Netherlands
JEL: 
I18
J12
J13
Z12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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