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The impact of sex education mandates on teenage pregnancy: International evidence

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  • David Paton
  • Stephen Bullivant
  • Juan Soto

Abstract

To date most studies of the impact of school‐based sex education have focused either on specific, local interventions or experiences at a national level. In this paper, we use a new cross‐country dataset to explore the extent to which laws on sex education affect teenage pregnancy rates in developed countries. We find some evidence that laws mandating sex education in schools are associated with higher rates of teenage fertility. Parental opt out laws may minimise adverse effects of sex education mandates for younger teens. The estimated effects of mandatory sex education are robust to some but not all of our specifications designed to tease out causality. Taken together, changes in national laws relating to sexual health are unable to explain the significant declines in teenage pregnancy rates, which have been observed in many developed countries in recent years.

Suggested Citation

  • David Paton & Stephen Bullivant & Juan Soto, 2020. "The impact of sex education mandates on teenage pregnancy: International evidence," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(7), pages 790-807, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:29:y:2020:i:7:p:790-807
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.4021
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Chris Sampson’s journal round-up for 15th June 2020
      by Chris Sampson in The Academic Health Economists' Blog on 2020-06-15 11:00:19

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    Cited by:

    1. Volha Lazuka & Annika Elwert, 2023. "Life-Cycle Effects of Comprehensive Sex Education," Papers 2310.11151, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2023.
    2. Lili Huang & Qingyi Gao & Jiachen Fan & Jingwen Zhu & Zhenmu Hong, 2024. "Export stability and adolescent fertility rate," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(3), pages 1675-1706, April.
    3. Andrew J Baxter, Mr & Dundas, Ms Ruth & Popham, Dr Frank & Craig, Dr Peter, 2021. "How effective was England's teenage pregnancy strategy? A comparative analysis of high-income countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    4. Lazuka, Volha & Elwert, Annika, 2023. "Life-Cycle Effects of Comprehensive Sex Education," IZA Discussion Papers 16622, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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