THE IMPACT OF FINANCIAL ACCESS TO ABORTION ON WOMEN’S ECONOMIC OUTCOMES: EVIDENCE FROM MEDICAID COVERAGE

Abstract

In this thesis, I leverage variations in state Medicaid policies over space and time to quantify the impact of financial access to abortion. My approach is to use a difference-in-differences design to study the impact of coverage for abortion, expansion of Medicaid eligibility, and income cutoffs for that eligibility on labor and education data from the 2010-2020 Current Population Survey (CPS). Additionally, I use triple-difference designs that compare the schooling decisions of low-income women to those of higher-income women and low-income men. I find significant positive impacts of financial access on women’s educational outcomes––namely, current student status for 18-to-24-year-olds, and years of education obtained for 25-to-45-year-olds. I also find positive impacts on labor force participation and average hours worked, meaning women work more when they have access to public funding for abortion. Overall, I conclude that access to abortion increases women’s ability to invest in their own human capital and to participate more fully in the labor market.