Bryce Steinberg (Brown University) will present:

"Family Planning, Now and Later: Infertility Fears and Contraceptive Take-Up"

at 3:30pm on Wednesday, May 1, 2024 in 310 Silsby.

Please sign up for an Office Meeting or Lunch here<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fcLX8N2YvuSXTVGSXy2RTGhrjCbv_Dvkm9d9kIU0sJs/edit?usp=sharing>

ABSTRACT
Early fertility is thought to be one of the key barriers to female human capital attainment in sub-Saharan Africa, yet contraceptive take-up remains puzzlingly low, even among highly-educated populations with
healthcare access. We study a barrier to hormonal and long-acting contraceptive uptake that has not yet been examined in the economic literature: the persistent (incorrect) belief that these contraceptives may cause later infertility. This belief creates a perceived tradeoff between current and future reproductive control. We use a randomized controlled trial with female undergraduates at the flagship university in Zambia – a highly-skilled population where education is likely to have particularly high returns – to test two potential interventions to increase contraceptive use. Despite high rates of sexual activity and low
rates of condom-use, only 5% of this population uses hormonal contraceptives at baseline. Providing a non-coercive conditional cash transfer to visit a local clinic temporarily increases contraceptive use.
However, pairing this transfer with information addressing fears that contraceptives cause infertility persistently increases take-up over 6 months. The latter treatment moves beliefs about the infertility
effects of contraceptives and leads to the take-up of longer-lasting contraceptives like injections. Compliers are more likely to cite fear of infertility as the reason for not using contraceptives at baseline. IV estimates indicate that eliminating the belief that contraceptives cause infertility would triple contraceptive use.








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