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  5. The Impact of Hormonal Contraception on Teen Suicide

AEA Papers and Proceedings

ISSN 2574-0768 (Print) | ISSN 2574-0776 (Online)

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The Impact of Hormonal Contraception on Teen Suicide

  • Kelly Ragan
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 114, May 2024
(pp. 369–74)
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Abstract

I use direct data on hormonal contraceptive sales across markets proximate to the pill's introduction in Sweden to study how the diffusion of hormonal contraception is associated with changes in suicide among teenage girls. I do not find evidence of a large positive association between the spread of hormonal contraception and teen suicide. Although recent epidemiological studies suggest large effects on suicide associated with hormonal contraceptive use, effects that are most pronounced among teenagers, the data and natural experiment design I employ reject such large positive effects as being inconsistent with the data.

Citation

Ragan, Kelly. 2024. "The Impact of Hormonal Contraception on Teen Suicide." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 114: 369–74. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20241121

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • I12 Health Behavior
  • J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
  • J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination