Zwiers, E. and Marie, O. (2025). Religious Barriers to Birth Control Access Review of Economics and Statistics, :1--45.
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Affiliated author
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Publication year2025
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JournalReview of Economics and Statistics
This paper presents new causal evidence on the {\textquotedblleft}power{\textquotedblright} 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{\textemdash}general practitioners and pharmacists{\textemdash}who were opposed to providing the Pill on religious grounds.