The Effect of Minimum Wages on Adolescent Fertility: A Nationwide Analysis.

MINIMUM wage laws; TEENAGE pregnancy; HUMAN fertility; BIRTH rate; HISPANIC American teenage girls; TEENAGE parents; WHITE teenage girls; ECONOMICS; 21ST century economics; WAGE statistics; FERTILITY; HISPANIC Americans; DATA analysis software; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; EVALUATION

UNITED States; WASHINGTON (D.C.)

Objectives. To investigate the effect of minimum wage laws on adolescent birth rates in the United States. Methods. I used a difference-in-differences approach and vital statistics data measured quarterly at the state level from 2003 to 2014. All models included state covariates, state and quarter-year fixed effects, and state-specific quarter-year nonlinear time trends, which provided plausibly causal estimates of the effect of minimum wage on adolescent birth rates. Results. A $1 increase in minimum wage reduces adolescent birth rates by about 2%. The effects are driven by non-Hispanic White and Hispanic adolescents. Conclusions. Nationwide, increasing minimum wages by $1 would likely result in roughly 5000 fewer adolescent births annually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]