Journal Article

Pill, patch, or shot? Subjective expectations and birth control choice

Authors

Publication date

2008

Summary

 When choosing a contraception method, women base their decisions on
their subjective expectations about the realizations of method-related
outcomes. Examples of outcomes include getting pregnant and contracting a
sexually transmitted disease (STD). I combine innovative data on
probabilistic expectations with observed contraceptive choices to
estimate a random utility model of birth control choice. The
availability of expectations data is essential to identify preferences
from beliefs. Effectiveness, protection against STDs, and partner's
disapproval are found to be the most important factors in the decision
process. The elicited expectations and inferred preference parameters
are used to simulate the impact of various policies.

Published in

International Economic Review

Volume and page numbers

49 , 999 -1042

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2354.2008.00504.x

ISSN

16

Subjects

Economics and Health

Links

http://serlib0.essex.ac.uk/record=b1599247~S5

Notes

Albert Sloman Library Periodicals *restricted to Univ. Essex registered users*

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