Biography:

Bryce Millett Steinberg is a development economist who studies how households make decisions about investing in education and health, and how market forces and government programs can affect those decisions. Her work is primarily focused in India and Zambia. She is currently the IJC Assistant Professor of Economics and International and Public Affairs at Brown University, and received her Ph.D. from Harvard in 2015.

Family Planning, Now and Later: Infertility Fear and Contraception Take-Up

Abstract:

Early fertility is believed to be one of the key barriers to female human capital attainment in Sub-Saharan Africa, yet contraception take-up remains low, even among highly-educated populations with healthcare access. We study a barrier to contraceptive uptake that has not yet been examined in the literature: the persistent belief that it may cause later infertility, thus creating 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 contraception use, one focused on time costs and one on costs to future fertility. Despite high rates of sexual activity and low rates of condom-use, only 5% of this population uses hormonal contraception at baseline. Providing a non-coercive conditional cash transfer to visit a local clinic temporarily increases contraceptive use. But, pairing this transfer with information addressing fears that contraceptives cause infertility permanently 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. A follow-up experiment provides suggestive evidence that students are more likely to test for STIs when they are told STIs cause infertility. These findings indicate that perceived risks to future fertility are one cost of contraception, and more generally that future fertility has economic value to women.

To learn more about Professor Bryce Steinberg, visit her department homepage:

Bryce Millett Steinberg | Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs (brown.edu)