Journal Article
Pill, patch, or shot? Subjective expectations and birth control choice
Publication details
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.
Notes
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