Date of Award

5-31-2026

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Economics, Applied

First Advisor

Ilaria D'Angelis

Second Advisor

Harry Konstantinidis

Third Advisor

Micheal Carr

Abstract

This paper examines the causal effect of state-level abortion restrictions on young women’s labor force participation and school enrollment following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Using a difference-in-differences design that exploits the cross-state variation in post-Dobbs abortion policies, I estimate that abortion bans led to a decline in combined school and labor force participation among young women by at least 1 percentage point. This effect is qualitatively robust to a triple difference specification that uses men as a within-state control group, confirming that the results do not reflect broader economic shocks specific to states that passed abortion bans. These findings suggest that abortion restrictions have detrimental effects on women’s education and labor market outcomes.

Comments

Free and open access to this work is made available to the UMass Boston community by ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. Those not on campus and those without a UMass Boston campus username and password may gain access to this work through Interlibrary Loan. If you have a UMass Boston campus username and password and would like to download this work from off-campus, click on the “Off-Campus Users” button.

Download

  Contact Author

Share

COinS