PhD defense: Eirin Mølland
On Friday 10 October 2014 Eirin Mølland will hold a trial lecture on a prescribed topic and defend her thesis for the PhD degree at NHH.
06.10.2014 - Ed.
The 1960s and 70s were a transformative time for women, characterized by periods of increased labor force participation and economic opportunities.
This thesis adds to the growing literature analyzing the effects active family planning policies have played in improving the well-being of women.
The thesis analyze different aspects of the fertility changes over the 20th century in Norway, in particular the focus lies on the effects of liberalized abortion access among young women.
The first paper contributes to the understanding of the fertility changes in Norway over the last 150 years.
The liberalization of access to abortion and the introduction of modern contraceptives like the pill and IUDs, made family planning easier and more efficient.
In particular, the paper assess how fertility has changed among women with different socioeconomic status after modern contraceptives and abortion became easier available.
The second paper is co-authored with Kjell G. Salvanes, Sandra E. Black and Paul J. Devereux, it takes advantage of a change in liberalization of abortion access in Norway that took place at an earlier time among teenagers in Oslo compared to teenagers in other places of Norway.
It assess how access to abortion as a teenager alters the outcomes of the effected women and their children.
The authors find that the opportunity to post-pone first birth reduced the likelihood of becoming a teenage mother substantial, while completed fertility was not affected.
The results also indicate positive effects on the level of education and on the outcomes of the first-born child.
The third paper uses the same source of identification and assess how the opportunity to postpone first birth affects marital stability. Mølland finds that access to abortion as a teenager causes these women to have more stable marital relationships, as they are more likely to be married and less likely to go through a divorce.
Prescribed topic for the trial lecture:
"Economic theories of demographic transitions"
Time of the trial lecture:
10:15 in Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Centre, NHH
Time and place for the defense:
12:15 in Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Centre, NHH
Title of the thesis:
Teen Fertility and Family Planning
Members of the evaluation committee:
Chair: Professor Erik Ø. Sørensen, NHH
Professor Marianne Simonsen, Aarhus Universitet
Assistant professor Jonas Vlachos, Stockholms Universitet
Supervising committee:
Professor Kjell G. Salvanes, principal supervisor, NHH
Professor Sandra E. Black, Department of Economics, University of Texas, Austin
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