Car Seats as Contraception

56 Pages Posted: 22 Sep 2020 Last revised: 17 Nov 2021

See all articles by Jordan Nickerson

Jordan Nickerson

University of Washington - Department of Finance and Business Economics

David H. Solomon

Boston College - Carroll School of Management

Date Written: July 31, 2020

Abstract

Since 1977, U.S. states have passed laws steadily raising the age for which a child must ride in a car safety seat. These laws significantly raise the cost of having a third child, as many regular-sized cars cannot fit three child seats in the back. Using census data and state-year variation in laws, we estimate that when women have two children of ages requiring mandated car seats, they have a lower annual probability of giving birth by 0.73 percentage points. Consistent with a causal channel, this effect is limited to third child births, is concentrated in households with access to a car, and is larger when a male is present (when both front seats are likely to be occupied). We estimate that these laws prevented only 57 car crash fatalities of children nationwide in 2017. Simultaneously, they led to a permanent reduction of approximately 8,000 births in the same year, and 145,000 fewer births since 1980, with 90% of this decline being since 2000.

Keywords: Family Formation, Fertility, Car Seats, Safety Regulations

JEL Classification: J13, J18, R41

Suggested Citation

Nickerson, Jordan and Solomon, David H., Car Seats as Contraception (July 31, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3665046 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3665046

Jordan Nickerson (Contact Author)

University of Washington - Department of Finance and Business Economics ( email )

Box 353200
Seattle, WA 98195
United States

David H. Solomon

Boston College - Carroll School of Management ( email )

140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
9,673
Abstract Views
178,750
Rank
1,083
PlumX Metrics