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Annotated Bibliography
Victoria Freire
PLCY 700: Foundations of Public Policy
David Niederkorn
November 13, 2022
Author Note
Victoria Freire
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Victoria Freire.
Email: vfreire@liberty.edu
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Annotated Bibliography
References
Assaad, R., Hendy, R., Lassassi, M., & Yassin, S. (2020). Explaining the MENA Paradox:
Rising Educational Attainment, Yet Stagnant Female Labor Force Participation.
Demographic Research, 43, 817-850. https://10.4054/demres.2020.43.28
This paper focuses on policies related to women’s economic participation and
educational attainment. Declining female labor force participation rates in the Middle
East and North Africa is a phenomenon that has come to be known as the “MENA
paradox”. Even if increases in participation are observed, they are typically in the form
of rising unemployment rather than employment. Results show that the dramatic
slowdown in the hiring of educated women is due in part to the adverse developments
on the demand side of the labor market rather than in changes to supply-side factors.
Supply-side factors, such as age at marriage, fertility, and even patriarchal gender
norms have evolved in the direction that is conducive to greater participation among
educated women. This paper ties in with my research focus on the impact of
reproductive health care and female agency on female labor participation, educational
attainment, and economic empowerment by focusing on factors that impact a declining
female labor force participation regardless of high educational attainment. The results
of this research show a correlation between educational attainment and female labor
force participation as well potential factors that could hinder a rising participation rate.
Finlay, J. E. (2021). Women’s reproductive health and economic activity: A narrative review.
World Development, 139, 105313. https://10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105313
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This paper provides a narrative review of the literature that addresses the connection
between women’s reproductive health and women’s economic activity. Women’s
reproductive health, gender equality and decent work, are all part of the Sustainable
Development Goals and this review highlights how these goals are interconnected. The
review focuses on the relationship between fertility and women’s economic engagement
and provides a detailed discussion of the academic literature that identifies the causal
effect of fertility on changes in female labor force participation. This paper captures
information on policies related to gender inequality in the workforce however, despite
these policies, career advancement is interrupted by childbearing. As the relationship
between fertility and women’s work varies by income per capita across countries,
policies that support women in achieving balance in their desired family size and
accessing decent work varies across countries. This paper ties in with my research due to
its extensive review on the relationship between fertility, labor participation, and
economic engagement. The results of this research show that while policies are in place
to balance gender distribution in the workforce, there is a correlation between fertility
and female participation and advancement in the labor force.
Finlay, J. E., & Lee, M. A. (2018). Identifying Causal Effects of Reproductive Health
Improvements on Women's Economic Empowerment Through the Population Poverty
Research Initiative. The Milbank Quarterly, 96(2), 300-322. https://10.1111/1468-
0009.12326
This research focuses on policy improvements in reproductive health which lead to
improvements in women's economic empowerment as well as how changes in laws and
family planning policy can impact the proximate determinants of fertility such as
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contraceptive use, and the impact on timing and number of births. Contraceptive use
improves women's agency, education, and labor force participation; higher maternal age
at first birth (reducing adolescent childbearing) increases the likelihood of school
completion/higher education attainment and active participation in the labor force. Each
result showed the positive effect of reproductive health improvements on components
of economic empowerment. My research is focused on the impact of reproductive
health services on female labor participation, educational attainment, and economic
engagement. This author provided a comprehensive synthesis of PopPov studies and
used research output generated by the PopPov Research Initiative. This paper highlights
the use of contraceptive methods or family planning on a women’s education, labor
force participation, and economic engagement. Results from this paper also highlight
that improvements in reproductive health led to improvements in women’s economic
empowerment but does note that further research needs to be conducted on the long-
term impact of reproductive services on a women’s economic empowerment and any
potential unintended consequences.
Foster, D. (2022). New Abortion Bans Will Increase Existing Health and Economic
Disparities. American Journal of Public Health (1971), 112(9), 1276-1277.
https://10.2105/AJPH.2022.306993
The article is follow-up research to published findings on the socioeconomic
consequences of receiving versus being denied a wanted abortion in the United States
based on the Turnaway Study. This paper details the economic outcomes of almost
1000 women who presented for care on either side of the gestational limit of 30
abortion facilities across the country. Economic outcomes were identified using self-
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reported data from credit agencies. Archived records of overdue and outstanding debt,
available credit, and public records of evictions and foreclosures for these same women
were published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy in 2022. What this
credit agency data show is that the women who received and those who were denied an
abortion were economically similar for years before they became pregnant and that the
negative consequences of being denied an abortion persisted for years after. Data from
the interviews with women have also revealed that the economic hardships redound to
children-those born from the unwanted pregnancy as well as older children. The paper
uses four methods of data to determine their findings - self-reported data published in
the Journal, credit data published in an economics journal, and children’s outcomes in
pediatrics journals. These findings demonstrate that being denied a wanted abortion is
associated with a large increase in financial hardship. Given that my research is focused
on the impact of reproductive health services on economic engagement, these findings
assist in showing the correlation between access to reproductive services and a
women’s economic activities/outcomes.
Götmark, F., & Andersson, M. (2020). Human fertility in relation to education, economy,
religion, contraception, and family planning programs. Springer Science and Business
Media LLC. https://10.1186/s12889-020-8331-7
This paper focuses on the greatly increasing world population and the impact on current
problems related to climate, health, food security, biodiversity, energy and other vital
resources. Population growth depends strongly on total fertility rate (TFR). Results
from the paper show that in decreasing order of strength, fertility (TFR) correlates
negatively with education, contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR), and gross domestic
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product (GDP) per capita, and positively with religiosity. Findings were analyzed by
examining recent levels of fertility in relation to five factors: education (mean school
years for females), economy (Gross Domestic Product, GDP, per capita), religiosity,
contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR), and strength of family planning programs.
Findings were compared in six global regions: East Europe, West Europe, and related
countries, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Arab States, Sub-Saharan Africa, and
Asia. In total, 141 countries are included in the analysis. Given that my research is
focused on the impact of reproductive health services on female labor participation,
educational attainment, and economic engagement this paper provides insight on the
correlation between TFR, education, and CPR along with country-wide GDP per capita.
Hamilton, B. E. Total Fertility Rates, by Maternal Educational Attainment and Race and
Hispanic Origin: United States, 2019. (No. 70). National Center for Health Statistics.
https://10.15620/cdc:105234 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-05-
508.pdf
This report presents 2019 total fertility rates for the United States, by educational
attainment, race, and Hispanic origin of mother. The total fertility rate is the average
number of children a group of women would expect to have at the end of their
reproductive lifetimes. Data are based on the 2003 revision of the U.S. Standard
Certificate of Live Birth. In 2019, the U.S. total fertility rate (TFR) for all women aged
15-49 was 1,705 expected births per 1,000 women. TFRs decreased as the level of
education increased from women with a 12th grade education or less through an
associate’s and bachelor’s degree, and then rose from bachelor’s degree through a
doctorate or professional degree. Among the race and Hispanic-origin groups, TFRs
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were highest for Hispanic women (1,939), followed by non-Hispanic black (1,774) and
non-Hispanic white (1,610) women. Rates generally declined from the lowest
educational level through a bachelor’s degree for non-Hispanic white women, and
through an associate degree for Hispanic women, and then generally rose for both
groups for women with advanced degrees. TFRs for non-Hispanic black women
declined by educational level through a master’s degree. Across the race and Hispanic-
origin groups, the lowest TFR by educational level was for non-Hispanic black women
with a master’s degree (1,038), and the highest was for Hispanic women with a 12th
grade education or less (3,025). TFRs for non-Hispanic black and Hispanic women
with some college credit or less were generally higher than the rates for non-Hispanic
white women, but TFRs for non-Hispanic black and Hispanic women with a master’s
degree or more were generally lower than the rates for non-Hispanic white women.
Since my research is focused on reproductive services and fertility and its impact on
women’s labor force participation, this study provides statistics on the growing trend of
educational attainment for women of color and the correlation with a decreasing TFR.
McDougal, L., Singh, A., Kumar, K., Dehingia, N., Barros, A. J. D., Ewerling, F.,
Atmavilas, Y., & Raj, A. (2021). Planning for work: Exploring the relationship between
contraceptive use and women’s sector-specific employment in India. Public Library of
Science (PLoS). https://10.1371/journal.pone.0248391
This paper examines the relationship between contraceptive use and women’s
employment in India, a country where both factors have remained relatively static over
the past ten years. Data from India’s 2015-16 National Family Health Survey was used
to test the association between current contraceptive use (none, sterilization, IUD,
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condom, pill, rhythm method or withdrawal) and current employment status (none,
professional, clerical or sales, agricultural, services or production) with multivariable,
multinomial regression; variable selection was guided by a directed acyclic graph.
More than three-quarters of women in this sample were currently using contraception;
sterilization was most common. Women who were sterilized or chose traditional
contraception, relative to those not using contraception, were more likely to be
employed in the agricultural and production sectors, versus not being employed. In
contrast, women with IUDs, compared to those who did not use contraception, were
more likely to be employed in the professional sector versus not being employed. The
associations between current contraceptive use and employment were heterogeneous
across methods and sectors, though in no case was contraceptive use significantly
associated with lower relative probabilities of employment. This paper shows that one
in four analyzed women (24%) were not currently using any sort of family planning
and among these women, 84% were not currently employed, and 6% worked in the
agricultural sector. This paper shows a correlation between access to reproductive
services and labor force participation which is the central theme of my research.
Reviewers: E. F., &, D. A. L. (2021). The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
This paper addresses links between family planning programs and long-term benefits
for women’s health and economic outcomes, especially in societies where old-age
support and women’s status are linked to childbearing. Data was analyzed from the
maternal and child health/family planning (MCH/FP) program, a highly effective
intervention program introduced in the rural MATLAB sub-district of Bangladesh. This
study explored the effects, up to 35 years later, of the MCH/FP program on multiple
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dimensions of health and economic well-being. Few long-term program effects on
women’s health or economic outcomes were found with the exception of consistent and
significant association with poorer metabolic and functional health. While this study
does not directly support the main thesis of my research, it does show a correlation
between access to family planning services and control over fertility.
Sheikh, S. M., & Loney, T. (2018). Is Educating Girls the Best Investment for South Asia?
Association Between Female Education and Fertility Choices in South Asia: A
Systematic Review of the Literature. Frontiers in Public Health, 0
https://10.3389/fpubh.2018.00172
This study focused on universal education as a key strategy to enhance the well-being
of individuals and improve the economic and social development of societies. The
author conducted a systematic review of available data from international organizations
and regional registries to explore the association between female education and fertility
choices in South Asia. Data sources included MEDLINE, Embase, Google Scholar,
World Health Organization, World Bank, United Nations Population Fund, Millennium
Development Goals, Institute of Health Management, World Fact book, United States
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and regional registries were searched for
papers published between 1970 and October 2016 and the included papers contained
data from 1960. Results from the study showed that a large proportion of school-aged
girls in developing countries are not attending schools. Approximately, one-third of
South Asian girls do not attend school and in some regions only one in four girls attend
primary school. The author concluded that eliminating gender disparities in school
attendance may lead to improvements in female education and reproductive health. The
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author also noted a negative relationship seems to exist between levels of literacy and
total fertility rates in South Asian females which if further improved may contribute to
longer-term improvements in maternal and child health. This study further provides
data and information on the topic of reproductive health and educational attainment.
Verick, S. (2018). Female labor force participation and development. IZA World of Labor,
https://10.15185/izawol.87.v2
This study focused on the relationship between female labor force participation and
economic development. Female labor force participation is an important driver for
growth and development. Throughout this study, the author highlighted that the
participation of women is the outcome of various economic and social factors while
also noting that access to quality education is critical to improve employment outcomes
for women. The author’s key takeaway was that the relationship between women’s
participation in the labor force and development is complex and reflects changes in the
pattern of economic growth, educational attainment, fertility rates, social norms, and
other factors. However, labor force participation rates paint only a partial picture of
women’s work. More important is understanding the quality of women’s employment.
To achieve gains in job quality, policies should focus on both labor demand and supply
dimensions. Expanding access to secondary and higher education is particularly
relevant but this needs to be matched by the creation of jobs that can be accessed by
women. This study adds another layer to my research in the form of not only focusing
on women participation in the workforce but also the quality of a women’s
participation.
