This work evaluates the likely impact that efforts to avert unplanned pregnancies among teens will have on the gender gap in education that is often observed in many developing nations. Within the aegis of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, developing nations are striving to close the gender gap in education at all school levels by the year 2015. Because resources to implement these goals are limited, one needs efficient policies that make the best use of existing resources.

I have done some conceptual/methodological work on a new approach for estimating the payoffs of reducing teenage pregnancy. Upon publicaiton of this work, I was approached by Stan Bernstein of the United Nations to build a more applied analysis covering multiple countries. The idea was to apply my methodological approach to the real life situation of these countries

I have refined a method for estimating the likely impact of teen pregnancy prevention on the gender gap in educational attainment across 36 developing countries

The impacts of this project will be felt at three levels. One is the level of national policy makers (in the countries studied in my project) who would be able to evaluate the impact of their policies on reducing the gender gap in educational attainment. A second impact is the level of global policy makers. The proposed method will make it possible to understand the differences between various developing countries, in terms of the etiology of school dropout among female students. The third impact is among advocacy groups, including advocates of girl`s schooling and family planning. The first will be able to assess the benefits of teen pregnancy prevention. The second will be able to evaluate the case for family planning as having multiple benefits, including on female education.

United Nations

Stan Bernstein