In his bestselling book Freakonomics, Steven Levitt argues convincingly that the legalization of abortion in the United States contributed to a subsequent decline in crime rates.
However, in a thought-provoking new article from the Journal of Political Economy--co-edited by Levitt--Cristian Pop-Eleches (Columbia University) presents a case in which children born just after an abortion ban display "significantly better" educational and labor market achievements than children born just before the ban.
At one point, Romania had one of the most liberal abortion policies in the world. Abortions were the most widely used method of birth control and were provided free of charge by state health care. But in the fall of 1966, the country's communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, issued a decree outlawing abortions and family planning, causing birth rates to double in the next year.
"Urban, educated women working in good jobs were more likely to have abortions prior to the policy change," explains Pop-Eleches. "So a higher proportion of children were born into urban, educated households after abortion became illegal."
Comparing births from the months immediately before and after the abortion ban, Pop-Eleches found that children born just after abortion was outlawed were more likely to have finished high school and to work in a job requiring advanced skills.