An Econometric Analysis on Factors that Affect Teenage Pregnancy Based on 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

Abstract

Teenage pregnancy in the United States presents complex problems that affect the lives of the teenage parents themselves, their children, as well as the government. The problem such as low education attainment rate for adolescent parents is an important example. Without gaining sufficient education, the adolescent parents end up working in less prestigious jobs and earning lower salary then their peers.1 Moreover, this problem incurs cost to the government and society as well since these adolescent teens usually turn to the government for support through social welfare benefits.2 This is an important issue as well since the government has to spend billions of dollars per year on these adolescents instead of using that amount of money to spend on goals such as improving the education or health care system. In order for the policymakers to effectively solve the problem of teenage pregnancy, the factors that affect this problem must be determined first. Once they are identified, the policymakers can come up with appropriate policies that would specifically influence these factors in a way that reduces the rate of teenage pregnancy.