![]() We find no evidence that mandatory SRE laws can explain recent reductions in teenage fertility. To date, very little research has examined the impact of laws mandating sex education, and none at all have tested the effect across a range of countries. Consistent with this, most empirical studies of particular sex education initiatives have found little evidence that they are effective in reducing teenage pregnancies. Theory suggests that SRE may have an ambivalent effect on teenage pregnancy rates. ![]() Taken together, changes in national laws relating to sexual health are unable to explain the significant declines in teenage pregnancy rates, which have been observed in many developed countries in recent years. The estimated effects of mandatory sex education are robust to some but not all of our specifications designed to tease out causality. Parental opt out laws may minimise adverse effects of sex education mandates for younger teens. We find some evidence that laws mandating sex education in schools are associated with higher rates of teenage fertility. In this paper, we use a new cross‐country dataset to explore the extent to which laws on sex education affect teenage pregnancy rates in developed countries. To date most studies of the impact of school‐based sex education have focused either on specific, local interventions or experiences at a national level. By David Paton, Stephen Bullivant, Juan Soto ![]()
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