COVID-19 emergency cash transfer and pregnancy in Brazil (by Alexandre Gori Maia)

Background: Governmental financial assistance programs were widely adopted during COVID-19, but their impacts on women’s reproductive behavior remain unknown. Objective: This paper evaluates how a key social policy instrument implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic – emergency aid – impacted the probability of pregnancy among young women. We also examine whether the use of effective contraceptive methods helps explain the heterogeneous effects observed across socioeconomic groups. Methods: We d