Market Responds the Morning After: How Abortion Regulation Changes and Age-Limit-Reduction of Emergency Contraceptive Pills Affected Market of the Morning-After Pills [SSRN], with Cecilia S. Diaz-Campo

The 2012-2016 time period is when there were changes to both the supply and demand side of the over-the-counter (OTC) Emergency Contraceptive Pills (ECP) market. The supply side shock has to do with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granting ECP the right to be sold in any retail store shelves, first to the branded version of ECP and eventually to the generic variants. This meant more stores can now sell ECP and thus better accessibility of ECP from the consumers’ perspective. The demand side shock is the 2013 Texas House Bill 2 Act that caused number of abortion facilities operating in Texas to decrease by half. Using simple Regression Discontinuity analysis and Triple Difference in Differences analysis on price of Emergency Contraceptive, I find suggestive evidence of 1. dynamic responses within retail chains to demand and supply shocks in terms of pricing and selection of products and 2. worse accessibility of ECPs for low income families.