Caitlin Knowles Myers is the John G. McCullough Professor of Economics and Director of the Middlebury Initiative for Data and Digital Methods at Middlebury College. She is also a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)[1] and a Research Fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).[2]
She is known for her research on the impacts of contraception and abortion policies in the United States.[3] In 2021, when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization case, she led an effort to compile the best economic research on the impact of abortion access on women's lives into an amicus brief, which was signed by more than 150 economists.[4]
Life
Myers grew up in rural West Virginia and Georgia and trained as a labor economist,[4] receiving her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 2005.[2] Myers was widowed in 2011, when her husband, firefighter Adam Myers, was killed in a car accident.[5][6][7]
Research
Myers' research examines issues related to gender, race, fertility and the economy. In recent work, she has studied the impact of contraception and abortion policies. Her research demonstrates that the liberalization of abortion policies in the 1960s and 1970s allowed large numbers of women to delay marriage and motherhood.[8] She also has studied the effects of mandatory waiting periods,[9] parental involvement laws,[10] and driving distances on abortion and birth rates.[11] Her most recent work assesses the effects of the Dobbs decision on American fertility.[12]
Her work on the changing influence of education on women's age at motherhood[13][14] and the impact of abortion access on birth rates is featured in the media.[15]
Selected works
Myers, Caitlin Knowles (2017). "The Power of Abortion Policy: Reexamining the Effects of Young Women's Access to Reproductive Control". Journal of Political Economy. 125 (6). University of Chicago Press: 2178–2224. doi:10.1086/694293. ISSN0022-3808. S2CID34086984.
Byker, Tanya; Myers, Caitlin; Graff, Maura (2019). "Can a social media campaign increase the use of long-acting reversible contraception? Evidence from a cluster randomized control trial using Facebook". Contraception. 100 (2). Elsevier BV: 116–122. doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2019.04.001. ISSN0010-7824. PMID30998929. S2CID122547657.
