ABSTRACT
An important question for population policy is whether reductions in population program funding will disrupt family planning program operations and thereby lead to higher birth rates among the poor in Third World countries. This chapter compares the results found for the effect of contraceptive prices on contraceptive method choice in the Philippines, Jamaica, and Thailand. The literature on the choice of contraceptive methods by users is small and almost devoid of work relating price to purchasing behavior. The basic economic model suggests that the purchase of any item for consumption should be related to its price, the price of all other goods and services available for purchase, the household’s income, and the household’s tastes and preferences for various goods and services. The responsiveness of method choice to contraceptive prices is demonstrated by increasing the price of each purchased method by one standard deviation above the sample mean price.
