Research
Publications
Graham Gardner, Kayleigh McCrary, and Melissa Spencer, 2025. "Abortion Ballot Measures Affect Election Outcomes" forthcoming in Economics Letters
"In the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, Democratic candidates lost fewer than predicted seats and stymied an expected red wave. News coverage and polling data represent this surprise Democratic success as a result of voters’ response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Using county-level vote data, we find that the decrease in Republican vote margin in 2022 can be explained by demographic and economic factors. However, relative to the national average, the Republican vote margin decreased by 4.8 percentage points more in states with abortion-related ballot measures. Our results indicate that abortion ballot measures have effects on election outcomes of a magnitude large enough to determine competitive races."
Graham Gardner, 2024. "The Maternal and Infant Health Consequences of Restricted Access to Abortion in the US" Journal of Health Economics [link]
"Since the recent US Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, people across the country have experienced large sudden changes in their access to abortion care. In this paper, I look to the history of abortion access in the United States to inform predictions for this new future. I study the effects of targeted regulations on abortion providers (TRAP laws) on a variety of maternal and infant health outcomes, using variation in the timing of policy adoption across states and a direct measure of the distance to an abortion provider. I implement difference-in-differences techniques across outcomes from restricted-use microdata on the universe of US births and national survey data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. I find that TRAP laws lead to increased rates of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy by 8-15% and provide suggestive evidence that these health effects may not be isolated to the period surrounding pregnancy and childbirth. Additionally, I find evidence that TRAP laws widen existing disparities in adverse infant health outcomes across parental race and education. These results demonstrate the potentially wide-ranging health effects of restricting access to abortion."
Graham Gardner, 2024. "Notification and Consent: The Differential Effects of Parental Involvement Laws on Teen Abortion" Review of Economics of the Household [preprint here]
"US state legislation requiring parental involvement in the abortion decision of a minor has grown in prevalence since its origin in the 1970s. Today, 36 states impose a parental involvement requirement on their residents below the age of 18. These laws come in two primary categories: parental notification and parental consent. Though much research estimates the effects of these policies, limited evidence exists regarding any differential impact between parental notification and parental consent. This paper uses the synthetic control method to determine if the increased marginal cost of an abortion imposed by a parental consent statute affects the abortion rate and birth rate for minors relative to parental notification. Results indicate no evidence of a marginal effect of parental consent laws on the abortion/birth rate of minors overall, suggesting that the additional cost of a parental consent law may be small."
Rodlescia Sneed, Alexander Stubblefield, Graham Gardner, Tamara Jordan, and Briana Mazuk, 2023. "Chronic Disease and Workforce Participation Among Medicaid Enrollees Over 50: The Potential Impact of Medicaid Work Requirements Post-COVID-19" The Journal of Aging and Social Policy, [preprint here]
"As the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, states may reintroduce Medicaid work requirements to reduce enrollment. Using the Health and Retirement Study, we evaluate chronic disease burden among beneficiaries aged >50 (n=1460) who might be impacted by work requirements (i.e. working <20 hours per week). Seven of eight chronic disease conditions evaluated were associated with reduced workforce participation, including history of stroke (OR: 7.35; 95% CI: 2.98-18.14) and lung disease (OR: 4.39; 95% CI: 2.97-7.47). Those with more severe disease were also more likely to work fewer hours. Medicaid work requirements would likely have great impact on older beneficiaries with significant disease burden"
Working Papers
Bradley Crowe, Graham Gardner, and Cara Haughey. "The Effect of Restricted Abortion Access on IUDs, Contraceptive Implants, and Vasectomies: Evidence from Texas" [working paper here]
"Contraception and abortion both result in fertility reductions, but identifying whether or not they are substitutes remains an open question. Using administrative outpatient records from Texas, we exploit the passage of a regulation on abortion providers to identify the effects of restricted abortion access on the timing and take-up of long-acting, reversible contraceptives (LARC) and vasectomies using an event study design. We find evidence that expectations of limited abortion access significantly increase the take-up of IUDs, with no substantial evidence of an effect for the incidence of implants or vasectomies. These findings support the hypothesis that abortion and contraception are substitutes, but the lack of evidence to indicate an effect of the policy on vasectomies suggests that partners may not internalize the cost of abortion in their contraceptive choices"
Works In Progress
"The Spillover Effects of Parental Involvement Laws on Older Teens"
"Physician Mobility Post-Dobbs" with Samuel Mann
"Abortion Access and Female Sterilization" with Cara Haughey