PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - David E. Kalist
AU  - Noelle A. Molinari
TI  - Is the Marginal Child More Likely to be Murdered?
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.XLI.3.611
DP  - 2006 Jul 01
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 611--630
VI  - XLI
IP  - 3
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XLI/3/611.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/XLI/3/611.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2006 Jul 01; XLI
AB  - We examine whether abortion removes from the population those infants most at risk of homicide. As part of our identification strategy, we find that abortion reduces the number of unwanted births, estimating that 1 percent increase in the abortion ratio reduces unwanted births by approximately 0.35 percent. Using cross-sectional time-series data for U.S. states between 1970 and 1998, we find that an increase in the abortion ratio (a proxy for unwanted births) reduces the expected number of infant homicides, especially among black infants. Overall, the elasticity of infant homicides with respect to unwanted births is approximately 0.089.