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 Middlebury College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont, United States. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists, Middlebury w ...

. She is also a Research Associate with the

National Bureau of Economic Research The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic co ...

(NBER) and a Research Fellow of the

Institute for the Study of Labor An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

(IZA). She is known for her research on the impacts of contraception and abortion policies in the United States. In 2021, when the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

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 An amicus curiae (; ) is an individual or organization that is not a party to a legal case, but that is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. Whether an ''amic ...

, which was signed by more than 150 economists.

Life

Myers grew up in rural West Virginia and Georgia and trained as a labor economist, receiving her PhD from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

in 2005. Myers was widowed in 2011, when her husband, firefighter Adam Myers, was killed in a car accident.

Research

Myers' research examines issues related to

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

, race,

fertility Fertility in colloquial terms refers the ability to have offspring. In demographic contexts, fertility refers to the actual production of offspring, rather than the physical capability to reproduce, which is termed fecundity. The fertility rate ...

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. She also has studied the effects of mandatory waiting periods, parental involvement laws, and driving distances on abortion and birth rates. Her most recent work assesses the effects of the Dobbs decision on American fertility. Her work on the changing influence of education on women's age at motherhood and the impact of abortion access on birth rates is featured in the media.

Selected works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Myers, Caitlin American women economists 21st-century American economists Middlebury College faculty University of Texas at Austin alumni Tulane University alumni Living people Labor economists Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women