Martha J. Bailey is a professor of economics at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

. She is also a Research Associate of 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 ...

, and a member of the executive committee of the

American Economic Association The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics, with approximately 23,000 members. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Review, an ...

Background

She was previously a professor of economics at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

from 2007 to 2020, where she was the first woman internally promoted to tenure in that department. In November 2017,

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

named her someone to watch in 2018, because "Her research on the positive economic effects of contraception has influenced debates around health care and pay equity." In 2022, she was awarded the Carolyn Shaw Bell Award. Her research focus is long-run perspectives on how modern

contraception Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth control only be ...

changed women's childbearing, career decisions, and earnings histories. She has also studied the short and longer-term impact of the

Great Society The Great Society was a series of domestic programs enacted by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the United States between 1964 and 1968, aimed at eliminating poverty, reducing racial injustice, and expanding social welfare in the country. Johnso ...

programs.

Selected works

* Bailey, Martha J. "More power to the pill: the impact of contraceptive freedom on women's life cycle labor supply." The Quarterly Journal of Economics 121, no. 1 (2006): 289–320. * Bailey, Martha, and Susan M. Dynarski. "Inequality in postsecondary attainment." (2011). * Bailey, Martha J. "Momma's got the pill": how Anthony Comstock and Griswold v. Connecticut shaped US childbearing." American Economic Review 100, no. 1 (2010): 98-129. * Bailey, Martha J., Brad Hershbein, and Amalia R. Miller. "The opt-in revolution? Contraception and the gender gap in wages." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 4, no. 3 (2012): 225–54. * Bailey, Martha J. "Reexamining the impact of family planning programs on US fertility: evidence from the War on Poverty and the early years of Title X." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 4, no. 2 (2012): 62–97.

References

American women economists 21st-century American economists University of Michigan faculty Vanderbilt University alumni Living people American labor economists American economic historians Year of birth missing (living people) Agnes Scott College alumni {{US-economist-stub