Graduation Year

2026

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

Reader 1

Professor Nayana Bose

Reader 2

Professor Sean Flynn

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

©2025SimrenRKhan

Abstract

This paper examines how the opioid epidemic influences household fertility behavior in Pakistan by analyzing contraceptive use and fertility outcomes across regions with differing levels of opioid prevalence. Using household-level data from the 2017–18 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and estimating OLS regression models, the study compares households in high-prevalence regions with those in low-prevalence regions. The results show that exposure to high-opioid regions is associated with lower fertility outcomes and a higher likelihood of respondents wanting their last child. These patterns suggest that households may respond to opioid-related economic and caregiving burdens by limiting family size and treating children primarily as consumption goods. The findings underscore the broader household-level consequences of the opioid crisis in developing-country contexts.

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