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Paper short abstract

Using repeated cross-sectional survey data, the paper examines effects of an Indian family planning programme on contraceptive use and related behaviours through conditional DiD within relevant states, finding higher usage and shifts in the method mix (modern vs. traditional; spacing vs. limiting).

Paper long abstract

This paper uses multiple waves of the Indian National Family Health Survey to evaluate the effects of a family planning programme on contraceptive use and related reproductive behaviours. Using two rounds of this nationally representative repeated cross-section microdata, the paper implements a conditional difference-in-differences design that compares changes in targeted areas to comparison areas, restricting the analysis to programme states so that treated and comparison units share a common policy and institutional context. The conditional specification relaxes the standard parallel-trends assumption by allowing outcome trends to vary with the baseline fertility and contraceptive usage practices; the programme effect is therefore identified conditional on these pre-existing differences between the treatment and control groups. The main specifications include area-wise fixed effects and standard errors clustered at the level of treatment. The paper also presents robustness checks which consider alternative ways of conditioning on baseline fertility, placebo outcomes, and reweighting approaches. The paper estimates the effects of the programme on both overall contraceptive use and method composition, distinguishing modern and traditional methods as well as spacing and limiting behaviours. Accordingly, it finds an increase in overall contraceptive use, accompanied by shifts in the method mix, underscoring the importance of assessing not only adoption but also the composition of contraceptive behaviour in programme evaluations.