Daniel H. Klepinger

The sexual behavior of men in the United States.

A nationally representative study of the sexual behavior of men aged 20-39 in the United States shows that the prevalence and frequency of sexual acts (vaginal, anal and oral) and sexual orientation vary by social and demographic characteristics. Analysis of data from 3,321 respondents to the 1991 National Survey of Men reveals that 95% of men have had vaginal intercourse; among them, 23% have had 20 or more vaginal sex partners in their lifetime. About one-fifth of never-married and formerly married men had four or more partners over a recent 18-month period. However, 41% of never-married men and 32% of formerly married men did not have coitus during the four weeks preceding the interview. Only 20% of men have ever engaged in anal intercourse. Among these, 51% had not done so during the previous 18 months, and 90% had not done so during the previous four weeks. Seventy-five percent of men have performed oral sex and 79% have received oral sex, although 53% of men who ever performed oral sex had not done so during the four weeks prior to interview, and only 11% had done so six or more times. The frequency of receiving oral sex is similar. Only 2% of sexually active men aged 20-39 have had any same-gender sexual activity during the last 10 years, and only 1% reported being exclusively homosexual during this interval.

How Does Adolescent Fertility Affect the Human Capital and Wages of Young Women

We estimate the relationship between teenage childbearing, human capital investment, and wages in early adulthood, using a sample of women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and a large set of potential instruments for fertility-principally state and county-level indicators of the costs of fertility and fertility control. Adolescent fertility substantially reduces years of formal education and teenage work experience and, for white women only, early adult work experience. Through reductions in human capital, teenage childbearing has a significant effect on market wages at age 25. Our results suggest that public policies which reduce teenage childbearing are likely to have positive effects on the economic well-being of many young mothers.

Adolescent fertility and the educational attainment of young women.

Analyses based on a sample of 2,795 women interviewed annually from 1979 through 1991 in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth show that early childbearing lowers the educational attainment of young women. After controls for an extensive set of personal and community characteristics are taken into account, having a child before age 20 significantly reduces schooling attained by almost three years among whites, blacks and Hispanics. Having a child before age 18 has a significant effect only among blacks, reducing years of schooling by 1.2 years.

Contraceptive Characteristics: The Perceptions And Priorities of Men and Women

CONTEXTnDespite the fact that choosing a contraceptive method is often a decision made by couples, little is known about how men and women differ in their perceptions of the characteristics of various method types, and in the importance that they attach to those characteristics when choosing a contraceptive method.nnnMETHODSnThe data analyzed here are subsets from two companion surveys conducted in 1991--1,189 men aged 20-27 who were surveyed in the National Survey of Men and 740 women aged 20-27 who were surveyed in the National Survey of Women. Multivariate ordered logit analysis is used to examine how gender is related to both the importance that individuals assign to seven specific contraceptive characteristics when choosing a method, and to perceptions about the extent to which five common method types possess each of these characteristics.nnnRESULTSnWomen rank pregnancy prevention as the single most important contraceptive characteristic when choosing a method, with 90% citing it as very important. The health risks associated with particular methods and protection from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are rated as the second most important characteristics by women (each mentioned as very important by 77%). In contrast, men consider STD prevention for themselves and their partner to be just as important as pregnancy protection (each mentioned as very important by 84-86%), and they rank STD prevention as more important than other health risks (by 72%). Women, but not men, rank both ease of use and the need to plan ahead as being more important characteristics than a methods interference with sexual pleasure. Both men and women have an accurate understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of particular methods, but differ enough in their perceptions to alter the relative attractiveness of each method. In particular, women have more favorable perceptions than men about the pill, being somewhat more likely than men to believe that the pill is very good at preventing pregnancy (75% vs. 67%) and to say that it is very good at not interfering with sexual pleasure (82% vs. 76%). In contrast, women have generally less favorable perceptions than men about other reversible methods, including the condom: Women were less likely than men to consider the condom very good at pregnancy prevention (29% vs. 46%) or at having no need for advance planning (22% vs. 38%). Gender differences in perceptions about the specific characteristics of contraceptive methods often vary by marital status.nnnCONCLUSIONSnMen and women have somewhat different priorities when choosing a contraceptive method. Despite many similarities between women and men in their perceptions about the characteristics of each method type, numerous differences between them may have an important influence on how couples make their method choices.

Effects of Unemployment Insurance Work-Search Requirements: The Maryland Experiment

This paper describes findings from a 1994 experimental evaluation of alternative work-search requirements in the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program. Requiring additional employer contacts or verification of contacts reduced UI receipt by one week and

Experimental Evidence on Unemployment Insurance Work-Search Policies

115 per claimant. Because these additional requirements did not entail additional re-employment services, the UI spell reduction can be attributed to increased non-monetary costs for remaining on UI. A job-search workshop requirement reduced UI receipt by half a week and

The influence of community characteristics on the practice of effective contraception.

75 per claimant, and additional results indicate that the effects were due to increased costs of continued UI receipt rather than to enhanced job-search productivity. These treatments did not affect employment or earnings, implying that reduced UI duration led to more intensive job search, rather than a reduction in the reservation wage. In contrast, elimination of the employer contact requirement increased UI receipt and post-UI earnings, suggesting that delayed exit from UI improved job matches.

Condom characteristics: the perceptions and preferences of men in the United States.

This paper describes findings from an experimental evaluation of alternative work-search policies in the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program. We find that the no work-search treatment significantly increased UI receipt, relative to the standard work-search approach, by 3.3 weeks and

Contraceptive method switching in the United States.

265 per claimant, and that the treatment with the most intensive requirements reduced UI payments by one-half of a week or

THE ROLE OF RELATIONSHIP POWER IN COUPLE DECISIONS ABOUT CONTRACEPTION IN THE US

70 per claimant. The results suggest that work-search requirements reduce UI spells by increasing the nonmonetary costs of remaining on UI, rather than enhancing job search abilities. We also find little treatment effects for wages, earnings, or total income, suggesting that an increase in the nonmonetary costs of continued UI receipt are associated with more intensive job search, rather than a reduction in the reservation wage.