PPA 500: Example of Literature Review Outline

OUTLINE FOR LITERATURE REVIEW

Teen Birthrate Study

Deborah Franklin

PPA 500

March 20, 1999

I. Introductory Paragraphs

A. Overview of main areas of literature

1. Causal factors/determinants of teen births

2. Teen birth/dropout rate endogeneity

3. Costs/consequences of teen childbearing

a. Costs/consequences overstated

b. Policy issues related to cost/consequences

II. Causal Factors/Determinants Articles

A. Articles’ theories overview

1. Economic models

2. Social/behavioral models

3. Public policy effects

B. Economic Models

1. "An Economic Model of Teenage Pregnancy Decision Making"

2. "Adolescent Premarital Childbearing: Do Economic Incentives Matter?"

3. "The Demand for Abortion by Unmarried Teenagers"

C. Social/behavioral models

1. "The Effects of Attitudes on Teenage Premarital Pregnancy and Its Resolution"

2. "Drug Use and Other Determinants of Premarital Pregnancy and Its Outcomes"

D. Public policy effects

1. "A Potential Case of Social Bankruptcy: States’ AFCD Payments and Their Teen Birth Rates"

2. "Teen Motherhood and Abortion Access"

III. Teen birthrate/Dropout Rate Endogeneity

A. Overview of endogeneity and articles

1. Studies of both birthrate and dropout rate

2. Dropout rate only

B. Studies of both birthrate and dropout rate

1. "Measuring Peer Group Effects: A Study of Teenage Behavior"

2. "Education and the Timing of Motherhood: Disentangling Causation"

3. "The Timing of a First Birth and High School Completion"*

C. Dropout Rate only

1. "Family Structure, Residential Mobility, and School Dropout: A Research Note"

2. A Comparison of High School Dropout Rates in 1982 and 1992*

IV. Costs/Consequences of teen childbearing

A. Overview of arguments

1. Costs/consequences overstated

2. Policy implications of the overstatement, "fairy tales’

B. Articles on overstatement

1. "The Socioeconomic Consequences of Teen Childbearing Reconsidered"*

2. "Reevaluating the Costs of Teenage Childbearing"

C. Policy implications, "fairy tales"

1. "Do Poor Women Have a Right to Bear Children?"

Note: At least one article on the relationship between public inputs and dropout rates is needed to identify and justify variables for the regression equation with high school dropout rates as the dependent variable.

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