Caitlin Myers

Caitlin Knowles Myers is an American economist, currently the John G. McCullough Professor of Economics at Middlebury College and a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

She is known for her research on the impacts of contraception and abortion policies in the United States. In 2021, when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization case, she led an effort to compile the best economic research on the impact of abortion access on women's lives into an amicus brief, which was signed by more than 150 economists.

Life Myers grew up in rural West Virginia and Georgia and trained as a labor economist, Myers was widowed in 2011, when her husband, firefighter Adam Myers, was killed in a car accident.

Research Myers' research examines issues related to gender, race, fertility and the economy. In recent work, she has studied the impact of contraception and abortion policies. Her research demonstrates that the liberalization of abortion policies in the 1960s and 1970s allowed large numbers of women to delay marriage and motherhood. She also has studied the effects of mandatory waiting periods, parental involvement laws, and driving distances on abortion and birth rates. Her most recent work assesses the effects of the Dobbs decision on American fertility.

Her work on the changing influence of education on women's age at motherhood and the impact of abortion access on birth rates is featured in the media.

Selected works