Power to the Platform: Online Dating and Reproductive Health

• In Event: Cyber-Risky Behaviors

Abstract

Modern online dating platforms like Hinge, Bumble, and Tinder make the evaluation of online dating on family and health outcomes difficult because the platforms were accessible by anyone with a phone or a computer since they were released simultaneously everywhere. Their release also coincided with several other factors that confound analysis such as declining birth rates post-Great Recession, the rise of social media, and smartphone proliferation. Only one online dating platform, Craigslist Personals which entered cities across the US between 2000 and 2007, predates these events and has significant geographic variation in access. We hypothesize that increasing access to potential partners via Craigslist influences fertility decisions by changing the number of potential partners an individual will encounter and at the same me increasing the information available to participants in the market. There is also substantial discussion in contemporary media that more recent platforms are associated with perpetual dating and declines in marriage. Earlier studies have found increases in HIV rates associated with Craigslist’s entry providing some justification for examining fertility rates (Chan and Ghose, 2014; Greenwood and Agarwal, 2016). Related work has shown that fertility is responsive to increased access to broadband internet, though the effects appear to vary by country examined (Guldi and Herbst, 2017; Billari, Giuntella, and Stella, 2017). Additionally, increased access to broadband has been shown to affect marriage choices (Bellou, 2015) and reports and convictions for rape and other sex crimes (Bhuller et. Al 2013). In this paper, we examine the effect that this early online dating platform had on reproductive health and family forma on, focusing on birth, abortion, marriage, divorce, and sexually transmitted infection rates using staggered difference-in-differences (Callaway Sant’Anna, 2021). We hand-collected data on the rollout of Craigslist Personals by local area over me. Robustness is confirmed through event studies, observable comparisons, and sensitivity analyses addressing potential violations of parallel trends. Our findings contribute to the growing literature of how access to and use of the internet influences fertility and health outcomes.

Authors

• Christine P. Piette Durrance, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Co-Author

• Melanie Guldi, University of Central Florida
  Presenting Author