Marcela Mello, Universidad de los Andes

Paper: Religious Mayors, Teenage Pregnancy, and Sexual Education in Schools

Abstract: I investigate the impact of local Pentecostal politicians on teenage pregnancy rates in Brazil. Using a regression-discontinuity design that compares narrowly decided mayoral races between Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal parties, I find that a Pentecostal victory leads to 2.86 additional births per 1,000 teenage girls—a 10 percent increase over the baseline. As a potential mechanism, I show that municipal schools governed by Pentecostal mayors are 11.4 percentage points less likely to offer sex education, whereas state schools—whose curricula are independent of mayoral influence—exhibit no such difference. I also document a rise in the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers. Finally, the evidence indicates that these effects arise from specifically religious ideology rather than from general political conservatism.