embarazo-adolescente-en

Katy becomes pregnant at 16 years old. Her pregnancy will have major impacts on her education, health, and chances of accessing adequate jobs and generating income. Based on UNFPA's study Socio-economic consequences of adolescent pregnancy and motherhood in Peru, this article shows how Katy incurs different opportunity costs throughout her life. If Katy had postponed her pregnancy, she would have been able to accumulate income of USD 36 178. At the aggregate level, adolescent pregnancies and motherhood generated opportunity costs of USD 329.4 million in 2019. These costs are divided into opportunity costs of work activity (USD 109.5 million), employment opportunity costs (USD 48.6 million) and labor income opportunity costs (USD 171.4 million). In addition, the government stopped receiving tax revenues of USD 73.1 million and had to spend USD 58 million on health care for adolescent pregnancies. The article concludes by proposing a set of policy recommendations for the various actors responsible for the prevention of pregnancy and adolescent motherhood in Peru.