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Using data from 60 countries, we measure how much couples agree on sex preferences for children and whether differences in sex preferences are associated with gender gaps in children's education. Results show extensive disagreement in sex preferences for children, with husbands far more likely to want more sons but their wives more likely to prefer having equal numbers of boys and girls, wanting more daughters, or having no preference. India has the highest share of agreement on sex preferences (59 percent), and Niger has the lowest (32 percent). The association between couples' sex preferences and gender gaps in education differs considerably by country. In some countries, girls have worse outcomes when their parents agree on son preference and better ones when parents agree on daughter/no preference. But there are numerous counter‐examples as well. Gender gaps in education appear more often when wives hold son preference but not their husbands than the reverse combination. Agreement on daughter/no preference is the only category that is systematically associated with better outcomes for girls relative to boys (although even here there are caveats). Balanced preference (wanting as many boys as girls) is an ambiguous category with heterogenous patterns in terms of educational gender gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bans on sex‐selective abortions are typically implemented to make sex ratios more equitable, but they may have adverse effects on surviving children. We examine the impacts of a ban on prenatal sex selection in India on postnatal health outcomes. We first show that the ban increased the share of female children born to mothers, especially among firstborn female families. Strikingly, we also find that the ban led to a worsening of mortality outcomes for both girls and boys in firstborn female families. In terms of mechanisms, we find that fertility increases in firstborn female families after the ban, pointing to the following channel: firstborn female families are disproportionately affected by the ban and are more likely to use the son‐biased fertility stopping rule to achieve a desired number of sons. Children in firstborn female families likely face greater competition for parental resources, which may worsen their health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using 589 responses to the 2019 Iowa Farm Transfer Survey, we examine factors in farm successor choices among Iowa farmers with a focus on female successors and landowners. Among those with identified successors, 57% chose sons and 8% chose daughters. We find a 12.4% probability a female farmer will choose a daughter, but only 5.9% for a male farmer. Agriculture experience increases the probability of choosing a daughter from 5.4% to 20.7% and from 36.3% to 65.2% for a son. Our paper reveals striking evidence of gender imbalance in farm succession, transfer, and inheritance decisions of US farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from two representative Demographic and Health Surveys, we examine the change in son preference over the past three decades and its effects on Pakistani women's fertility. We analyse a number of indicators and employ different empirical methods to come up with strong and persistent evidence for both the revealed and stated preference for sons. This disproportionate preference for boys is visible in increasing desired sex ratio and worsening sex ratio at last birth. Reliance over differential birth stopping has significantly increased over time as couples are more likely to stop childbearing once the desired number of boys is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do high housing prices reduce the demand for sons? As Chinese parents need to acquire houses for their sons' marriage, high housing prices increase the cost of sons relative to daughters. We exploit China's housing reform in the 1990s as a natural experiment to identify the effect of housing prices on demand for sons. We find that housing prices have no effect on the probability of having a son at the first birth. High housing prices reduce the probability of having a son at the second birth, especially when the first‐born is a daughter. A 10% increase in housing prices reduces the probability of having a son at the second birth by 0.78 percentage points. The findings remain robust when using aggregate prefecture‐cohort data for the post‐reform period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a general equilibrium model of fertility with higher economic returns to sons relative to daughters, parents choose overall fertility and the gender composition of their children. Son preference is partially endogenized to reflect how relative scarcity of females raises their value even while social norms and lack of economic opportunities lessen their value. These competing factors lead to an oscillating sex ratio. Model simulations demonstrate that son preference increases fertility, but that sex selection reduces fertility in the presence of son preference. The results suggest that effectively banning sex‐selective abortions in places such as India, which has struggled to enforce its existing ban on the practice, is insufficient and may have unintended consequences such as slowing fertility decline, reducing quality investment in girls, and slowing human capital accumulation and economic growth. Improving economic opportunities for women will increase the value placed on daughters, thereby improving the sex ratio and human capital investment in all children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends the existing literature on son preference using an epidemiological approach to determine which cultural beliefs contribute most to son preference. We measure son preference by the increased fertility response due to a first‐born female child. The coefficient giving the increase in the fertility response to a first‐born female associated with a change in the equity index grows by over 50% when religious variables are included. We believe this highlights the importance of controlling for multiple cultural factors which may be correlated across home countries. The analysis shows that the major cultural determinants of son preference are gender economic inequities, while measures of women's relative educational and political standing are largely irrelevant. Across the distribution of economic equity on our sample, the fertility response to a first‐born female change from a 6.5% increase to a 1.6% decrease in the average number of children per household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we append information from four cross‐sectional household surveys (Multiple Indictors Cluster Survey of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) in Punjab, Pakistan, collected between 2007 and 2018 to create a data set of 140,000–150,000 child‐level observations. Using linear regression, we document a strongly negative birth‐order gradient in the nutritional status (measured as height‐for‐age z‐scores) of children below age 5, indicating a pattern of disinvestment in later‐born children that is even greater than that documented for poorer countries in sub‐Saharan Africa in an earlier study. Consistent with other empirical work in developing‐country contexts, girls have on average higher z‐scores than boys, but their advantage is lower in Pakistan than other countries outside of the South Asian region, and worryingly, the negative birth‐order gradient is steeper for girls than boys. Son‐biased fertility stopping rules and close‐birth spacing appear to play key roles in Pakistan; following the birth of daughters, parents reduce contraceptive use and breastfeeding (a natural birth control). Using an IV strategy based on the genders of the previously born children, we find that shortened intervals between births harm children's nutritional status, especially that of boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intersexuality, particularly in the global South, remains an under‐researched field of study. In my in‐progress doctoral research project, I explore the cultural, social, and medical discourses that influence how key stakeholders such as healthcare providers make decisions about the sex and gender assignment of the intersex child in India. In this paper I interrogate some of these ideas around gender assignment of intersex people in India, paying particular attention to the context of son preference. I am interested in exploring how decisions of gender assignment by medical professionals are guided by ideas of son preference. Focusing on four qualitative, semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews across two cities with medical doctors from different specializations, this paper is a preliminary attempt to examine some of the factors that guide medical professionals in making decisions about gender assignment of intersex children and explore the dynamics of the decision‐making process. Specifically, I explore the factors that inform doctors' decision‐making and locate these decision‐making processes within the broader socio‐cultural context of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the birth of later‐born girls seems least welcome in India, where gender discrimination persists, birth order and sibling sex composition effects among surviving children are less known. The current study investigates whether later‐born girls are discriminated from their siblings once children survive up to primary school age in India. Examining the effects on test scores reveals that there is no negative later‐born effect for girls among surviving children. Instead, girls seem to be consistently at an advantage if they have elder sisters. Furthermore, gender bias among primary school age children is detected only in households of larger size. This implies that gender discrimination is severe in terms of survival, but once children survive up to primary school age they are treated equally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: To examine whether a lack of sons predicts non-use of contraception among young wives in Nepal. Methods: Data were obtained from married females aged 15–24years who participated in the Nepal 2011 Demographic and Health Survey (n=2439). Multivariate models were used to test predictions of modern contraception use with the following variables: having no sons, social inequities (wealth, education, rural residence, and caste), gender inequities (early age at marriage, spousal age, and education gaps), respondent age, parity, and geographic region. Results: Most wives (79%) reported using no modern contraception. Non-use was more likely among those with no living sons (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.6; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2–2.2), and those who married as a minor (AOR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.02–1.9) and/or resided in a rural area (AOR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.3–2.5). Having no daughters was negatively associated with non-use of contraception (AOR, 0.7; 95% CI, 0.5–0.9). Conclusion: Contraception use is not common among young wives in Nepal. It is, however, more likely among wives with sons and less likely among wives with daughters, demonstrating that son preference continues to affect contraception use among the next generation of mothers in Nepal. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article reports the results of an empirical analysis of gender-based discrimination among children based on household consumption data from Uzbekistan. We employ the outlay equivalence methodology to examine whether the entry of a new child leads to different effects in the decrease of adult good consumption for boys and for girls. We use a semi-parametric estimation method to address the so-called 'zero consumption problem', the statistical problem that arises because some households have zero consumption on a budget line in the period prior to the survey date. The results indicate that alcohol and tobacco reveal the incidence of discrimination against girls, while other groups of adult goods do not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Objective: To examine the relationship between male child preference and maternal prenatal psychological distress among expectant mothers from Xiangyun County, Yunnan Province, China. Methods: Child gender preference, state-trait anxiety and depression, relationships with the husband and mother-in-law, and self-esteem were measured in a sample of 198 women between 10 and 20weeks of pregnancy. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for prenatal anxiety. Results: Prenatal anxiety was correlated with male child preference (r =0.15, P <0.05), maternal age (r =–0.17, P <0.05), level of education (r =–0.23, P <0.01), self-esteem (r =–0.36, P <0.01), relationship with mother-in-law (r =–0.34, P <0.01), and relationship with husband (r =–0.35, P <0.01). Significant relationships were maintained in multivariate analysis that included gender preference, maternal education, pregnancy anxiety, self-esteem, number of people in the household, and relationship with husband as predictors (adjusted r 2 =0.28, P <0.001). Conclusion: Male child preference was associated with prenatal anxiety in this sample. Younger maternal age, lower self-esteem, lower level of education, worse relationship with husband, and less family cohesiveness were also related to prenatal anxiety. Expectant mothers experienced prenatal anxiety when there was strong family preference for sons. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the midst of a genetic revolution in medicine, Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) has become a well-established technique to help infertile women achieve pregnancy. But many women are now turning to ART not just to circumvent infertility, but consciously to shape their families by determining the sex of their children. Many patriarchal cultures have a gender preference for males and to date have used technological advances in reproductive medicine to predetermine the sex of the child being born. Women have sought sex-selective abortions, where the pregnancy was being terminated solely on the basis of the sex of the unborn fetus. The combination of ART advances and gender preference has led to the disappearance of at least 100 million girls from the world's population leading to a mass gendercide. This article examines the societal impact of unbalanced gender ratios and the need to regulate sex selection to avoid nations of bachelors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research note reports on interviews with 120 mothers employed in garment factories in Bangladesh. These mothers express views on the necessity of being married, having sons, and educating daughters that challenge traditional patriarchal practices. They report that men of their families can no longer guarantee women and children lifetime support in the context of extreme poverty and landlessness. Many of them thus choose to assist their husbands, brothers, and parents through wage employment. Their employment creates a space in which these women can begin to make choices and decisions independent of the wishes of the men in their families. Their responses indicate a crack in the traditional patriarchal family system, which requires that a woman be dependent, first on her father, then on her husband, and then on her adult son. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assesses the strength of son preference in Vietnam, as reflected in fertility behavior. Formulation and estimation of a proportional hazards model applied to birth intervals and a contraceptive prevalence model, using household survey data from ever-married women with at least one living child who were interviewed for the Vietnam Living Standards Survey.

The article shows that the conflict developing from the desire of Jewish immigrants in Israel for male children and high fertility and economic conditions were put critically at odds with changed socioeconomic and mortality conditions. Jewish immigrants who came to Israel from Muslim countries of North Africa and the Middle East were transplanted to a radically different, modern society. Their high fertility levels were put critically at odds with changed socioeconomic and mortality conditions. In their countries of origin, high fertility had been consistent with many socioeconomic, cultural, and religious goals, including the survival of male offspring. In Israel, an immediate conflict developed between the desire for male children and high fertility and economic conditions that necessitated a drastic decrease in family size. Previous research has shown that the conflict resulted in a rapid reduction in fertility levels across marriage cohorts of Jewish women of Asian and African origin. A preference for sons has been documented in Muslim and Christian populations of North Africa and the Middle East.