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Sex-selective abortions, fertility, and birth spacing

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  • Portner, Claus C

Abstract

Previous research on sex-selective abortions has ignored the interactions between fertility, birth spacing, and sex selection, despite both fertility and birth spacing being important considerations for parents when deciding on the use of sex selection. This paper presents a novel approach that jointly estimates the determinants of sex-selective abortions, fertility, and birth spacing, using data on Hindu women from India's National Family and Health Surveys. Women with eight or more years of education in urban and rural areas are the main users of sex-selective abortions and they also have the lowest fertility. Predicted lifetime fertility for these women declined 11 percent between the 1985-1994 and 1995-2006 periods, which correspond to the periods of time before and after sex selection became illegal. Fertility is now around replacement level. This decrease in fertility has been accompanied by a 6 percent increase in the predicted number of abortions during the childbearing years between the two periods, and sex selection is increasingly used for earlier parities. Hence, the legal steps taken to combat sex selection have been unable to reverse its use. Women with fewer than eight years of education have substantially higher fertility and do not appear to use sex selection.

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  • Portner, Claus C, 2015. "Sex-selective abortions, fertility, and birth spacing," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7189, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7189
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    Cited by:

    1. Ahsan, Md Nazmul & Maharaj, Riddhi, 2018. "Parental human capital and child health at birth in India," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 130-149.
    2. Zimmermann, Laura, 2018. "It’s a boy! Women and decision-making benefits from a son in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 326-335.
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    4. Ana Ferrer & Alicia Adsera, 2016. "Speeding up for a son? Fertility transitions among Migrants to Canada," Working Papers 1602, University of Waterloo, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2016.
    5. Adserà, Alícia & Ferrer, Ana M., 2016. "Speeding up for a son? Fertility transitions among Asian migrants to Canada," CLEF Working Paper Series 1, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.

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