IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ehbiol/v57y2025ics1570677x25000152.html

Auspicious years, the birth of girls, and their birth outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Cho, Hyunkuk

Abstract

The literature suggests that parents intentionally time births, with one example being the increase in births during auspicious years according to Chinese cultural beliefs. We examine births, particularly those of girls, in 2007, a year considered auspicious in South Korea as the Year of the Golden Pig in the Chinese zodiac. In that year, the total number of births in the country surged by 10 %, reaching 496,677 compared to 453,170 in the previous year, before decreasing to 460,480 the following year. This increase suggests that having a baby, regardless of sex, was prioritized over having a boy in a country with a tradition of son preference, indicating that girls who might otherwise have been aborted were born. We found that in 2007, there was a 1 percentage point increase in the number of girls born in regions with a son-preferring culture. Additionally, girls born in 2007 weighed less compared to those born in previous years, suggesting that some may not have received adequate prenatal care.

Suggested Citation

  • Cho, Hyunkuk, 2025. "Auspicious years, the birth of girls, and their birth outcomes," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:57:y:2025:i:c:s1570677x25000152
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2025.101482
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X25000152
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ehb.2025.101482?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yuyu Chen & Hongbin Li & Lingsheng Meng, 2013. "Prenatal Sex Selection and Missing Girls in China: Evidence from the Diffusion of Diagnostic Ultrasound," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 48(1), pages 36-70.
    2. Gans, Joshua S. & Leigh, Andrew, 2009. "Born on the first of July: An (un)natural experiment in birth timing," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-2), pages 246-263, February.
    3. Sonchak, Lyudmyla, 2015. "Medicaid reimbursement, prenatal care and infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 10-24.
    4. Almond, Douglas & Chee, Christine Pal & Sviatschi, Maria Micaela & Zhong, Nan, 2015. "Auspicious birth dates among Chinese in California," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 153-159.
    5. Hyunkuk Cho & Yong-Woo Lee, 2020. "Parental Cheating Regarding Child’s Birthday: A Response to the School Cutoff Date," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 36, pages 175-200.
    6. Hitoshi Shigeoka, 2015. "School Entry Cutoff Date and the Timing of Births," NBER Working Papers 21402, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Cygan-Rehm, Kamila & Karbownik, Krzysztof, 2022. "The effects of incentivizing early prenatal care on infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    8. Schulkind, Lisa & Shapiro, Teny Maghakian, 2014. "What a difference a day makes: Quantifying the effects of birth timing manipulation on infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 139-158.
    9. Sara LaLumia & James M. Sallee & Nicholas Turner, 2015. "New Evidence on Taxes and the Timing of Birth," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 258-293, May.
    10. Nancy Qian, 2008. "Missing Women and the Price of Tea in China: The Effect of Sex-Specific Earnings on Sex Imbalance," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(3), pages 1251-1285.
    11. Cheng Huang & Xiaojing Ma & Shiying Zhang & Qingguo Zhao, 2020. "Numerological preferences, timing of births and the long-term effect on schooling," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(2), pages 531-554, April.
    12. Yip, Paul S. F. & Lee, Joseph & Cheung, Y. B., 2002. "The influence of the Chinese zodiac on fertility in Hong Kong SAR," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(10), pages 1803-1812, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huang, Cheng & Zhang, Shiying & Zhao, Qingguo & Lin, Yan, 2021. "Dragon year superstition, birth timing, and neonatal health outcomes," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    2. Cygan-Rehm, Kamila & Karbownik, Krzysztof, 2022. "The effects of incentivizing early prenatal care on infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    3. Damian Clarke & Sonia Oreffice & Climent Quintana‐Domeque, 2019. "The demand for season of birth," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(5), pages 707-723, August.
    4. Huang, Cheng & Zhang, Shiying & Zhao, Qingguo, 2020. "The early bird catches the worm? School entry cutoff and the timing of births," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    5. Nicolas Moreau, 2023. "The zero effect of income tax on the timing of birth: some evidence on French data," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(3), pages 757-783, June.
    6. Cheng Huang & Xiaojing Ma & Shiying Zhang & Qingguo Zhao, 2020. "Numerological preferences, timing of births and the long-term effect on schooling," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(2), pages 531-554, April.
    7. Peng, Fei & Anwar, Sajid & Kang, Lili, 2022. "Number of siblings, access to treated water and returns to education in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 526-538.
    8. Sun, Ang & Zhao, Yaohui, 2016. "Divorce, abortion, and the child sex ratio: The impact of divorce reform in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 53-69.
    9. Guo, Naijia & Huang, Wei & Wang, Ruixin, 2025. "Public pensions and family dynamics: Eldercare, child investment, and son preference in rural China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    10. Kyeongkuk Kim & Sang-Hyop Lee & Timothy J Halliday, 2018. "The Betrayed Generation? Intra-Household Transfers and Retirement Behavior in South Korea," Working Papers 201804, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    11. Samuel Marden, 2016. "Family Size and the Demand for Sex Selection: Evidence From China," Working Paper Series 9016, Department of Economics, University of Sussex.
    12. Kim, Kyeongkuk & Lee, Sang-Hyop & Halliday, Timothy J., 2021. "Intra-familial transfers, son preference, and retirement behavior in South Korea," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    13. Margaret E. Brehm, 2018. "The Effects of Federal Adoption Incentive Awards for Older Children on Adoptions From U.S. Foster Care," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(2), pages 301-330, March.
    14. Nicolas Moreau, 2021. "The Zero Effect of Income Tax on the Timing of Birth: Some Evidence on French Data," Working Papers hal-03157256, HAL.
    15. Horváth Gergely, 2020. "The Impact of Marital Status on Job Finding: A Field Experiment in the Chinese Labor Market," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 20(4), pages 1-10, October.
    16. Hendrik Jürges, 2017. "Financial incentives, timing of births, and infant health: a closer look into the delivery room," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 18(2), pages 195-208, March.
    17. Yan Yuan & Zhao Rong & Lihe Xu, 2020. "Does Sex Imbalance Affect Family Businesses? Evidence from Rural China," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 4-18, March.
    18. Chuanchuan Zhang, 2019. "Family support or social support? The role of clan culture," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 529-549, April.
    19. Carl Lin & Yan Sun & Chunbing Xing, 2021. "Son Preference and Human Capital Investment among China’s Rural-urban Migrant Households," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(12), pages 2077-2094, December.
    20. Naomi Gershoni & Rania Gihleb & Assaf Kott & Hani Mansour & Yannay Shanan, 2025. "Adjustments to Reduced Cash Transfers: Religious Safety Nets and Children's Long-Term Outcomes," CESifo Working Paper Series 11856, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:57:y:2025:i:c:s1570677x25000152. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622964 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.