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Why Do Mothers Breastfeed Girls Less than Boys? Evidence and Implications for Child Health in India*

* This paper has been replicated

Author

Listed:
  • Seema Jayachandran
  • Ilyana Kuziemko

Abstract

Breastfeeding is negatively correlated with future fertility because nursing temporarily reduces fecundity and because mothers usually wean on becoming pregnant again. We model breastfeeding under son-biased fertility preferences and show that breastfeeding duration increases with birth order, especially near target family size; is lowest for daughters and children without older brothers because their parents try again for a son; and exhibits the largest gender gap near target family size, when gender is most predictive of subsequent fertility. Data from India confirm each prediction. Moreover, child survival exhibits similar patterns, especially in settings where the alternatives to breastmilk are unsanitary. Copyright 2011, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Seema Jayachandran & Ilyana Kuziemko, 2011. "Why Do Mothers Breastfeed Girls Less than Boys? Evidence and Implications for Child Health in India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(3), pages 1485-1538.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:126:y:2011:i:3:p:1485-1538
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/qje/qjr029
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    Replication

    This item has been replicated by:
  • Abhishek Chakravarty, 2015. "Gender‐Biased Breastfeeding in Egypt: Examining the Fertility Preference Hypotheses of Jayachandran and Kuziemko (2011)," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 848-855, August.

    • More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. Why Do Mothers Breastfeed Girls Less than Boys? Evidence and implications for Child Health in India (QJE 2011) in ReplicationWiki

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