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The effect of fertility decisions on excess female mortality in India

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  • Daniel Rosenblum

    ()

Abstract

In India, many parents follow son-preferring fertility-stopping rules. Stopping rules affect both the number of children and the sex composition of these children. Parents whose first child is male will stop having children sooner than parents whose first child is female. On average, parents of a first-born son will have fewer children and will have a higher proportion of sons compared to parents of a first-born daughter. An economic model in which sons bring economic benefits and daughters bring economic costs, shows the importance of sex composition on child outcomes: holding the number of siblings constant, boys are better off with sisters and girls are better off with brothers. Empirical evidence using the sex outcome of first births as a natural experiment shows that stopping rules can exacerbate discrimination, causing as much as a quarter of excess female child mortality. Another implication of the research is that the use of sex-selective abortion may lower female mortality, but raise male mortality. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2013

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File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s00148-012-0427-7
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Article provided by Springer & European Society for Population Economics in its journal Journal of Population Economics.

Volume (Year): 26 (2013)
Issue (Month): 1 (January)
Pages: 147-180

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Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:26:y:2013:i:1:p:147-180
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Keywords: Child mortality; Fertility; India; Sex composition; J13; J16; O12;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

  • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
  • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
  • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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  1. Rohini Pande, 2003. "Selective gender differences in childhood nutrition and immunization in rural India: The role of siblings," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 40(3), pages 395-418, August.
  2. George Simmons & Celeste Smucker & Stan Bernstein & Eric Jensen, 1982. "Post-neonatal mortality in Rural India: Implications of an economic model," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 19(3), pages 371-389, August.
  3. Alessandro Cigno, 1998. "Fertility decisions when infant survival is endogenous," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 21-28.
  4. Sah, Raaj Kumar, 1991. "The Effects of Child Mortality Changes on Fertility Choice and Parental Welfare," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 582-606, June.
  5. Becker, Gary S & Lewis, H Gregg, 1973. "On the Interaction between the Quantity and Quality of Children," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(2), pages S279-88, Part II, .
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  7. Qian, Nancy, 2006. "Missing Women and the Price of Tea in China: The Effect of Sex-Specific Earnings on Sex Imbalance," CEPR Discussion Papers 5986, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  8. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Schultz, T Paul, 1982. "Market Opportunities, Genetic Endowments, and Intrafamily Resource Distribution: Child Survival in Rural India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(4), pages 803-15, September.
  9. Kenneth I. Wolpin & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2000. "Natural "Natural Experiments" in Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(4), pages 827-874, December.
  10. Angrist, Joshua D & Evans, William N, 1998. "Children and Their Parents' Labor Supply: Evidence from Exogenous Variation in Family Size," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 450-77, June.
  11. Mark R. Rosenzweig & Junsen Zhang, 2006. "Do Population Control Policies Induce More Human Capital Investment? Twins, Birthweight, and China's 'One Child' Policy," Working Papers 933, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
  12. Mukesh Eswaran, 2002. "The empowerment of women, fertility, and child mortality: Towards a theoretical analysis," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 15(3), pages 433-454.
  13. Claus C Pörtner, 2010. "Sex Selective Abortions, Fertility and Birth Spacing," Working Papers UWEC-2010-04-R, University of Washington, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2010.
  14. Shelley Clark, 2000. "Son preference and sex composition of children: Evidence from india," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 37(1), pages 95-108, February.
  15. Deepankar Basu & Robert Jong, 2010. "Son targeting fertility behavior: Some consequences and determinants," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 47(2), pages 521-536, May.
  16. Siwan Anderson, 2003. "Why Dowry Payments Declined with Modernization in Europe but Are Rising in India," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(2), pages 269-310, April.
  17. Siwan Anderson & Debraj Ray, 2010. "Missing Women: Age and Disease," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 77(4), pages 1262-1300.
  18. Avraham Ebenstein, 2010. "The "Missing Girls" of China and the Unintended Consequences of the One Child Policy," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(1).
  19. Herbert Smith, 1994. "Nonreporting of births or nonreporting of pregnancies? Some evidence from four rural counties in North China," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 31(3), pages 481-486, August.
  20. Gordon B. Dahl & Enrico Moretti, 2008. "The Demand for Sons," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 75(4), pages 1085-1120.
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Cited by:

  1. Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Chakravarty, Abhishek & Gulesci, Selim, 2016. "The Price of Gold: Dowry and Death in India," IZA Discussion Papers 9679, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  2. Tin-chi Lin & Alícia Adserà, 2013. "Son Preference and Children’s Housework: The Case of India," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 553-584, August.
  3. Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude & Rosenblum, Daniel, 2012. "The Indian Ultrasound Paradox," IZA Discussion Papers 6273, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  4. Sonia Bhalotra & Abhishek Chakravarty & Dilip Mookherjee & Francisco J. Pino, . "Property Rights and Gender Bias: Evidence from Land Reform in West Bengal," Boston University - Department of Economics - The Institute for Economic Development Working Papers Series dp-281, Boston University - Department of Economics.
  5. Tarun Jain, 2014. "Where There Is a Will: Fertility Behavior and Sex Bias in Large Families," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 49(2), pages 393-423.
  6. Onur Altindag, 2015. "Son Preference, Fertility Decline and the Non-Missing Girls of Turkey," Working Papers 5, City University of New York Graduate Center, Ph.D. Program in Economics, revised 20 Mar 2016.
  7. Makino, Momoe, 2012. "Effects of birth order and sibling sex composition on human capital investment in children in India," IDE Discussion Papers 319, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
  8. Emla Fitzsimons & Bansi Malde, 2014. "Empirically probing the quantity–quality model," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(1), pages 33-68, January.
  9. Milazzo, Annamaria, 2014. "Why are adult women missing ? son preference and maternal survival in India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6802, The World Bank.
  10. World Bank, 2015. "India Land Governance Assessment," World Bank Other Operational Studies 24420, The World Bank.
  11. Marco Alfano, 2014. "Daughters, Dowries, Deliveries:The Effect of Marital Payments on Fertility Choices in India," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1413, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London.
  12. Deininger, Klaus & Xia, Fang & Jin, Songqing & Nagarajan, Hari K., 2014. "Inheritance law reform, empowerment, and human capital accumulation : second-generation effects from India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7086, The World Bank.
  13. Gani Aldashev & Catherine Guirkinger, 2011. "Deadly Anchor: Gender Bias under Russian Colonization of Kazakhstan, 1898-1908," Working Papers 1111, University of Namur, Department of Economics.
  14. Onur Altindag, 2016. "Son Preference, Fertility Decline, and the Nonmissing Girls of Turkey," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(2), pages 541-566, April.

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