IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jdevst/v40y2003i2p153-187.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why is Son preference so persistent in East and South Asia? a cross-country study of China, India and the Republic of Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Monica Das Gupta
  • Jiang Zhenghua
  • Li Bohua
  • Xie Zhenming
  • Woojin Chung
  • Bae Hwa-Ok

Abstract

Son preference has persisted in the face of sweeping economic and social changes in the countries studied here. We attribute this persistence to their similar family systems, which generate strong disincentives to raise daughters - whether or not their marriages require dowries - while valuing adult women's contributions to the household. Urbanisation, female education and employment can only slowly change these incentives without more direct efforts by the state and civil society to increase the flexibility of the kinship system such that daughters and sons can be perceived as being more equally valuable. Much can be done to accelerate this process through social movements, legislation and the mass media.

Suggested Citation

  • Monica Das Gupta & Jiang Zhenghua & Li Bohua & Xie Zhenming & Woojin Chung & Bae Hwa-Ok, 2003. "Why is Son preference so persistent in East and South Asia? a cross-country study of China, India and the Republic of Korea," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(2), pages 153-187.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:40:y:2003:i:2:p:153-187
    DOI: 10.1080/00220380412331293807
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220380412331293807
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00220380412331293807?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ansley Coale & Judith Banister, 1994. "Five decades of missing females in China," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 31(3), pages 459-479, August.
    2. Das Gupta, Monica & Sunhwa Lee & Uberoi, Patricia & Danning Wang & Lihong Wang & Xiaodan Zhang, 2000. "State policies and women's autonomy in China, India, and the Republic of Korea, 1950-2000 : lessons from contrasting experiences," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2497, The World Bank.
    3. Rahman, Omar & Foster, Andrew & Menken, Jane, 1992. "Older widow mortality in rural Bangladesh," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 89-96, January.
    4. Das Gupta, Monica, 1999. "Lifeboat versus corporate ethic: social and demographic implications of stem and joint families," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 173-184, July.
    5. Monica Das Gupta & Li Shuzhuo, 1999. "Gender Bias in China, South Korea and India 1920–1990: Effects of War, Famine and Fertility Decline," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(3), pages 619-652, July.
    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. Gaurav Datt & Cun Liu & Russell Smyth, 2022. "Missing Women in China and India over Seven Decades: An Analysis of Birth and Mortality Data from 1950 to 2020," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(9), pages 1807-1830, September.
    2. Rebeca Echavarri, 2022. "Neonatal discrimination and excess female mortality in childhood in Spain in the first half of the twentieth century," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 16(1), pages 79-104, January.
    3. Crow, Britt L., 2010. "Bare-sticks and rebellion: The drivers and implications of China’s reemerging sex imbalance," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 72-80.
    4. Das Gupta, Monica & Chung, Woojin & Shuzhuo, Li, 2009. "Is there an incipient turnaround in Asia's"missing girls"phenomenon ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4846, The World Bank.
    5. Anríquez, Gustavo, 2007. "Long-term rural demographic trends," ESA Working Papers 289040, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA).
    6. Lídia Farré, 2013. "The Role of Men in the Economic and Social Development of Women: Implications for Gender Equality," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 22-51, February.
    7. Das Gupta, Monica & Ebenstein, Avraham & Sharygin, Ethan Jennings, 2010. "China's marriage market and upcoming challenges for elderly men," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5351, The World Bank.
    8. Sibai, Abla M. & Yount, Kathryn M. & Fletcher, Astrid, 2007. "Marital status, intergenerational co-residence and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality among middle-aged and older men and women during wartime in Beirut: Gains and liabilities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 64-76, January.
    9. Lanyan Chen & Hilary Standing, 2007. "Gender equity in transitional China's healthcare policy reforms," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3-4), pages 189-212.
    10. Mikołaj Szołtysek & Siegfried Gruber & Rembrandt D. Scholz & Barbara Zuber Goldstein, 2009. "Social change and family change in a Central European urban context: Rostock 1819-1867," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2009-039, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    11. Cheng, Zhiming & Guo, Liwen & Smyth, Russell & Tani, Massimiliano, 2022. "Childhood adversity and energy poverty," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    12. Olga Shemyakina, 2013. "Patterns in Female Age at First Marriage and Tajik Armed Conflict [Les évolutions de l’âge des femmes au premier mariage et le conflit armé Tadjike]," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(3), pages 303-343, August.
    13. World Bank, 2001. "Risk Management in South Asia : A Poverty Focused Approach," World Bank Publications - Reports 15449, The World Bank Group.
    14. Ueyama, Mika, 2007. "Income growth and gender bias in childhood mortality in developing countries," IFPRI discussion papers 739, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    15. Cheng, Zhiming & Guo, Wei & Hayward, Mathew & Smyth, Russell & Wang, Haining, 2021. "Childhood adversity and the propensity for entrepreneurship: A quasi-experimental study of the Great Chinese Famine," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(1).
    16. Wang, Tianxi & Gonzalez, Angelica & Hagendorff, Jens & Sila, Vathunyoo, 2025. "Little emperor CEOs: Firm risk and performance when CEOs grow up without siblings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    17. Olga Shemyakina, 2009. "The Marriage Market and Tajik Armed Conflict," HiCN Working Papers 66, Households in Conflict Network.
    18. Simon Chang & Kamhon Kan & Xiaobo Zhang, 2024. "Too Many Men, Too-Short Lives: The Effect of the Male-Biased Sex Ratio on Mortality," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 59(2), pages 604-626.
    19. Yong Cai, 2008. "An assessment of China’s fertility level using the variable-r method," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 45(2), pages 271-281, May.
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    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:taf:jdevst:v:40:y:2003:i:2:p:153-187. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FJDS20 .

    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.