IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dem/wpaper/wp-2004-019.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Gendering the family composition: sex preferences for children and childbearing behavior in the Nordic countries

Author

Listed:
  • Gunnar Andersson

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

  • Karsten Hank

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

  • Marit Rønsen
  • Andres Vikat

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

Abstract

It has been argued recently that a society’s ‘gender system’ influences parents’ sex preferences for children. If this was true, one should expect to find no evidence of such preferences in countries with a high level of gender equality. In this paper we exploit population register data from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden to examine continuities and changes in parental sex preferences in the Nordic countries during the last three to four decades. First, we cannot observe a visible effect of the sex of the first-born child on second birth risks. Secondly, we detect a distinct preference for at least one child of each sex among parents of two children. Next to this combination preference our analysis reveals, thirdly, that Danish, Norwegian and Swedish parents developed a preference for having a daughter, while Finns exhibit a significant son preference. These findings show that modernization and more equal opportunities for women and men do not necessarily lead to parental gender indifference. On the contrary, they might even result in ‘new’ sex preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Gunnar Andersson & Karsten Hank & Marit Rønsen & Andres Vikat, 2004. "Gendering the family composition: sex preferences for children and childbearing behavior in the Nordic countries," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2004-019, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2004-019
    DOI: 10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2004-019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/en/projects_publications/publications_1904/journal_articles/gendering_family_composition_sex_preferences_for_children_and_childbearing_behavior_in_the_nordic_2228.htm
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/working/wp-2004-019.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2004-019?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dahl, Gordon B. & Moretti, Enrico, 2004. "The Demand for Sons: Evidence from Divorce, Fertility, and Shotgun Marriage," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt63f8483b, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    2. Karsten Hank & Hans-Peter Kohler, 2000. "Gender Preferences for Children in Europe," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 2(1).
    3. repec:cai:poeine:pope_301_0133 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. 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.
    5. Andrew Mason & Neil Bennett, 1977. "Sex selection with biased technologies and its effect on the population sex ratio," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 14(3), pages 285-296, August.
    6. Diana Berinde, 1999. "Pathways to a Third Child in Sweden," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 15(4), pages 349-378, December.
    7. Shelly Lundberg & Elaina Rose, 2003. "Child gender and the transition to marriage," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 40(2), pages 333-349, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Alich, 2006. "The third child: a comparison between West Germany and Norway," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2006-001, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    2. Sehar Ezdi & Ahmet Melik Baş, 2020. "Gender preferences and fertility: Investigating the case of Turkish immigrants in Germany," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 43(3), pages 59-96.
    3. Elly-Ann Lindström, 2013. "Gender Bias in Parental Leave: Evidence from Sweden," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 235-248, June.

    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. Choi, Hyung-Jai & Joesch, Jutta M. & Lundberg, Shelly, 2005. "Work and Family: Marriage, Children, Child Gender and the Work Hours and Earnings of West German Men," IZA Discussion Papers 1761, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Choi, Hyung-Jai & Joesch, Jutta M. & Lundberg, Shelly, 2008. "Sons, daughters, wives, and the labour market outcomes of West German men," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 795-811, October.
    3. Gunnar Andersson & Karsten Hank & Andres Vikat, 2006. "Understanding parental gender preferences in advanced societies: lessons from Sweden and Finland," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2006-019, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    4. Elizabeth O. Ananat & Guy Michaels, 2008. "The Effect of Marital Breakup on the Income Distribution of Women with Children," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(3), pages 611-629.
    5. Karsten Hank & Hans-Peter Kohler, 2002. "Gender preferences for children revisited: new evidence from Germany," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2002-017, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    6. Laura Giuliano, 2007. "The Demand for Sons or the Demand for Fathers? Understanding the Effects of Child Gender on Divorce Rates," Working Papers 0724, University of Miami, Department of Economics.
    7. Zurab Abramishvili & William Appleman & Sergii Maksymovych, 2019. "Parental Gender Preference in the Balkans and Scandinavia: Gender Bias or Differential Costs?," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp643, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    8. Andrew Leigh, 2009. "Does child gender affect marital status? Evidence from Australia," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(2), pages 351-366, April.
    9. Lundberg, Shelly, 2005. "The Division of Labor by New Parents: Does Child Gender Matter?," IZA Discussion Papers 1787, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Gunnar Andersson & Karsten Hank & Andres Vikat, 2007. "Understanding parental gender preferences in advanced societies: Lessons from Sweden and Finland," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 17(6), pages 135-156.
    11. Martin Kolk & Karim Jebari, 2022. "Sex Selection for Daughters: Demographic Consequences of Female-Biased Sex Ratios," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(4), pages 1619-1639, August.
    12. Filmer, Deon & Friedman, Jed & Schady, Norbert, 2008. "Development, modernization, and son preference in fertility decisions," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4716, The World Bank.
    13. Michał Myck & Monika Oczkowska & Izabela Wowczko, 2024. "Parental gender preferences in Central and Eastern Europe and differential early life disadvantages," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(1), pages 237-263, January.
    14. Edith Gray & Ann Evans & Jon Anderson & Rebecca Kippen, 2010. "Using Split-Population Models to Examine Predictors of the Probability and Timing of Parity Progression," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 26(3), pages 275-295, August.
    15. Dalton Conley & Emily Rauscher, 2010. "The Effect of Daughters on Partisanship," NBER Working Papers 15873, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Eleonora Mussino & Vitor Miranda & Li Ma, 2019. "Transition to third birth among immigrant mothers in Sweden: Does having two daughters accelerate the process?," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 81-109, June.
    17. Diane Coffey & Ashwini Deshpande & Jeffrey Hammer & Dean Spears, 2019. "Local Social Inequality, Economic Inequality, and Disparities in Child Height in India," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1427-1452, August.
    18. Ahrens, Jan-Philipp & Landmann, Andreas & Woywode, Michael, 2015. "Gender preferences in the CEO successions of family firms: Family characteristics and human capital of the successor," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 86-103.
    19. Nandita Saikia & Moradhvaj & Jayanta Kumar Bora, 2016. "Gender Difference in Health-Care Expenditure: Evidence from India Human Development Survey," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(7), pages 1-15, July.
    20. Yuval Mazar & Uri Zilber, 2019. "Brothers vs. Sisters: The Effect of Siblings' Gender on an Individual's Labor Market Performance," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2019.16, Bank of Israel.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Denmark; Finland; Norway; Sweden; sex preference;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    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:dem:wpaper:wp-2004-019. 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: Peter Wilhelm (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    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.