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Fertility Decline and Missing Women

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  • Seema Jayachandran

Abstract

This paper empirically measures the relationship between desired fertility and the sex ratio. Standard survey questions on fertility preferences ask the respondent her desired number of children of each sex, but people who want larger families have systematically stronger son preference, which generates bias. This paper instead elicits desired sex composition at specified, randomly determined, levels of total fertility. These data allow one to isolate the causal effect of family size on the desired sex ratio.

Suggested Citation

  • Seema Jayachandran, 2014. "Fertility Decline and Missing Women," Working Papers id:5936, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:5936
    Note: Institutional Papers
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    fertility decline; women; son preference; sex; composition; family size; sex ratio; india;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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

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