IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/18679.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Son Preference, Sex Selection and Economic Development: The Case of South Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Lena Edlund
  • Chulhee Lee

Abstract

Sex ratios at birth in South Korea reached 116.5 boys per 100 girls in 1990, but have since declined. In 2007, sex ratios were almost normal, a development heralded as a sign that son preference and sex choice have vanished. However, normal sex ratios imply neither. We show that over the last 60 years, the relationship between sex ratios and parental status changed from negative to positive. This pattern, we argue, is consistent with a model where parents prefer sons and sex select - ultrasound and economic development accounting for the change in who chooses sons.

Suggested Citation

  • Lena Edlund & Chulhee Lee, 2013. "Son Preference, Sex Selection and Economic Development: The Case of South Korea," NBER Working Papers 18679, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18679
    Note: CH
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w18679.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sylvie Dubuc & David Coleman, 2007. "An Increase in the Sex Ratio of Births to India‐born Mothers in England and Wales: Evidence for Sex‐Selective Abortion," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 33(2), pages 383-400, June.
    2. Hisam Kim, 2010. "Intergenerational Transfers and Old-Age Security in Korea," NBER Chapters, in: The Economic Consequences of Demographic Change in East Asia, pages 227-278, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Ito, Takatoshi & Rose, Andrew K. (ed.), 2010. "The Economic Consequences of Demographic Change in East Asia," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226386850, December.
    4. 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.
    5. Lena Edlund, 2005. "Sex and the City," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 107(1), pages 25-44, March.
    6. Takatoshi Ito & Andrew Rose, 2010. "The Economic Consequences of Demographic Change in East Asia," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number ito_08-2, March.
    7. Woojin Chung & Monica Das Gupta, 2007. "The Decline of Son Preference in South Korea: The Roles of Development and Public Policy," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 33(4), pages 757-783, December.
    8. Jinyoung Kim, 2005. "Sex selection and fertility in a dynamic model of conception and abortion," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 18(1), pages 41-67, January.
    9. Lena Edlund & Evelyn Korn, 2002. "A Theory of Prostitution," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(1), pages 181-214, February.
    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. Kim, Kyeongkuk & Lee, Sang-Hyop & Halliday, Timothy J., 2021. "Intra-familial transfers, son preference, and retirement behavior in South Korea," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    2. Brian Beach & Martin Saavedra, 2015. "Mitigating the Effects of Low Birth Weight: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Adoptees," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 1(3), pages 275-296, Summer.
    3. Shang-Jin Wei & Xiaobo Zhang, 2011. "Sex Ratios, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Growth in the People's Republic of China," NBER Working Papers 16800, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Hwang, Jisoo & Lee, Chulhee & Lee, Esther, 2019. "Gender norms and housework time allocation among dual-earner couples," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 102-116.
    5. Pauline Grosjean & Rose Khattar, 2014. "It's Raining Men! Hallelujah?," Discussion Papers 2014-29B, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    6. Rossi, Pauline & Rouanet, Léa, 2015. "Gender Preferences in Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Fertility Choices," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 326-345.
    7. Esther Duflo, 2012. "Women Empowerment and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1051-1079, December.
    8. Douglas Almond & Lena Edlund & Kevin Milligan, 2009. "O Sister, Where Art Thou? The Role of Son Preference and Sex Choice: Evidence from Immigrants to Canada," NBER Working Papers 15391, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Shang-Jin Wei & Xiaobo Zhang & Yin Liu, 2012. "Status Competition and Housing Prices," NBER Working Papers 18000, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Seik Kim & Sam-Ho Lee, 2020. "Son Preference and Fertility Decisions: Evidence From Spatiotemporal Variation in Korea," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(3), pages 927-951, June.
    11. Matthias Doepke & Michèle Tertilt & Alessandra Voena, 2012. "The Economics and Politics of Women's Rights," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 339-372, July.
    12. Giyeon Seo & Tanya Koropeckyj‐Cox & Sanghag Kim, 2022. "Correlates of Contemporary Gender Preference for Children in South Korea," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 48(1), pages 161-188, March.
    13. 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.
    14. James Bisbee & Rajeev Dehejia & Cristian Pop-Eleches & Cyrus Samii, 2017. "Local Instruments, Global Extrapolation: External Validity of the Labor Supply-Fertility Local Average Treatment Effect," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(S1), pages 99-147.
    15. Tatiana Damjanovic & Geethanjali Selvaretnam, 2020. "Economic Growth and Evolution of Gender Equality," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 88(1), pages 1-36, January.
    16. Pauline Grosjean & Rose Khattar, 2014. "It's Raining Men! Hallelujah?," Discussion Papers 2014-29A, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    17. Pauline Grosjean & Rose Khattar, 2014. "It's Raining Men! Hallelujah?," Discussion Papers 2014-29C, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    18. Eleanor Jawon Choi & Jisoo Hwang, 2020. "Transition of Son Preference: Evidence From South Korea," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(2), pages 627-652, April.
    19. Yong‐Woo Lee, 2022. "How do changes to parental job insecurity affect children's health?," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(1), pages 5-24, January.
    20. Anna‐Maria Aksan, 2022. "Son preference and the demographic transition," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 32-56, February.
    21. Pauline Grosjean & Rose Khattar, 2014. "It's Raining Men! Hallelujah?," Discussion Papers 2014-29, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.

    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. S. Anukriti, 2013. "The Fertility-Sex Ratio Tradeoff: Unintended Consequences of Financial Incentives," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 827, Boston College Department of Economics.
    2. Seungho LeeMA & Inhoe KuPhD & Byongdon ShonPhD, 2019. "The Effects of Old-Age Public Transfer on the Well-Being of Older Adults: The Case of Social Pension in South Korea," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 74(3), pages 506-515.
    3. Sen Ma & Fangqi Wen, 2016. "Who Coresides With Parents? An Analysis Based on Sibling Comparative Advantage," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(3), pages 623-647, June.
    4. Adserà, Alícia & Ferrer, Ana M., 2016. "Speeding up for a son? Fertility transitions among Asian migrants to Canada," CLEF Working Paper Series 1, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.
    5. Alexander Stimpfle & David Stadelmann, 2016. "Does Central Europe Import the Missing Women Phenomenon?," CREMA Working Paper Series 2016-04, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    6. Qianqian Shang & Quanbao Jiang & Yongkun Yin, 2022. "How Does Children's Sex Affect Parental Sex Preference: Preference Adaptation and Learning," Working Papers wp2022_2202, CEMFI.
    7. Ana Ferrer & Alicia Adsera, 2016. "Speeding up for a son? Fertility transitions among Migrants to Canada," Working Papers 1602, University of Waterloo, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2016.
    8. Kang-Rae Ma, 2016. "Intergenerational Transmission of Wealth and Life Satisfaction," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 11(4), pages 1287-1308, December.
    9. Lei, Xiaoyan & Giles, John & Hu, Yuqing & Park, Albert & Strauss, John & Zhao, Yaohui, 2012. "Patterns and correlates of intergenerational non-time transfers : evidence from CHARLS," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6076, The World Bank.
    10. 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.
    11. Yukawa Shiho, 2015. "Effects of Fatherhood on Male Wage and Labor Supply in Japan," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2), pages 437-474, April.
    12. Giyeon Seo & Tanya Koropeckyj‐Cox & Sanghag Kim, 2022. "Correlates of Contemporary Gender Preference for Children in South Korea," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 48(1), pages 161-188, March.
    13. Kyeongkuk Kim & Sang-Hyop Lee & Timothy J Halliday, 2018. "The Betrayed Generation? Intra-Household Transfers and Retirement Behavior in South Korea," Working Papers 201804, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    14. Kim, Kyeongkuk & Lee, Sang-Hyop & Halliday, Timothy J., 2021. "Intra-familial transfers, son preference, and retirement behavior in South Korea," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    15. Ashwini Deshpande & Apoorva Gupta, 2019. "Nakusha? Son Preference, Resource Concentration and Gender Gaps in Education," Working Papers 1020, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    16. Goli, Srinivas & Arora, Somya & Jain, Neha & Shekher, T V, 2022. "Patrilocality and Child Sex Ratios in India," MPRA Paper 111905, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Uchida, Yuki & Ono, Tetsuo, 2021. "Generational conflict and education politics: Implications for growth and welfare," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    18. Prabir C. Bhattacharya, 2012. "Gender Inequality and the Sex Ratio in Three Emerging Economies," Heriot-Watt University Economics Discussion Papers 1201, Department of Economics, School of Management and Languages, Heriot Watt University.
    19. Elena Nebolsina, 2020. "The Impact of Demographic Burden on Insurance Density," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(4), pages 21582440209, December.
    20. Tien Vu, 2014. "One male offspring preference: evidence from Vietnam using a split-population model," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 689-715, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:nbr:nberwo:18679. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.