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Gender Composition of Children and Sanitation Behavior In India

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  • Deepak Saraswat

    (University of Connecticut)

Abstract

Open Defecation has been linked to various public health issues and has gained significant policy attention. Investing in adoption of better sanitation has also been advocated on the grounds of providing women with privacy and protection from po-tential harassment. Nonetheless, previous research has shown that due to son-biased preferences, households in India under-invest in outcomes for their female children. I use the gender of the first-born child as an indicator of the presence of adult female children in households and find that, in certain cases, households reduce open defeca-tion if the first-born child is a girl. The findings in this paper provide a new first stage association between gender composition of children and sanitation behavior and also contribute to the economic literature on decision making in households belonging to developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Deepak Saraswat, 2018. "Gender Composition of Children and Sanitation Behavior In India," Working papers 2018-12, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:uct:uconnp:2018-12
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sanitation; Open Defecation; Gender Composition of Children; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

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