IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/glodps/1664.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Factories and Fertility: The Impact of Manufacturing Growth on Son Preference

Author

Listed:
  • Bhukta, Rikhia

Abstract

This paper investigates the unintended gendered effects of manufacturing growth in India, focusing on son preference. For identification, I leverage a place-based tax exemption policy under the Finance Act of 1994, which incentivized manufacturing sector investments in backward districts, and employ a regression discontinuity design using three nationally representative datasets. Results show increases in women's stated son preference, likelihood of having at least one son, and son-to-daughter ratios. Higher son preference is mediated through male-biased employment gains in the manufacturing sector, stagnant female employment, reinforced patriarchal gender norms, and dowry inflation. The findings underscore that not all drivers of structural transformation benefit women, as gender norms shape who gains from growth. By documenting these spillovers, this study broadens the understanding of manufacturing policies and their social costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Bhukta, Rikhia, 2025. "Factories and Fertility: The Impact of Manufacturing Growth on Son Preference," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1664, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:1664
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/325472/1/GLO-DP-1664.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • O25 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Industrial Policy
    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy

    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:zbw:glodps:1664. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/glabode.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.