Explaining son preference in rural India: the independent role of structural versus individual factors

Much research has been done on demographic manifestations of son preference, particularly girls’ excess mortality; however, there is less research that focuses on son preference itself. This paper analyzes the determinants of son preference in rural India. We separate the independent, relative effects of characteristics of individual women and their households, village opportunities for women and village development, and social norms. We look at both socioeconomic and sociocultural variables. Finally, we examine whether predictors of son preference differ by desired family size. Our data come from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) India, 1992–1993. We use an ordered logit model, with dummy variables for state of residence. Our analysis shows that women’s education, particularly at secondary and higher levels, is consistently and significantly associated with weaker son preference, regardless of desired family size. Once factors measuring social norms, such as marriage customs, caste and religion, are included, economic wealth and women’s employment at household or village levels are not significant. Media access remains significant, suggesting an influence of “modernizing” ideas. Among social factors, caste and religion are associated with son preference but, once state of residence is controlled for, marriage patterns and cultivation patterns are insignificant. The strength and significance for son preference of many determinants differs by desired family size. Our results suggest that policy makers seeking to influence son preference need to identify and target different policy levers to women in different fertility and social contexts, rather than try an approach of one size that fits all.     

The Decline of Son Preference in South Korea: The Roles of Development and Public Policy

For years, sex ratios at birth kept rising in South Korea despite rapid development. We show that this was not an anomaly: underlying son preference fell with development, but the effect of son preference on sex ratios at birth rose until the mid‐1990s as a result of improved sex‐selection technology. Now South Korea leads Asia with a declining sex ratio at birth. We explore how son preference was affected by development and by public policy. Decomposition analysis indicates that development reduced son preference primarily through triggering normative changes across society—rather than just in individuals whose socioeconomic circumstances had changed. The cultural underpinnings of son preference in preindustrial Korea were unraveled by industrialization and urbanization even as public policies sought to uphold the patriarchal family system. Our results suggest that child sex ratios in China and India may decline before those countries reach South Korean levels of development, since the governments of both countries vigorously promote normative change to reduce son preference.     

Mapping the diversity of gender preferences and sex imbalances in Indonesia in 2010

Indonesia is usually viewed as a country free of the acute forms of gender discrimination observed elsewhere in East or South Asia, a situation often ascribed to Indonesia's bilateral kinship system. I re-examine this hypothesis by focusing on ethnic and regional variations in sex differentials. New indicators of marriage practices and gender bias derived from 2010 census microdata highlight the presence of patrilocal patterns as well as a distinct presence of son preference in fertility behaviour in many parts of the archipelago. I also present evidence for excessive child sex ratios and excess mortality of females in some areas that appear to be related to son preference and patrilocal residence systems. The findings confirm the association between son preference, sex differentials in mortality, prenatal sex selection, and kinship systems. I conclude with a more regional perspective on demographic vulnerability of females, distinguishing bilateral South East Asia from more patrilineal Melanesia.     

婚姻形式与男孩偏好:对中国农村三个县的考察

应用在招赘婚姻高度流行区、中度流行区和低度流行区的调查数据 ,本文研究了严格生育控制下婚姻形式以及个人、家庭和社会因素对男孩偏好的影响及其区域差异。研究发现 ,嫁娶婚姻的生育行为有明显的男孩偏好倾向 ,而招赘婚姻的生育行为则不存在性别偏好 ;男孩偏好存在显著的区域差异 ,招赘婚姻的流行显著降低了当地的男孩偏好水平。研究结果为政府在农村降低男孩偏好水平、稳定低生育率提供了新的思路和途径     

“男孩偏好”的家族制度影响研究

本文根据2010年中国人民大学“家庭及生育状况研究调查”数据,分析我国农村广泛存在的家族制度对男孩偏好的影响。结论认为,家族制度约束力的三个部分：宗族势力、婚嫁模式和传宗接代观念对男孩偏好具有显著影响。其中,婚嫁模式对男孩偏好的影响程度最高。     

Preference for Boys,Family Size,and Educational Attainment in India

Using data from nationally representative household surveys, we test whether Indian parents make trade-offs between the number of children and investments in education. To address the endogeneity due to the joint determination of quantity and quality of children, we instrument family size with the gender of the first child, which is plausibly random. Given a strong son preference in India, parents tend to have more children if the firstborn is a girl. Our instrumental variable results show that children from larger families have lower educational attainment and are less likely to be enrolled in school, with larger effects for rural, poorer, and low-caste families as well as for families with illiterate mothers.     

Mother's education and effect of son preference on fertility in Matlab,Bangladesh

This analysis follows earlier research that hypothesized and substantiated that, in a society with strong son preference, its effect on fertility would be conditional on the level of contraceptive use. Present analysis of the prospective fertility experience of 22,819 women of reproductive age during 3.5 years in Matlab, Bangladesh, shows that this effect is higher among mothers with postprimary schooling versus those with primary or no education. The higher effect conforms with the known positive relationship of contraceptive use with maternal schooling. However, this increase when contrasted with the idea that education promotes modern values, including gender equality, suggests that education in Matlab, with its traditional slant, is not resistant to son preference. In a poor, traditional society with low status for women, schooling alone is not enough to motivate women to abandon low esteem for daughters though schooling promotes child survival. But if preference for smaller family size increases, promoted by education including such modern values as gender equality, then sex preference, although it cannot be completely removed, will have minimal effect on fertility as in most developed countries.Abbreviations DSS demographic surveillance system - ICDDR,B International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh - MCH-FP maternal/child health and family planning - SPEF sex preference effect on fertility     

Explaining religious differentials in family-size preference: Evidence from Nepal in 1996

We examine how religio-ethnic identity, individual religiosity, and family members' religiosity were related to preferred family size in Nepal in 1996. Analyses of survey data from the Chitwan Valley Family Study show that socio-economic characteristics and individual experiences can suppress, as well as largely account for, religio-ethnic differences in fertility preference. These religio-ethnic differentials are associated with variance in particularized theologies or general value orientations (like son preference) across groups. In addition, individual and family religiosity are both positively associated with preferred family size, seemingly because of their association with religious beliefs—beliefs that are likely to shape fertility strategies. These findings suggest the need for improvements in how we conceptualize and measure supra-individual religious influence in a variety of settings and for a range of demographically interesting outcomes.     

Empirically probing the quantity–quality model

This paper etimates the causal effects of family size on girls’ education in Mexico, exploiting prenatal son preference as a source of random variation in the propensity to have more children within an instrumental variables framework. It finds no evidence of family size having an adverse effect on education. The paper then weakens the identification assumption and allows for the possibility that the instrument is invalid. It finds that the effects of family size on girls’ schooling remain extremely modest at most. Families that are relatively large compensate for reduced per-child resources by increasing maternal labour supply.     

Son preference, sex selection, and kinship in Vietnam

This article examines the recent rise in the sex ratio at birth in Vietnam and relates its emergence to kinship systems and ethnic composition using 2009 census micro-data. Presentation of the main socioeconomic and ethnic differentials in birth masculinity is followed by a review of the three intermediate factors leading to increases in the sex ratio at birth: prenatal technology, declining fertility, and gender bias. An indirect measurement of fertility behavior is used to demonstrate the close association between levels of the sex ratio at birth and the intensity of son preference. Data on household composition indicate that Vietnam is characterized by the co-existence of kinship patterns typical of East and Southeast Asia. Son preference in Vietnam is found to be related to the prevalence of more traditional patrilineal systems. The article concludes by considering the implications of the cultural dimensions of prenatal sex selection for policy responses and for the likely future change in the sex ratio at birth.     

现代夫妻关系对妇女男孩偏好的影响

在影响妇女男孩偏好的因素中，夫妻关系是非常重要的一个方面。文章利用中国人民大学人口与发展研究中心2010年在浙江、湖北和河北3个省份开展的“农村妇女家庭及生育状况”专题调查数据，运用回归模型分析了现代夫妻关系对妇女男孩偏好的影响。研究发现，目前我国的夫妻关系表现出明显的现代特征，而且现代夫妻关系对妇女的男孩偏好起着弱化的作用。家庭地位高、权力资源丰富、对丈夫家依赖程度较低的妇女，她们的男孩偏好比较弱。     

同胞数量与教育获得的性别差异

同胞数量对教育获得的影响存在性别差异，对女性影响较大，对男性没有统计上的影响。在国家强调教育公平的时期，同胞效应的性别差异较小；在强调效率的时期，性别差异较大。在农村，同胞效应的性别差异要高于城镇。从同胞构成来看，对女性教育获得影响最大的是弟的数量。研究表明，同胞效应产生的主要原因是家庭预算约束和性别偏好。     

The Study on the Relationship of the Weakening Son Preferenceand Social Economic Development in China

With the aging of population,the academic researches tend to focus on the size, structure, quality of the labor forces. This article, based on the data of 2012 CLDS, describes demographically the employment status of China＇s labor force by four types： employee,employer, self- employed and farming and analyzes the variations in the indicators of the 4 types employment status, such as human capital,working hours,work sites,income,social security, job evaluation and work values and identity of social class, etc. Understanding these variations is a great significance to the proper labor policy-making.     

社会经济发展与男孩偏好的淡化

本文利用2010年中国人民大学育龄妇女家庭与生育状况调查数据,对男孩偏好弱化现象及导致男孩偏好弱化的社会经济因素进行了研究。研究发现,农业技术和生产工具的进步、农村家庭收入来源中非农收入比例的提高、男孩较高的养育成本、社会保障的完善和人口流动性的增加所导致的人们对“养儿防老”预期的降低以及住房、交通条件的改善等一系列社会经济变化的共同作用,使人们的男孩偏好逐步淡化。     

Fertility,Education, and Development: Evidence from India

Fertility has declined significantly in many parts of India since the early 1980s. This article examines the determinants of fertility levels and fertility decline, using data on Indian districts for 1981 and 1991. The authors find that women's education and child mortality are the most important factors explaining fertility differences across the country and over time. Low levels of son preference also contribute to lower fertility. By contrast, general indicators of modernization and development such as urbanization, poverty reduction, and male literacy exhibit no significant association with fertility. En passant, the authors probe a subject of much confusion— the relation between fertility decline and gender bias.     

流动经历对农民男孩偏好的影响

以往关于迁移流动对出生孩子性别比或性别偏好的研究至少有两个不足:一是很少将流迁人口与原居住地非流迁人口的生育行为和生育意愿进行比较;二是只考察了迁移流动对性别偏好方向的影响而没有考虑性别偏好的强度。本文设计了测量男孩偏好强度的男孩偏好强度指数,通过实地调查收集资料,并运用多元回归分析对调查资料进行分析,结果表明,在控制了主要迁移选择性变量后,流动经历能明显降低农村人口男孩偏好强度。研究结果支持适应假说。     

Son preference, use of maternal health care, and infant mortality in rural China, 1989-2000

This study assesses the effects of socio-economic conditions and the interaction between son preference and China's one-child family planning policy on the use of maternal health care services and their effects on infant mortality in rural China, using nationally representative data from the 2001 National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Survey. The results show that while the use of maternal health care services has continued to increase over time, large gaps still exist in the use of these services and in infant survival by mother's education, community income, and parity. Further improvements in the reproductive health of all women and in infant survival will require effective reduction of the obstacles to the use of maternal health care among those women in rural China who are less educated, poor, and of higher parity.     

Household extension of the elderly in China

Using data from a 1987 elderly survey, this study examines demographic and socioeconomic characteristics as well as expressed preferences for the patrilineal extended family as factors affecting coresidence among Chinese elderly. Consistent with expectations, three quarters of the elderly live with their children and the overwhelming majority of extended households are with a married son and grandchildren. This study contributes to the literature on Asian developing nations by illustrating the role of a government supported pension system in explaining prior perplexing results for urbanization, by documenting the role of preferences for the patrilineal extended family and by exploring earlier suggestions that factors vary by marital status. The greater vulnerability of widowed elderly is shown not only by higher rates of coresidence, but also by interactive effects with economic resources, age and number of sons.     

Does son preference influence children's growth in height? A comparative study of Chinese and Filipino children

Research has demonstrated that son preference has a serious impact on the survival and well-being of female infants and children in some parts of South and East Asia, but little is known about the consequences of son preference in later childhood and adolescence. We compare children's growth trajectories in height over childhood and adolescence in China, where the level of son preference is relatively high, and the Philippines, where it is relatively low. Children's height reflects long-term nutritional status and exposure to infectious diseases, both influenced by household decision-making and, presumably, by a preference for sons. Using data from two high-quality longitudinal studies and multilevel growth models, we find that male children in China show an additional height advantage relative to their female counterparts, when compared to the sex difference in growth trajectories in the Philippines. Further analysis reveals that the additional advantage of males in China is stronger in rural areas.     

Education Gains Attributable to Fertility Decline: Patterns by Gender,Period, and Country in Latin America and Asia

We investigate the heterogeneity across countries and time in the relationship between mother’s fertility and children’s educational attainment—the quantity-quality (Q-Q) trade-off—by using census data from 17 countries in Asia and Latin America, with data from each country spanning multiple census years. For each country-year, we estimate micro-level instrumental variables models predicting secondary school attainment using number of siblings of the child, instrumented by the sex composition of the first two births in the family. We then analyze correlates of Q-Q trade-off patterns across countries. On average, one additional sibling in the family reduces the probability of secondary education by 6 percentage points for girls and 4 percentage points for boys. This Q-Q trade-off is significantly associated with the level of son preference, slightly decreasing over time and with fertility, but it does not significantly differ by educational level of the country.