On some probability distributions for forward birth interval |
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Authors: | Michael Altmann |
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Institution: | Div. of Health Computer Sciences , University of Minnesota , Box 511 UMHC, Minneapolis, MN, 55455 |
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Abstract: | Parents’ decisions to have children are modeled by a simple stopping rule that describes the probability of having another child as a function of the number of boys and girls already born to the parents. Because the stopping rule depends on the sex of the offspring, the rule may introduce a correlation between sex of offspring and the number of siblings the offspring has. When this is coupled with a correlation between number of siblings and well‐being, a correlation between sex and well‐being may emerge despite equal treatment of the two sexes within each family. The author provides sufficient conditions on a stopping rule for it to be sexist in the sense that the average well‐being of one sex is higher than that of the other sex. |
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Keywords: | stopping rule offspring family size sex ratio |
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