On the Quantity and Quality of Girls: Fertility, Parental Investments and Mortality

TY - JOUR

T1 - On the Quantity and Quality of Girls: Fertility, Parental Investments and Mortality

AU - Anukriti, S

AU - Bhalotra, Sonia

AU - Tam, Eddy H F

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Royal Economic Society. Published by Oxford University Press.

PY - 2022/1/7

Y1 - 2022/1/7

N2 - Access to prenatal sex-detection technology in India has led to a phenomenal increase in abortion of girls. We find that it has also narrowed the gender gap in under-five mortality, consistent with surviving girls being more wanted than aborted girls. For every three aborted girls, one additional girl survived to age five. Mechanisms include moderation of son-biased fertility stopping and narrowing of gender gaps in parental investments. However, surviving girls are more likely to be born in lower-status families. Our findings have implications not only for counts of missing girls but also for the later life outcomes of girls.

AB - Access to prenatal sex-detection technology in India has led to a phenomenal increase in abortion of girls. We find that it has also narrowed the gender gap in under-five mortality, consistent with surviving girls being more wanted than aborted girls. For every three aborted girls, one additional girl survived to age five. Mechanisms include moderation of son-biased fertility stopping and narrowing of gender gaps in parental investments. However, surviving girls are more likely to be born in lower-status families. Our findings have implications not only for counts of missing girls but also for the later life outcomes of girls.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85143174748&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1093/ej/ueab035

DO - 10.1093/ej/ueab035

M3 - Article

SN - 0013-0133

VL - 132

SP - 1

EP - 36

JO - Economic Journal

JF - Economic Journal

IS - 641

ER -