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  3. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
  4. January 2017
  5. Fertility Decline and Missing Women

American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics

ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)

Fertility Decline and Missing Women

  • Seema Jayachandran
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
vol. 9, no. 1, January 2017
(pp. 118–39)
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Abstract

The desire for smaller families is conjectured as one reason the male-to-female sex ratio has increased with economic development in several countries. Families that strongly want at least one son are less likely to obtain him by chance at low fertility, which could increase their use of sex-selective abortion. This paper quantifies the relationship between desired fertility and the sex ratio in India by eliciting sex composition preferences at specified fertility levels. I find that the desired sex ratio increases sharply as fertility falls and that fertility decline explains one third to one half of India's recent sex ratio increase.

Citation

Jayachandran, Seema. 2017. "Fertility Decline and Missing Women." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 9 (1): 118–39. DOI: 10.1257/app.20150576

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • I21 Analysis of Education
  • J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
  • J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
  • O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
  • O18 Economic Development: Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
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