Child Gender and Parental Investments in India: Are Boys and Girls Treated Differently?

Silvia Barcellos, Leandro Carvalho and Adriana Lleras-Muney

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2014, vol. 6, issue 1, 157-89

Abstract: Previous research has not always found that boys and girls are treated differently in rural India. However estimates of the effect of gender on parental investments could be biased if girls end up in larger families due to son-biased stopping rules. Using a novel identification strategy that exploits that gender at conception is random, we document that boys receive more childcare time than girls, they are breastfed longer and they get more vitamin supplementation. Compared to other developing countries, boys have an advantage in height and weight relative to girls. Neither greater needs nor anticipated family size explain the results.

JEL-codes: J12 J13 J16 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
Note: DOI: 10.1257/app.6.1.157
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (196)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/app.6.1.157 (application/pdf)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/app/app/0601/2012-0153_app.pdf (application/pdf)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/app/data/0601/2012-0153_data.zip (application/zip)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/app/ds/0601/2012-0153_ds.zip (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Child Gender And Parental Investments In India: Are Boys And Girls Treated Differently? (2012)
Working Paper: Child Gender and Parental Investments in India Are Boys and Girls Treated Differently? (2010)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:6:y:2014:i:1:p:157-89

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics is currently edited by Alexandre Mas

More articles in American Economic Journal: Applied Economics from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().