Religion and Abortion: The Role of Politician Identity

Sonia Bhalotra, Irma Clots-Figueras and Lakshmi Iyer
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Sonia Bhalotra: University of Warwick

CAGE Online Working Paper Series from Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE)

Abstract: Debates around abortion typically invoke religion and politics but there is no causal evidence of the impact of politician religion on abortion. Leveraging quasi-random variation in politician religion generated by close elections in India and controlling for the party affiliation of politicians, we find lower rates of sex-selective abortion in districts won by Muslim state legislators, consistent with a higher reported aversion to abortion among Muslims compared to Hindus. The competing hypothesis that this reflects weaker son preference among Muslims is undermined by stated preference data and by demonstrating that fertility and girl-biased infant mortality increase in Muslim-won districts.

Keywords: religion; politician identity; abortion; sex-selection; India; gender JEL Classification: I15; J13; O15; P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/c ... tions/wp582.2021.pdf

Related works:
Journal Article: Religion and abortion: The role of politician identity (2021)
Working Paper: Religion and Abortion: The Role of Politician Identity (2021)
Working Paper: Religion and abortion: The role of politician identity (2021)
Working Paper: Religion and Abortion: The Role of Politician Identity (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cge:wacage:582

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