Segregation, fertility, and son preference: the case of the Roma in Serbia

Marianna Battaglia, Bastien Chabé-Ferret () and Lara Lebedinski

JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, 2021, vol. 87, issue 2, 233-260

Abstract: We study the link between residential segregation and fertility for the socially excluded and marginalized Roma ethnic minority. Using original survey data we collected in Serbia, we investigate whether fertility differs between ethnically homogeneous and mixed neighborhoods. Our results show that Roma in less-segregated areas tend to have significantly fewer children (around 0.8). Most of the difference arises from Roma in less-segregated areas waiting substantially more after having a boy than their counterparts in more-segregated areas. We exploit variation in the share of Serbian sounding first names to provide evidence that a mechanism at play is a shift in preferences toward lower fertility and sons rather than daughters induced by a higher exposure to the Serbian majority culture.

Keywords: Culture; Ethnic minority; Fertility; Residential segregation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J15 R23 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-06-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Journal Article: Segregation, fertility, and son preference: the case of the Roma in Serbia (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctl:louvde:v:87:y:2021:i:2:p:233-260

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