Child-specific son preference, birth order and cognitive skills in early childhood

Cara Ebert and Sebastian Vollmer

No 264, Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers from Courant Research Centre PEG

Abstract: We propose an innovative child-specific measure of son preference. It allows to explicitly address birth order and sex composition effects. We first establish that, when using this child-specific measure, son preference is more common among later born children and in families with fewer sons. We then study the son preference-specific girl-penalty in early cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Son preferences have adverse effects on cognitive and language skills of two-year-old girls at higher birth orders, for girls with sisters and for girls of mothers with a high number of desired sons.

Keywords: son preferences; gender discrimination; early childhood; cognitive and non-cognitive skills (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J13 J16 J24 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:got:gotcrc:264

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