Ten Facts about Son Preference in India

Seema Jayachandran

No 31883, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This article discusses son preference in India, including both greater investment in sons and the fertility preference for sons. Regarding differential investment, I focus on child health and show that gender gaps in inputs and outcomes have narrowed in recent years. Nonetheless, girls remain disadvantaged in important ways, and making health services free is unlikely to be enough to close these remaining gaps. In addition to gender gaps, there are also stark health gaps between eldest sons, whom parents favor, and other sons. Fertility preferences likewise center on eldest sons. The desire to have at least one son — who can fill that eldest son role in the family — drives the skewed sex ratio, and this preference shows little sign of abating. In fact, the downward trend in family size is exacerbating how the desire for a son translates into sex-selection. Families’ quest for a son also imposes collateral damage on sisters’ health. The policy challenge, particularly around reducing the desire for sons, is large. Empowering women is not a panacea, and offering financial incentives to have daughters risks further concentrating girls in poorer families. While we do not know which policies will erase the disadvantages girls face, some that might advance this goal are public pensions as an alternative to old-age support from sons, increased delivery of health services through schools, and norm-change interventions that aim to increase the intrinsic value that Indian families place on girls.

JEL-codes: J13 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: CH DEV
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w31883.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html. Free access is also available to older working papers.

Related works:
Journal Article: Ten Facts About Son Preference in India (2024)
Working Paper: Ten Facts About Son Preference in India (2024)
Working Paper: Ten Facts about Son Preference in India (2023)
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:nbr:nberwo:31883

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w31883
The price is Paper copy available by mail.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().