Counting missing women: A reconciliation of the "flow measure" and the "stock measure"

Cara Ebert, Stephan Klasen and Sebastian Vollmer

No 924, Ruhr Economic Papers from RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen

Abstract: Existing estimates of the 'tock of missing women' suggest that the problem is mostly concentrated in South and East Asia, and often related to sex-selective abortions and postbirth neglect of female children. In contrast, estimates of yearly excess female deaths, referred to as the 'flow of missing women', suggest that gender bias in mortality is much larger than previously found (about 4 to 5 million excess female deaths per year vs. around 100 million missing women in total), is as severe among adults as it is among children in India, and is larger in Sub-Saharan Africa than in South and East Asia. We argue that these findings largely rely on the choice of the reference standard for sex-specific mortality and an incomplete correction for different disease environments in the flow measure. When alternative reference standards are used, the results of the flow measure can be reconciled with previous findings of the stock measure.

Keywords: Missing women; gender bias; mortality; disease; age; Sub-Saharan Africa; China; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 I10 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen and nep-hea
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Related works:
Working Paper: Counting Missing Women – A Reconciliation of the 'Flow Measure' and the 'Stock Measure' (2022)
Working Paper: Counting Missing Women - A Reconciliation of the 'Flow Measure' and the 'Stock Measure' (2022)
Working Paper: Counting missing women: A reconciliation of the "flow measure" and the "stock measure" (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:rwirep:924

DOI: 10.4419/96973080

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