Patrilocality and Child Sex Ratios in India

Srinivas Goli, Somya Arora (), Neha Jain () and Sekher T. V. ()
Additional contact information
Somya Arora: The University of South Australia (UniSA)
Neha Jain: Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT)
Sekher T. V.: International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Population Research and Policy Review, 2024, vol. 43, issue 4, No 8, 28 pages

Abstract: Abstract In multi-level and multi-layered foundations of gendered approaches for understanding the kinship system, family-building behavior, son preference, and male-skewed child sex ratios in India; patriarchy and patrilineality have received greater attention than patrilocality. To fill this gap, we construct a measure of patrilocality and hypothesize that households practice sex selection and daughter discrimination because of patrilocality norms that dictate the later life co-residence between parents and sons. Our findings reveal that the child sex ratio, sex ratio at birth, and sex ratio at last birth are negatively correlated with patrilocality rates across states and districts of India. The robustness of these findings is verified by using alternative definitions of patrilocality, examining the association between patrilocality and patrilineality, and assessing the relationship between patrilocality and child sex ratios across states and by urbanization levels. We conclude that, in the absence of strong social security measures and a lack of preference for old-age homes, amidst the accepted practice of patrilocality coupled with increasingly lower fertility norms, the dependency on sons will continue, leading to the continuation of sex selection in India.

Keywords: Child sex ratios; Sex ratio at birth; Gender; Patriarchy; Patrilocality; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11113-024-09897-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Patrilocality and Child Sex Ratios in India (2022)
Working Paper: Patrilocality and Child Sex Ratios in India (2022)
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:kap:poprpr:v:43:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s11113-024-09897-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... es/journal/11113/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11113-024-09897-0

Access Statistics for this article

Population Research and Policy Review is currently edited by D.A. Swanson

More articles in Population Research and Policy Review from Springer, Southern Demographic Association (SDA)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().