Son Preference, Fertility Decline and the Non-Missing Girls of Turkey

Onur Altindag

No 5, Working Papers from City University of New York Graduate Center, Ph.D. Program in Economics

Abstract: Couples in Turkey exhibit son preference through son-biased differential stopping behavior that does not cause a sex ratio imbalance in the population. Demand for sons leads to lower ratios of boys to girls in larger families but higher ratios in smaller families. Girls are born earlier than their male siblings, and son-biased fertility behavior is persistent in response to decline in fertility over time and across households with parents from different backgrounds. Parents use contraceptive methods to halt fertility following a male birth. The sibling sex composition is associated with gender disparities in health. Among third- or later-born children, female infant mortality is 1.5 percentage points lower if the previous sibling is male. The female survival advantage, however, disappears if the previous sibling is female. Having an older female sib- ling shifts the gender gap in infant mortality rate by 2 percentage points in favor of males. The improvement in infant mortality is strongest in favor of males who do not have an older male sibling.

Keywords: Son preference; Differential stopping behavior; Fertility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 J10 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45
Date: 2015-01-15, Revised 2016-03-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara and nep-cwa
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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http://wfs.gc.cuny.edu/Economics/RePEc/cgc/wpaper/CUNYGC-WP005R2.pdf Revised version, July 2015; Second revised version, March 2016 (application/pdf)
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Journal Article: Son Preference, Fertility Decline, and the Nonmissing Girls of Turkey (2016)
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