Life and Death under Son Preference: Economic stress, Fertility and Early-life Mortality in Rural Spain,1800-1910

Francisco Marco-Gracia, Francisco Beltrán Tapia and Víctor A. Luque de Haro
Additional contact information
Víctor A. Luque de Haro: University of Almería

No 240, Working Papers from European Historical Economics Society (EHES)

Abstract: Relying on longitudinal micro data from 13 Spanish rural villages between 1800 and 1910, this paper assesses whether discriminatory practices affected fertility and sex-specific mor- tality during infancy and childhood during economic crises in an area with a strong preference for sons. Our contribution is twofold. On the one hand, there is a connection between short- term economic stress, fertility, and sex ratios at baptism: high-price years were followed by a decline in the number of registered baptisms and by an increase of the sex ratios at baptism. These results therefore suggest that families mortally neglected a significant fraction of their female babies during economic crises. On the other hand, there is a connection between short- term economic stress, mortality, and sex ratios at death. Using death registers further supports this interpretation, since our evidence shows that the female biological advantage was not visible after an economic shock. In addition, gender discriminatory practices against girls during bad years seem to have compensated the male vulnerability at older ages as well.

Keywords: Economic crises; sex ratios; gender discrimination; infant and child mortality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J11 J13 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2023-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.ehes.org/wp/EHES_240.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:hes:wpaper:0240

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from European Historical Economics Society (EHES) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Paul Sharp (pauls@sam.sdu.dk).