Deadly Discrimination: Implications of "Missing Girls" for Workplace Safety

Zhibo Tan, Shang-Jin Wei and Xiaobo Zhang

No 28830, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We examine an indirect but potentially deadly consequence of the “missing girls” phenomenon. A shortage of brides causes many parents with sons of marriageable age to work harder and seek higher-paying but potentially dangerous jobs. In response, employers invest less in workplace safety, which in turn increases work-related mortality. Drawing from a broad range of data sets and taking advantage of large regional and temporal variations in sex ratios in China, we demonstrate that in areas with a more severe shortage of young women, the parents with unmarried sons suffer a significantly higher incidence of accidental injuries and workplace deaths.

JEL-codes: J16 O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-hea and nep-lab
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Published as Tan, Zhibo & Wei, Shang-Jin & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2021. "Deadly discrimination: Implications of “missing girls” for workplace safety," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).

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