Some theoretical guidelines, 286. -Evidence: fertility and sex composition, 289.-Would family size change if sex of children were controlled? 297. -Variation in the probability for a boy and the aggregate sex ratio, 299.-Summary, 302.-Appendix, 302.Parents seem to care about the sex of their children, even in an age when equality between the sexes has become a major issue. The demand for methods to control the sex of children is just one manifestation of this interest. Several points and issues are associated with sex preferences, and some have come up in the demographic literature:a. The interest in the sex of children may be rooted in tastes. We may call this sex (gender?) concern. As such, it may be symmetrical people may want to have, for example, at least one boy and one girl or may prefer, in general, balanced composition to an all-boy or all-girl team, thus having a taste for balance.' b. Sex-concern as a taste phenomenon often takes a biased form. The bias may be different for mothers and fathers, 2 and this actually may be one reason why the couple as a unit may present a symmetrical front, but sometimes a boy-bias prevails (for example, "Abu-barutat," the father of daughters, is a common derogatory expression in Arabic). Again, it may take the form of "at least one boy," but in general it need not be absolute and can be one dimension of preferences in which there is some taste for balance. The people who gave us useful comments on this research are too numerous to list individually, but this does not detract from our appreciation. The referees had some particularly helpful comments. We thank Iva Maclennan for programming and research assistance.1. There seems to be attitudinal evidence on preference for balanced sex composition. See, for example, George E. Myers and John Roberts, "A Technique for Measuring Preferential Family Size and Composition," Eugenics Quarterly, XV, No. 3 (1968), 164-72. 2. See, for example, Jeanne E. Clare and Clyde V. Kiser, "Preferences of Children of a Given Sex in Relation to Fertility," Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, XXIX, No. 4 (Oct. 1951), 440-92. at University of Exeter on August 4, 2015 http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from 3. This section gives the gist of arguments presented in detail in Ben-Porath and Welch (op. cit.) and developed further in a paper to be published separately. at University of Exeter on August 4, 2015 http://qje.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from 4. This is the form that some of the demographic analysis takes; for example, Mindel Sheps ("Effects on Family Size and Sex Ratio of Preferences Regarding the Sex of Children," Population Studies, XVII, No. 1 (July 1963), 66-72) presents calculations showing the effect on family size of absolute requirements concerning sex composition.On Geissler's data it is possible to establish that, not only marriages which so far have had only males or only females, more frequently have a further child -as might be expected if they desire either a boy or a girl -but that, among the other marriages, the frequ...
