Why is Son Preference so Persistent in East and South Asia? A Cross-Country Study of China, India, and the Republic of Korea

Gupta, Mónica Das; Zhenghua, Jiang; Li, Bohua; Xie, Zheng; Chung, Woojin; Hwa-Ok, Bae

doi:10.1596/1813-9450-2942

Cited by 132 publications

(198 citation statements)

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“…Traditional kinship and inheritance systems play an important role in shaping women's economic position in the family (Das Gupta et al 2003;Dyson and Moore 1983). Patrilocal kinship and patrilineal inheritance system patterns prevail throughout India, and are especially strong in northern and northwestern India (Basu 1999;Dyson and Moore 1983).…”

Section: Sociocultural and Economic Drivers Of Son Preferencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Patrilocal kinship and patrilineal inheritance system patterns prevail throughout India, and are especially strong in northern and northwestern India (Basu 1999;Dyson and Moore 1983). In patrilocal kinship systems, women are absorbed into their husband's lineage upon marriage and reside with their husband's family (Das Gupta et al 2003). Likewise, in patrilineal inheritance systems all familial inheritance is transferred to male heirs (ibid).…”

Section: Sociocultural and Economic Drivers Of Son Preferencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Likewise, in patrilineal inheritance systems all familial inheritance is transferred to male heirs (ibid). Patrilocal-patrilineal norms reinforce preference for sons because families do not expect to benefit from investing in daughters who will leave the natal home upon marriage (Das Gupta et al 2003;Robitaille 2013), while sons are expected to provide financial assistance to aging parents and to pass family property on to the next generation (Das Gupta et al 2003). Empirical evidence suggests that patrilocal kinship systems are associated with lower rates of female child survival (Kishor 1993;Dyson and Moore 1983).…”

Section: Sociocultural and Economic Drivers Of Son Preferencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…4 However, existing literature indicates a plausible relationship between women's paid employment and changes in son preference. For example, women's employment might be associated with reductions in son preference because earning income strengthens women's economic position in the family unit and reduces perceptions that women are financially burdensome (Das Gupta et al 2003). Furthermore, paid employment may also expose women to new gender and family norms and increase women's social autonomy (Chakravarty and Chakravarty 2015;Neetha 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Growth in women's employment in India in the past two decades has been uneven and employment opportunities for women are often insecure, informal, or low-wage (Chaudhary and Verick 2014;Mitra 2005). If paid employment opportunities do not change women's economic or social status within the family there may be no association between women's paid employment and stated son preference (Das Gupta et al 2003). Paid employment may even be associated with increases in stated son preference by providing lower status/lower caste women with the resources to emulate the son preferences of higher status/higher caste families (Basu 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The relationship between women's paid employment and women's stated son preference in India

Behrman¹,

Duvisac²

2017

DemRes

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OBJECTIVEWe explore whether women's paid employment is associated with reductions in women's stated son preference in India and whether these results vary by employment sector (agriculture, manufacturing, services, professional-technical) and skill level (education and literacy). METHODSWe conduct a logistic regression analysis of the relationship between women's paid employment and women's stated son preference among a sample of never-pregnant Indian women. We use the 2005 India National Family Health Survey (NFHS). RESULTSWomen's paid employment in the service and manufacturing sectors is associated with significant reductions in the stated son preference of low-skilled women (i.e., low education and literacy). However, this negative association goes away for women at higher skill levels. In fact, paid employment in manufacturing is associated with significantly higher stated son preference among university-educated women. However, women's paid employment in agriculture and the professional-technical sectors is not significantly associated with women's stated son preference. Finally, the association between women's paid employment and stated son preference is significantly larger for women living in north India than for women living in south and east India. CONCLUSIONSWe hypothesize that significant negative associations between women's paid employment and women's stated son preference occur only in cases where paid employment changes the economic status of women within the family. CONTRIBUTIONOur analysis demonstrates that there are important linkages between women's paid

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Section: Sociocultural and Economic Drivers Of Son Preferencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sociocultural and Economic Drivers Of Son Preferencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sociocultural and Economic Drivers Of Son Preferencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The relationship between women's paid employment and women's stated son preference in India

Behrman¹,

Duvisac²

2017

DemRes

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Gender gap in parents' financing strategy for hospitalization of their children: evidence from India

2010

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The 'missing women' dilemma in India has sparked great interest in investigating gender discrimination in the provision of health care in the country. No studies, however, have directly examined discrimination in health-care financing strategies in the case of severe illness of sons versus daughters. In this paper, we hypothesize that households who face tight budget constraints are more likely to spend their meager resources on hospitalization of boys rather than girls. We use the 60th round of the Indian National Sample Survey (2004) and a multinomial logit model to test this hypothesis and to throw some light on this important but overlooked issue. The results reveal that boys are much more likely to be hospitalized than girls. When it comes to financing, the gap in the usage of household income and savings is relatively small, while the gender gap in the probability of hospitalization and usage of more onerous financing strategies is very high. Ceteris paribus, the probability of boys to be hospitalized by financing from borrowing, sale of assets, help from friends, etc. is much higher than that of girls. Moreover, in line with our theoretical framework, the results indicate that the gender gap intensifies as we move from the richest to poorest households.

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Culture and son preference: Evidence from immigrants to the United States

Jergins

2021

Southern Economic Journal

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This paper extends the existing literature on son preference using an epidemiological approach to determine which cultural beliefs contribute most to son preference.We measure son preference by the increased fertility response due to a first-born female child. The coefficient giving the increase in the fertility response to a first-born female associated with a change in the equity index grows by over 50% when religious variables are included.We believe this highlights the importance of controlling for multiple cultural factors which may be correlated across home countries. The analysis shows that the major cultural determinants of son preference are gender economic inequities, while measures of women's relative educational and political standing are largely irrelevant. Across the distribution of economic equity on our sample, the fertility response to a first-born female change from a 6.5% increase to a 1.6% decrease in the average number of children per household.

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Why is Son Preference so Persistent in East and South Asia? A Cross-Country Study of China, India, and the Republic of Korea

Cited by 132 publications

References 1 publication

The relationship between women's paid employment and women's stated son preference in India

The relationship between women's paid employment and women's stated son preference in India

Gender gap in parents' financing strategy for hospitalization of their children: evidence from India

Culture and son preference: Evidence from immigrants to the United States

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