THE TRANSITION OF SON PREFERENCE: EVIDENCE FROM SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRIES

Nahid  Tavassoli

doi:10.2478/eoik-2021-0010

Authors

Nahid Tavassoli Department of Economics, Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2478/eoik-2021-0010

Keywords:

Son Preference, Gender Discrimination, Fertility, Family Planning, Family Economics, Sex Selection, Culture

Abstract

This paper explores the existence of son preference and gender-based fertility behavior among Southeast Asian mothers. Using census data of ten countries (Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Tailand, and Vietnam) over the years 1970-2014 and a sample of over 18 million observation, I show that having a first-born girl is associated with 0.16 more children in the household, equivalent to 7.2 percent rise from the mean. The marginal eﬀects are quite robust across various specifications and subsamples. The eﬀects are larger for countries with lower human development index and individuals with lower education. A birth cohort analysis show that the eﬀects are significantly smaller for later cohorts implying that son preference fertility behavior has diminished over time.

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