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Source: Centre for Household Income, Labour, and Demographic Economics
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Dahl, Gordon B. Moretti, Enrico |
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The Demand for Sons: Evidence from Divorce, Fertility, and Shotgun Marriage Working Paper 01/2004, Centre for Household Income, Labour, and Demographics, Torino Italy, January 2004. Also: http://www.child-centre.it/papers/child01_2004.pdf Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Centre for Household Income, Labour, and Demographic Economics Keyword(s): Childbearing, Premarital/Nonmarital; Divorce; Family Structure; Fertility; Gender; Marital Status Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. In this paper, we show how parental preferences for sons versus daughters affect marital status, family structure, and fertility behavior. Specifically, we document that having girls has significant effects on divorce, child custody, marriage, shotgun marriage when the sex of the child is known before birth, and fertility stopping rules. Using a simple model, we show that taken individually, each piece of evidence is not sufficient to establish the existence of parental gender bias. But taken together, our empirical evidence indicates that parents in the U.S. favor boys over girls. We begin by documenting that parents with girls are significantly more likely to be divorced than parents with boys. The effect is quantitatively substantial, with a 1 to 7 percent higher probability of divorce for parents with daughters. Moreover, divorced fathers are more likely to have their sons versus daughters living with them. We also show that women with only girls are substantially more likely to have never been married than women with only boys. Perhaps the most striking evidence comes from the analysis of shotgun marriages using Vital Statistics birth record data. Mothers who find out their child will be a boy are more likely to marry their partner before delivery. Specifically, among those who have an ultrasound test during their pregnancy, we find that mothers carrying a boy are more likely to be married at delivery. When we turn to fertility stopping rules, we find that in families with at least two children, the probability of having another child is higher for all-girl families than all-boy families. This preference for sons seems to be largely driven by fathers. Survey evidence reveals that while women on average have only a slight preference for daughters, men report that they would rather have a boy by more than a two to one margin. In the final part of the paper, we compare the divorce, custody, and fertility effects for the U.S. to the effects in five developing c ountries. |
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Bibliography Citation
Dahl, Gordon B. and Enrico Moretti. "The Demand for Sons: Evidence from Divorce, Fertility, and Shotgun Marriage." Working Paper 01/2004, Centre for Household Income, Labour, and Demographics, Torino Italy, January 2004. |