Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP15128
Authors: Jean-Marie Baland; Guilhem Cassan; Francois Woitrin
Abstract: The stopping rule in population studies refers to a behaviour by which parents continue childbearing till they have their desired number of boys. We first show that, under this rule, girls are, on average,exposed to a larger number of younger siblings than boys. This increased exposure to sibling competition mayresult in a higher mortality for girls, even in the absence of any other forms of discrimination. We then proposea new method to detect the prevalence of the stopping rule in a given society.This method allows us to identify countries in which the stopping rule prevails, some of which have beenlargely ignored in the literature. We also identify countries in which the stopping rule targets a desired numberof girls rather than boys. We estimate the extent to which the stopping rule leads to a higher mortality amongchildren through sibling competition. We show that this specific mechanism explains a non trivial share ofmortality among young girls (for instance, 10% of the under 5 female mortality in India, and up to 35% inArmenia) and that this share is increasing over time.
Keywords: son preference; target rule; stopping rule; missing girls
JEL Codes: J13; O53
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| stopping rule (C24) | number of younger siblings (J13) |
| number of younger siblings (J13) | sibling competition (C72) |
| sibling competition (C72) | child mortality (girls) (J13) |
| stopping rule (C24) | child mortality (girls) (J13) |