Biased Childhood Sex Ratios and the Economic Status of the Family in Rural China

Abstract

While in most Western countries male births are slightly more frequent than female births (105 to 106 boys are born for every 100 girls), recent data for rural China show that sex ratios for Chinese children are much higher than 105 or 106. This phenomenon is often attributed to preference for sons and parental behavior aimed at producing more male children than biologically normal. Such behavior may include abortion of female fetuses as well as female infanticide. Parents may prefer boys because they perceive them to be investments with higher returns. It may also be that traditions emphasizing the dominant role and higher social status of men affect parental preferences. In this paper I try to shed light on the determinants of biased childhood sex ratios in rural China, with a focus on investigating whether the economic status of the parents affects the ratio of sons to daughters in the household. The data used in the paper come from the 1988 Chinese Household Income Project, a household survey with information on more than 10,000 families residing in China’s rural areas. I find that first-born surviving children of lower-income parents are significantly more likely to be boys. This result suggests that girls may be “luxuries” that higher-income parents are better able to afford. When looking at the effects of China’s well-known “one-child policy” I find no evidence that the policy has worsened the bias in sex ratios. In fact, the evidence points to more balanced sex ratios being achieved at the time when the one-child policy was enforced most strictly.