Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/62492 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 6647
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper exploits an exogenous shift in the trade policy in India to study the impact of industrialization on son preference. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that households are more likely to have a male child in regions with higher trade openness relative to regions with lower trade openness. Moreover, higher trade openness seems to have affected only the Hindu households; there is no analogous effect on the Muslim households. We further analyze the underlying mechanisms through which industrialization might have affected relative survival of daughters. We find a significant increase in real dowry payments in regions experiencing greater trade openness. Most interestingly, dowry inflation is experienced by the Hindu households, but not by the Muslim households. The results are robust to falsification tests using cohorts born much before the liberalization period and are not driven by systematic migration into areas with greater trade openness.
Subjects: 
sex ratio
dowry
trade liberalization
difference in difference
JEL: 
J16
J18
J71
O15
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
278.62 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.