Why Are Adult Women Missing? Son Preference and Maternal Survival in India

Milazzo, Annamaria

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS TO HEALTH;    ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE;    ACCESS TO HEALTH SERVICES;    ACCESS TO TREATMENT;    ACCIDENTS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6802
RP-ID  :  WPS6802

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper is the first to show thatexcess mortality among adult women can be partly explainedby strong preference for male children, the same culturalnorm widely known to cause excess mortality before birth orat young ages. Using pooled individual-level data for India,the paper compares the age structure and anemia status ofwomen by the sex of their first-born and uncovers severalnew findings. First, the share of living women with afirst-born girl is a decreasing function of the women'sage at the time of the survey. Second, while there are nosystematic differences at the time of birth, women with afirst-born girl are significantly more likely to developanemia when young (under the age of 30) and thesedifferences disappear for older women. Moreover, among thosein the older age group, they appear to be significantlybetter off in terms of various predeterminedcharacteristics. These findings are consistent with aselection effect in which maternal and adult mortality ishigher for women with first-born girls, especially the poorand uneducated with limited access to health care andprenatal sex diagnostic technologies. To ensure the desiredsex composition of children, these women resort to afertility behavior medically known to increase their risk ofdeath. The observed sex ratios for first births imply that2.2-8.4 percent of women with first-born girls are'missing' because of son preference between theages of 30 and 49.