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Why Are Indian Children So Short? The Role of Birth Order and Son Preference†

Why Are Indian Children So Short? The Role of Birth Order and Son Preference† AbstractChild stunting in India exceeds that in poorer regions like sub-Saharan Africa. Data on over 168,000 children show that, relative to Africa, India's height disadvantage increases sharply with birth order. We posit that India's steep birth order gradient is due to favoritism toward eldest sons, which affects parents' fertility decisions and resource allocation across children. We show that, within India, the gradient is steeper for high-son-preference regions and religions. The gradient also varies with sibling gender as predicted. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that India's steeper birth order gradient can explain over one-half of the India-Africa gap in average child height. (JEL C61, D72, D82, D83, K10, M11) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png American Economic Review American Economic Association

Why Are Indian Children So Short? The Role of Birth Order and Son Preference†

American Economic Review , Volume 107 (9) – Sep 1, 2017

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References (85)

Publisher
American Economic Association
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 © American Economic Association
ISSN
0002-8282
DOI
10.1257/aer.20151282
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AbstractChild stunting in India exceeds that in poorer regions like sub-Saharan Africa. Data on over 168,000 children show that, relative to Africa, India's height disadvantage increases sharply with birth order. We posit that India's steep birth order gradient is due to favoritism toward eldest sons, which affects parents' fertility decisions and resource allocation across children. We show that, within India, the gradient is steeper for high-son-preference regions and religions. The gradient also varies with sibling gender as predicted. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that India's steeper birth order gradient can explain over one-half of the India-Africa gap in average child height. (JEL C61, D72, D82, D83, K10, M11)

Journal

American Economic ReviewAmerican Economic Association

Published: Sep 1, 2017

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