Sex-selective Abortions and Infant Mortality in India: The Role of Parents’ Stated Son Preference
利用印度第三次全国家庭健康调查数据，研究了父母双方在性别选择性堕胎和女婴忽视决策中的不同角色，发现丈夫偏好儿子时更易堕胎，而妻子偏好儿子时更易忽视女婴。
In India, millions of female foetuses have been aborted since the 1980s alongside an abnormally high infant girl mortality rate; this has generated a vast literature exploring the root causes of son preference. The literature is sparse, however, on how the decisions to abort or neglect girls are made. This paper examines mothers’ and fathers’ respective roles behind those decisions. Using the third National Family and Health Survey (NFHS-3) data, we show that sex-selective abortions are most commonly used if both spouses or if only the fathers prefer sons, while sex-selective neglect is used if only the mothers prefer sons.