Can Hepatitis B Mothers Account for the Number of Missing Women? Evidence from Three Million Newborns in Taiwan
利用台湾三百万新生儿数据，检验乙肝病毒携带母亲是否导致出生性别比偏高，发现乙肝状态对失踪女性现象影响很小，性别比偏高更多与生育顺序和已有子女性别相关。
The “missing women” phenomenon in many Asian countries has previously been regarded as the result of son preference. However, some studies have argued half of the missing women can be explained by infection with Hepatitis B virus (HBV). We demonstrate that the probability of having a male birth is only slightly higher for HBV mothers than for mothers without HBV. The sex ratio at birth rises for the higher birth order and that in families where the first two children are female. Our findings suggest that HBV status has little impact on the missing women phenomenon.