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Son preference at the crossroads: A comparison of parity progressions among birth cohorts of women in Central Asia, South Asia and the Middle East

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posted on 2024-10-17, 15:57 authored by Konstantin Kazenin

BACKGROUND

Theories of gender preferences in fertility suggest that as fertility decreases, gender preferences become stronger and begin to affect progressions to lower parities. However, in developing countries with son preference in actual fertility, fertility decrease often goes together with urbanization, educational expansion for women and growth of their labor force participation, factors which are expected to narrow the gap in the perceived values of sons and daughters.

OBJECTIVE

This study explores how son preference influences transitions to second and third parities differently across cohorts of women born between the 1950s and the 1980s in seven countries of the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Central Asia (Bangladesh, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan).

METHODS

Piecewise exponential models are used for studying conceptions of second and third children. The key explanatory parameters are having at least one son or having at least one daughter and they are interacted with the women’s birth cohorts to assess change over time.

RESULTS

Son preference becomes stronger in the younger cohorts, especially in transitions to third parity, and is not replaced by preferences for balanced gender composition or daughter preference.

CONTRIBUTON

The novel contributions of this study are related to studying son preference effects upon parity transitions for a relatively long row of birth cohorts of women in the context of fertility decrease. Further innovations involve taking child mortality into systematic account in the study of gender preference effects on actual fertility, as well as putting together different possible reasons for the stability of son preferences even in the course of social change.

History

ISSN

2002-617X

Original title

Son preference at the crossroads: A comparison of parity progressions among birth cohorts of women in Central Asia, South Asia and the Middle East

Original language

  • English

Publication date

2024-10-17

access_level

  • public

access_condition

  • PUBLIC