Son preference and health disparities in developing countries

• DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2022.101036
• Publication Date: 2022-01-26T03:52:17Z
• Authors: Kien Le; My Nguyen
• Keywords: Disadvantaged

Recorded history demonstrates the preference for sons in every aspect of life. Today, despite being considered a powerful manifestation gender inequality and discrimination against women, over daughters is still prevalent worldwide. In this study, we investigate extent to which son influences health disparities between 66 developing countries. We find that differences height-for-age weight-for-age z-scores their peers are 0.135 0.098 standard deviation lower compared analogous due preference. Our heterogeneity analysis further shows disproportionately affects children disadvantaged backgrounds such as those living rural areas, born lower-educated mothers, coming from poor families.