Understanding the Daughter-Only Families Deficit in South Asia: A Measure of Prenatal Discrimination Behaviors Using Fertility Tables.

Paul-Émile Charlier , Université de Strasbourg

South Asian demography is characterized by a daughter-only families (DOFs) deficit compared to a theoretical level. This deficit is explained by the son preference, manifested through two fertility behaviors: the male-preferring stopping rule of childbearing and the prenatal sex selection (PSS). However, no prior research quantified the respective contributions of PSS and the preferential stopping rule on the DOFs deficit. Measuring prenatal discrimination behaviors behind this deficit can represent forms of resistance to the emergence of these families in societies as the increase in DOFs (due to declining fertility), could challenge patrilineal systems. This work proposes therefore a novel methodological framework to quantify the DOFs deficit due to PSS and to the stopping rule. Using fertility tables, I construct “son preference behaviors-deleted” tables to measure the gain in DOFs proportion that a population could have when certain fertility strategies are deleted. A fictive population is calculated under different scenarios to quantify prenatal discrimination behaviors' effect on siblings’ gender composition. I use DHS data, from India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, i.e., countries experiencing different demographic manifestations of son preference. Two scenarios are considered: (1) “only stopping rule” and (2) “no son preference”. These scenarios measure family compositions when the PSS and stopping rule are deleted and therefore represent how they are impacted by prenatal discrimination. Results demonstrate that India and Nepal have the highest DOFs deficit explained by PSS. On the opposite family compositions in Bangladesh and Pakistan are mainly impacted by the preferring stopping rule.

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 Presented in Session P1. Families, Fertility, and the Life Course 1