Do Parents Choose the Sex of their Children? Evidence from Vietnam

Hoang, Thu Huong and Nguyen, Viet Cuong (2014): Do Parents Choose the Sex of their Children? Evidence from Vietnam.

Abstract

The paper finds imbalance of sex ratio at birth and analyzes some possible determinants on sex ratio at birth in Viet Nam by using the Vietnam Population Census 2009. This paper concentrates to analyze the parental interference of child sex. Although the magnitude of correlation between the parental characteristics and the gender of children is not high, this correlation is statistically significant. The result of this paper concludes that gender of the firstborn, birth order, ethnicity of parents, the age of parents as well as their education level are associated with the sex of children. More specifically, having the firstborn boy reduces the probability of having boys in the next birth. Children with higher birth order are more likely to be male. It implies that parents follow male-preferring stopping rule. Several households are more likely to have children until they get a boy. Kinh parents with higher education are more likely to have boys than ethnic minority parents with lower education.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Sex selection, gender inequality, population census, Vietnam.
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I0 - General; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development

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