Can Biological Factors Like Hepatitis B Explain the Bulk of Gender Imbalance in China? A Review of the Evidence

A recent study challenges the assumption that the large deficit of girls in East and South Asia reflects the preference for sons, suggesting that much of the deficit—as much as 75 percent in China—is attributable to hepatitis B (HBV). The claim is inconsistent with the results of a study based on a...

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Main Author:	Gupta, Monica Das
Format:	Journal Article
Published:	World Bank 2012
Subjects:	censuses child mortality discrimination excess mortality female children female infanticide gender equity kinship medical care population censuses preference for sons prenatal sex selection sex sex ratio sex ratios sex-selective abortion son preference war woman young girls
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4420

id	okr-10986-4420
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-44202021-04-23T14:02:17Z Can Biological Factors Like Hepatitis B Explain the Bulk of Gender Imbalance in China? A Review of the Evidence Gupta, Monica Das censuses child mortality discrimination excess mortality female children female infanticide gender equity kinship medical care population censuses preference for sons prenatal sex selection sex sex ratio sex ratios sex-selective abortion son preference war woman young girls A recent study challenges the assumption that the large deficit of girls in East and South Asia reflects the preference for sons, suggesting that much of the deficit—as much as 75 percent in China—is attributable to hepatitis B (HBV). The claim is inconsistent with the results of a study based on a large medical data set from Taiwan (China), which indicates that HBV infection raises a woman's probability of having a son by only 0.25 percent. In addition, demographic data from China show that the only group of women who have elevated probabilities of bearing sons are those who have already borne daughters. This pattern makes it difficult to see how any biological factor can explain a large part of the imbalance in China's sex ratios at birth, unless it can be shown that it somehow selectively affects those who have borne girls or causes them to first bear girls and then boys. The Taiwanese example suggests that this is not the case with HBV, the impact of which is unaffected by the sex composition of previous births. The data thus support the cultural rather than the biological explanation for gender imbalance. 2012-03-30T07:12:34Z 2012-03-30T07:12:34Z 2008-09-01 Journal Article World Bank Research Observer 1564-6971 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4420 CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank Journal Article East Asia and Pacific South Asia India China
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	censuses child mortality discrimination excess mortality female children female infanticide gender equity kinship medical care population censuses preference for sons prenatal sex selection sex sex ratio sex ratios sex-selective abortion son preference war woman young girls
spellingShingle	censuses child mortality discrimination excess mortality female children female infanticide gender equity kinship medical care population censuses preference for sons prenatal sex selection sex sex ratio sex ratios sex-selective abortion son preference war woman young girls Gupta, Monica Das Can Biological Factors Like Hepatitis B Explain the Bulk of Gender Imbalance in China? A Review of the Evidence
geographic_facet	East Asia and Pacific South Asia India China
description	A recent study challenges the assumption that the large deficit of girls in East and South Asia reflects the preference for sons, suggesting that much of the deficit—as much as 75 percent in China—is attributable to hepatitis B (HBV). The claim is inconsistent with the results of a study based on a large medical data set from Taiwan (China), which indicates that HBV infection raises a woman's probability of having a son by only 0.25 percent. In addition, demographic data from China show that the only group of women who have elevated probabilities of bearing sons are those who have already borne daughters. This pattern makes it difficult to see how any biological factor can explain a large part of the imbalance in China's sex ratios at birth, unless it can be shown that it somehow selectively affects those who have borne girls or causes them to first bear girls and then boys. The Taiwanese example suggests that this is not the case with HBV, the impact of which is unaffected by the sex composition of previous births. The data thus support the cultural rather than the biological explanation for gender imbalance.
format	Journal Article
author	Gupta, Monica Das
author_facet	Gupta, Monica Das
author_sort	Gupta, Monica Das
title	Can Biological Factors Like Hepatitis B Explain the Bulk of Gender Imbalance in China? A Review of the Evidence
title_short	Can Biological Factors Like Hepatitis B Explain the Bulk of Gender Imbalance in China? A Review of the Evidence
title_full	Can Biological Factors Like Hepatitis B Explain the Bulk of Gender Imbalance in China? A Review of the Evidence
title_fullStr	Can Biological Factors Like Hepatitis B Explain the Bulk of Gender Imbalance in China? A Review of the Evidence
title_full_unstemmed	Can Biological Factors Like Hepatitis B Explain the Bulk of Gender Imbalance in China? A Review of the Evidence
title_sort	can biological factors like hepatitis b explain the bulk of gender imbalance in china? a review of the evidence
publisher	World Bank
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4420
_version_	1764391282443026432

Can Biological Factors Like Hepatitis B Explain the Bulk of Gender Imbalance in China? A Review of the Evidence

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