28-why is son preference so persistent in east and south asia.pdf

Why is son preference so persistent in East and South Asia? A cross-country study of China, India and the Republic of Korea Monica Das Gupta Development Research Group, World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433 Tel: 1-202-473-1983, Fax: 1-202-522-1153 mdasgupta@ Jiang Zhenghua Professor and Honorary Director, Interdisciplinary Research Center of the Academic Sciences of China, and Population and Economy Research Institute, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, and Vice-Chairman, PRC National People’s Congress Li Bohua, Xie Zhenming, China Population Information and Research Center, Beijing Woojin Chung, Bae Hwa-Ok Korean Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Seoul _____________________________ We are grateful for valuable comments from anonymous reviewers, Judith Banister, Pranab Bardhan, Shelah Bloom, Birgitta Bucht, Minja Kim Choe, Mrinal DattaChaudhuri, Sonalde Desai, Tim Dyson, Alice Goldstein, Gu Baochang, Supriya Guha, Gene Hammel, Ron Lee, Bob Levine, Li Shuzhuo, Li Yongping, Emily MacFarquhar, Jane Menken, Mick Moore, and Arthur Wolf, as also for comments from participants at seminars at Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard University, The London School of Economics, Brown University, the Population Association of America, the United Nations Population Division, the United Nations Population Fund, New York, and the Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. Working papers describe research in progress by the authors and are published to elicit comments and to further debate. ii Abstract Son preference has persisted in the face of sweeping economic and social changes in these countries. We attribute this to their similar family systems, which