Disparities in Gender Preference and Fertility: Southeast Asia and South America in a Comparative Perspective

Valentine Becquet, INED
Nicolas Sacco Zeballos , Pennsylvania State University
Ignacio Pardo, Universidad De La República

Preference for sons and sex selection against females is commonly widespread in a number of Asian and East European countries. However, while robust son-bias has been widely studied in several countries of these regions, much less attention has been given to research on contraception and fertility in Latin America. The aim of this paper is to compare the intensity of gender preference in selected countries of Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Vietnam) and South America (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Uruguay) at the beginning of the 21st century by calculating to what extent parents adapt their fertility behavior to ensure the birth of preferred sex. Using census data from Integrated Public Use Microdata Series-International (IPUMS-I) derived from the 2010 round, we calculate parity progression ratios (PPRs) according to the sex composition of siblings, including variations on educational levels.

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 Presented in Session 121. Sex-Selection at Birth