Department of Economics. University of Melbourne. Parkville Victoria
3052 Australia
ABSTRACT
Evidence from most developing countries suggest that parents have a
preference for sons over daughters. This is know as son preference. This
paper uses individual level unit record data to test the son preference
hypothesis in South Africa. We use an accelerated hazard model to estimate
the duration between successive births and our results indicate that son
preference exists only for the Indian community in South Africa. Indian
households prefer to have a higher duration between children following
the birth of a son, irrespective of the number of children they already
have. For the rest of the population, there is either no son preference
or in some cases a weak preference for daughters. Our results appear to
refute the usual arguments for son preference (including support for elderly
parents and contribution to household income) and instead suggest the importance
of religious beliefs and social customs (dowry system, lineage, familial
and kinship ties etc.) in directing parental preferences.
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