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American Economic Review Vol. 105 No. 5 2015

Child Gender and Parental Inputs: No More Son Preference in Korea?

Eleanor Jawon Choi1; Jisoo Hwang2

1 College of Economics and Finance, Hanyang University, 222 Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 133-791, Korea (e-mail: ) · 2 Department of International Economics and Law, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, 107 Imun-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-791, Korea (e-mail: )

Abstract

Sex ratio at birth remains highly skewed in Asian countries due to son preference. In South Korea, however, it has declined to the natural ratio. In this paper, we investigate whether son preference has disappeared in Korea by analyzing parents' time and monetary inputs by the sex of their child. We exploit randomness of the first child's sex to overcome potential bias from endogenous fertility decisions. Our findings show that mothers are more likely to work after having a girl, girls spend twice as much time as boys in housework activities, and parents spend more on private education for boys.

DOI
10.1257/aer.p20151118
Volume
105
Issue
5
Pages
638-643
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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