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Title: Socioeconomic status and preferences for sons in the United States

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2009

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Abstract: Preferences for sons over daughters in lower classes might contribute to theobserved gender gap in upward mobility in the United States. We provide evidencethat gender preferences are stronger in families with lower socioeconomicstatus. Dahl and Moretti (2008) find that first-born daughters have a higherprobability of living without a father, having never-married parents, havingdivorced parents, and growing up in larger families than first-born sons. Weconsider these effects of first-born daughters on family structure and family sizewithin parents income quartiles and occupational quartiles and find evidencethat the strength of preferences for sons differs across parental income levels.We show that this effect cannot be entirely driven by parents education. Next,we look at whether gender preferences could be a factor in differing effectsof sibship composition on girls educational attainment. Absent good incomedata, we group families by parents education and find that in families with lesseducated parents, brothers have a less positive impact on their sisters educationthan in families with more educated parents. Finally, we discuss severalchannels that might explain the correlation between socioeconomic status andpreferences for sons.

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Authors: Casburi, Lorenzo; Greenwood, Elizabeth

Publisher: Harvard University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Family and Marriage, Fertility and Mortality, Other

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