Son Preference, Fertility and Family Structure: Evidence from Reproductive Behavior among Nigerian Women

Abstract

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues.An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished.The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly.The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors.They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. Policy Research Working Paper 6869Strong boy-bias and its consequences for young and unborn girls have been widely documented for Asia.This paper considers a country in Sub-Saharan Africa and finds that parental gender preferences do affect fertility behavior and shape traditional social institutions with negative effects on adult women's health and well-being.Using individual-level data for Nigeria, the paper shows that, compared to women with first-born sons, women with first-born daughters have (and desire) more children and are less likely to use contraceptives.Women with This paper is a product of the Human Development and Public Services Team, Development Research Group.It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world.Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://econ.worldbank.org.The author may be contacted at amilazzo@worldbank.org.daughters among earlier-born children are also more likely to have shorter birth intervals, a behavior medically known to increase the risk of child and maternal mortality.Moreover, they are more likely to end up in a polygynous union, to be divorced, and to be head of the household.The preference for sons is also supported by child fostering patterns in which daughters are substitutes for foster girls, while the same does not hold for sons and foster boys.These results can partly explain excess female mortality among adult women in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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