Abortion Legalization, Sex Selection, and Female University Enrollment in Taiwan

Abstract

Increasing access to sex-selective abortions in societies with a male preference should, theoretically, increase the average level of investments and care provided for girls who are not aborted. Existing literature finds that higher birth order sex selection increased after the legalization of abortion in Taiwan. This research presents evidence that the legalization of abortion in Taiwan improved the average rate of university attendance for girls born at higher birth orders where sex selection is most common. Specifically, I find that girls born at higher birth orders after the legalization of abortion are on average more likely to attend a university by approximately 4.5 percentage points. Moreover, a similar improvement in university attendance rates for higher birth order boys is not found. Heterogeneous results indicate that families with a relatively lower socioeconomic status are likely driving the results. The findings in this analysis are robust to several specifications, and they extend existing literature by providing evidence of the substitution hypothesis for a later-life economic outcome.

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