THE TRANSITION OF SON PREFERENCE: EVIDENCE FROM SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRIES*

Abstract

This paper explores the existence of son preference and gender-based fertility behavior among
Southeast Asian mothers. Using census data of ten countries (Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) over the years 1970-2014 and a
sample of over 18 million observation, I show that having a first-born girl is associated with 0.16
more children in the household, equivalent to 7.2 percent rise from the mean. The marginal effects
are quite robust across various specifications and subsamples. The effects are larger for countries
with lower human development index and individuals with lower education. A birth cohort analysis
show that the effects are significantly smaller for later cohorts implying that son preference fertility
behavior has diminished over time.