The impact of sex-selective abortion technology on the evolution of postnatal gender-bias conventions

Working Paper 2007-78

Abstract

A substantial body of research presents the absence of control on the family sex-composition as one of the main reasons for raising neglected young girls in context of rooted son preference. Therefore, one expects that egalitarian intra-family distributions of survival resources are more welcomed with the control of family sex-composition. In this paper, we model the (possible) relationship between the expansion in the use of the sex-selective abortion technology and the intra-family allocation of survival resources. The model allows us to find features of the environment that might prevent the expected trade-off between the acceptation of both behavioural traits: the control of the family sex-composition and the unequal allocation of survival resources.

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