56-vol. 28, no. 2, july-december, 2013
Articles

Girl or boy? A study on Mexican parents' preferences for the sex of their children

Andrés Méndez Ruiz
Comisión Federal de Competencia
Raymundo M. Campos Vázquez
El Colegio de México

Published 2013-07-01

Keywords

  • fertility,
  • family structure,
  • preference for sons,
  • Mexico

How to Cite

Méndez Ruiz, A., & Campos Vázquez, R. M. (2013). Girl or boy? A study on Mexican parents’ preferences for the sex of their children. Estudios Económicos De El Colegio De México, 28(2), 217–248. https://doi.org/10.24201/ee.v28i2.80

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Abstract

Among Mexican parents child gender has an effect on family structure and fertility decisions. A first-born daughter increases the probability of father absence, of maternal custody in case of marital dissolution, of having more children and of a shorter elapsed period before a new child is born. The collection of evidence suggests that those effects are the result of a preference for sons among parents and not the result of other causes that could explain some of the results separately.

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