Sex Ratio

There should be a fixed rate of male to female births in humans (about 5 % more boys than girls). In some countries and regions, however, there are much more boys then girls, which is often blamed on sex-selective abortion, infanticide, and neglect in health and nutrition.

We focus on the age category 0–5 for two reasons. The first is that the three-fifth of missing women go missing in the birth–childhood period. Secondly, the phenomenon of missing girls at birth reflects discrimination in the household, resulting from the combination of strong preferences for sons combined with declining fertility and the spread of technologies allowing parents to know the sex of the child before birth.