Divorce, abortion, and the child sex ratio: The impact of divorce reform in China

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Sun, Ang; Zhao, Yaohui
• 署名单位: Central University of Finance & Economics; Peking University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.11.006
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 53-69
• 关键词: gender inequality; Intra-household allocation; Divorce law

摘要

This paper estimates the effect of China's pro-women divorce reform on sex-selection behavior within marriages. The 2001 reform liberalized divorce in favor of women and secured women's property rights after separation. The paper applies a regression discontinuity analysis on the child sex ratio and finds that the likelihood of having a son after a firstborn daughter decreased by 8.1 percentage points, amounting to a reduction of 11.7% compared with the prior proportion of male children. Further analyses provide evidence in support of the hypothesis that improved divorce options empower women within marriage, and enable them to avoid health-damaging sex selective abortion. The effect of the divorce reform is stronger in provinces where divorce is comparatively viable because of more lenient family planning policies governing fertility in the next marriage. The effect is also stronger among women who face higher health costs of abortion. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.