Nber Working Paper Series O Sister, Where Art Thou? the Role of Son Preference and Sex Choice: Evidence from Immigrants to Canada

What determines the preference for sons evident in abnormal sex ratios at birth in countries such as India and China? Is the son preference just a reflection of the prevailing economic environment, notably poverty, few economic opportunities for women, and largely rural economies? If so, we would expect these patterns to vanish with economic development. In this paper, we study South-East Asian immigrants to Canada, a country where the economic rationale for son preference is arguably small to inconsequential. Canada has one of the largest immigrant populations in the world and universal health care rendering prenatal sex determination and abortion readily available. Analyzing the 2001 and 2006 Censuses, 20% samples, we find strong evidence of sex selection at higher parities if previous children were girls. Comparing first and second generation immigrants, we find assimilation to be stronger on the fertility margin than the sex choice margin, in fact, second generation immigrants were more likely to sex select on second parity than first generation immigrants. Lastly, we uncover stark differences across religions. While immigrants of Christian or Muslim profession preferred sons as evidenced by continued fertility following only daughters, there was little evidence of sex selection. Absence of sex selection among Christians and Muslims accord with explicit prohibition against (female) infanticide – traditionally the main way to manipulate offspring sex ratios – in these religions.