Abstract
This paper investigates the impact of preferences for male offspring to female offspring upon the sex ratio of the population. Asymmetric procreation behaviour of this kind is modelled by assuming that a female's procreation ceases only after at least one son or n daughters are born. It is shown that such asymmetric procreation behaviour has no effect on the sex ratio of the society, but influences rather the growth rate of the population. Finally, problems concerning the interrelationship between the sex ratio, the pattern of procreation, and the marriage régime in stationary populations are investigated.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alm N (1994) Effects of the one-child family policy on second and third births in Hebei, Shaanxi and Shanghai. J Pop Econ 7:63–78
Arnold F, Liu Z (1986) Sex preferences for children in China. Pop Dev Rev 12:221–246
Becker GS (1991) A treatise on the family, enlarge edition. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) and London (England)
Caswell H, Weeks DE (1986) Two-sex models: Chaos, extinction, and other dynamic consequences of sex. Am Nat 128:707–735
Charlesworth B (1980) Evolution in age-structured populations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Charnov EL (1982) The theory of sex allocation. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Chen LC, Huq E, D'Souza S (1981) Sex bias in the family allocation of food and health care in rural Bangladesh. Pop Dev Rev 7:55–70
Dahlberg G (1948) Do parents want boys or girls? Acta Gen Stat Med 1:163 -167
Das Gupta M (1987) Selective discrimination against female children in Rural Punjab, India. Pop Dev Rev 13:77–100
Dinkel RH (1989) Demographie, Band 1: Bevölkerungsdynamik. Verlag Franz Vahlen, München
Edwards AWF (1958) An analysis of Geissler's data on the human sex ratio. Ann Hum Gen 23:6–15
Eshel I (1975) Selection on sex-ratio and the evolution of sex determination. Heredity 34:351–361
Feichtinger G (1979) Demographische Analyse und populationsdynamische Modelle, Grundzüge der Bevölkerungsmathematik. Springer, Vienna
Feichtinger G (1990) Demographische Prognosen und populationsdynamische Modelle, pp. 71–92, in: Felderer B (ed) Bevölkerung und Wirtschaft. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin
Fisher RA (1930) The genetical theory of natural selection. Clarendon Press, Oxford
Fredrickson AG (1971) A mathematical theory of age structure in sexual populations: random mating and monogamous marriage models. Math Biosc 10:117–143
Gini C (1905) Intorno alla distribuzione dei sessi nelle nascite umane. Ph D Thesis, Bologna
Gini C (1908) Il sesso dal punto di vista statistico. Sandron, Milan, Palermo, Naples
Gini C (1951) Combinations and sequences of sexes in human families and mammal litters. Acta Gen Stat Med 2:220–244
Goodman LA (1953) Population growth of the sexes. Biometrics 9:212–225
Goodman LA (1961) Some possible effects of birth control on the human sex ratio. Ann Hum Gen 25:75–81
Goodman LA (1968) Stochastic models for the population growth of the sexes. Biom 55:469–487
Harriss B, Watson E (1987) The sex ratio in South Asia, pp. 85–115, in: Momsen JH, Townsend JG (eds). Geography of gender in the Third World. Hutchinson, London
Kendall DG (1949) Stochastic processes and population growth. J Roy Stat Soc B11:230–264
Keyfitz N (1972) The mathematics of sex and marriage, pp. 89–108, in: LeCam LM, Neyman J, Scott EL (eds) Proceedings of the sixth Berkeley symposium on mathematical statistics and probability. Vol. 4, Biology and Health. University of California Press, Berkeley
Keyfitz N (1985) Applied mathematical demography, 2nd edn. Springer, New York Berlin Heidelberg
Kynch J (1985) How many woman are enough? Sex ratios and the right to life. Third World Affairs, Yearbook 1985, 156–171
Larsen U (1990) An assessment of the one-child policy in China from 1980 to 1985. Eur J Pop 6:257–284
McDonald J (1973) Sex predetermination: demographic effects. Math Biosc 17:137–146
Maynard Smith J (1980) A new theory of sexual investment. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 7:247–251
Mitra A (1979) Implications of declining sex ratios in India's population. Allied Publishers Pvt Ltd, Bombay
Norton HW (1940) Note on Woods' paper on parental instinct. J Hered 31:29–32
Pollak RA (1986) A reformulation of the two-sex problem. Demography 23:247–259
Pollak RA (1990) Two-sex demographic models. J Pol Econ 98:399–420
Pollard JH (1973) Mathematical models for the growth of human populations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Repetto R (1972) Son preference and fertility behavior in developing countries. Studies in Family Planning 3:70–76
Robbins H (1952) A note on gambling systems and birth statistics. Am Math Monthly 59:685–686
Samuelson PA (1985) Modes of thought in economics and biology. Am Econ Rev, Papers and Proceedings 75:166–172
Schoen R (1981) The harmonic mean as the basis of a realistic two-sex marriage model. Demography 18:201–216
Sen AK (1984a) Family and food: sex bias in poverty, pp. 346–368, in: Sen AK (ed) Resources, values and development. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.)
Sen AK (1984b) Economics and the family, pp. 369–385, in: Sen AK (ed) Resources, values and development. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.)
Sen AK (1984c) Goods and people, pp. 509–532, in: Sen AK (ed) Resources, values and development. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.)
Sheps MC (1963/64) Effects on family size and sex ratio of preferences regarding the sex of children. Population Studies, A Journal of Demography 17:66–72
Shettles LB (1970) Factors influencing sex ratios. Int J Gyn Obst 8:643–647
Song J, Yu J (1988) Population system control. China Academic Publ and Springer-Verlag, Beijing Berlin
Szilard Leo (1960) Dependence of the sex ratio at birth on the age of the father. Nature 186:649–650
Visaria PM (1967) The sex ratio of the population of India and Pakistan and regional variations during 1901–61, pp. 334–386, in: Patterns of population change in India, 1951–61. Institute of Economic Growth, Bombay London
Weiler H (1959) Sex-ratio and birth control. Am J Soc 65:298–299
Winston S (1932) Birth control and the sex-ratio at birth. Am J Soc 38:225–231
Woods FA (1939) The inheritance of strong parental instinct. J Hered 30:237–244, 313–320
Yellin J, Samuelson PA (1977) Comparison of linear and nonlinear models for human population dynamics. Theor Pop Biol 11:105–126
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Financial support of the Norwegian Research Council (Ruhrgas scholarship scheme) is gratefully acknowledged. I am indebted to two anonymous referees for critical comments, to Gustav Feichtinger for hints to the literature, and to Sabrina Bird, Elizabeth Harrison and Corey Spellman for suggestions to improve my English style.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Seidl, C. The desire for a son is the father of many daughters. J Popul Econ 8, 185–203 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00166651
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00166651