Table 9 Full results for the fertility gap: average marginal effects from multinominal estimations. Pooled NFHS 3 and NFHS 4 sample

From: Husband, sons and the fertility gap: evidence from India

Dependent variable: fertility gap Negative gap No gap Positive gap
Son preference  − 0.0109 0.0026 0.0083**
(0.0087) (0.0091) (0.0041)
Proportion of daughters 0.0014***  − 0.0012***  − 0.0002**
(0.0002) (0.0002) (0.0001)
First child male  − 0.0994*** 0.0893*** 0.0101**
(0.0091) (0.0096) (0.0048)
Second child male  − 0.0827*** 0.0704*** 0.0124***
(0.0087) (0.0091) (0.0045)
Husband Son Preference 0.0221**  − 0.0183**  − 0.0037
(0.0086) (0.0090) (0.0042)
Husband Ideal number of children  − 0.1481*** 0.0921*** 0.0560***
(0.0050) (0.0052) (0.0024)
Difference in son preference 0.0495***  − 0.0665*** 0.0170***
(0.0082) (0.0085) (0.0040)
Difference in ideal no of children 0.2228***  − 0.1519***  − 0.0709***
(0.0041) (0.0044) (0.0023)
Never used contraception  − 0.0158*  − 0.0059 0.0217***
(0.0088) (0.0092) (0.0041)
Woman: Education (yrs)  − 0.0122*** 0.0114*** 0.0008
(0.0010) (0.0010) (0.0005)
Woman: Employed 0.0006  − 0.0053 0.0047
(0.0074) (0.0077) (0.0039)
Woman: Media exposure  − 0.0006*** 0.0006***  − 0.0000
(0.0002) (0.0002) (0.0001)
Woman: Age (yrs) 0.0052**  − 0.0009  − 0.0043***
(0.0020) (0.0021) (0.0010)
Woman: Age at first birth (yrs)  − 0.0174*** 0.0122*** 0.0053***
(0.0015) (0.0015) (0.0007)
Woman: Married (yrs) 0.0028*  − 0.0053*** 0.0025***
(0.0015) (0.0015) (0.0007)
Husband: Age (yrs)  − 0.0015 0.0013 0.0001
(0.0011) (0.0012) (0.0006)
Husband: Education (yrs)  − 0.0008 0.0009  − 0.0001
(0.0006) (0.0006) (0.0003)
Husband: Employed  − 0.0000 0.0003  − 0.0003
(0.0194) (0.0202) (0.0103)
Social group 0.0083  − 0.0177** 0.0094**
(0.0079) (0.0082) (0.0040)
Hindu  − 0.0579*** 0.0486*** 0.0093*
(0.0094) (0.0098) (0.0051)
Household size 0.0604***  − 0.0405***  − 0.0199***
(0.0016) (0.0018) (0.0012)
Economic status  − 0.0729*** 0.0626*** 0.0102**
(0.0092) (0.0097) (0.0047)
Region: North 0.0363***  − 0.0369*** 0.0007
(0.0098) (0.0102) (0.0051)
Region: South  − 0.0522*** 0.0312*** 0.0210***
(0.0109) (0.0114) (0.0057)
Rural  − 0.0442*** 0.0345*** 0.0097**
  (0.0079) (0.0083) (0.0045)
Observations 15,809 15,809 15,809
  1. The fertility gap is defined as the difference between the ideal and actual number of children. Full set of results corresponding to specification reported in Panel B in Table 4. Using pooled NFHS 3 and NFHS 4 sample. Multinominal estimations. Standard errors in parentheses
  2. ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.1
Back to article page