Prenatal Sex Selection and Girls' Well-Being: Evidence from India

摘要

We study the impacts of prenatal sex selection on girls' well-being in India. We show that high sex ratios at birth reflect the practice of prenatal sex selection and apply a triple difference strategy to examine whether changes in health outcomes of girls relative to boys within states and over time are systematically associated with changes in sex-ratios at birth. We find that an increase in prenatal sex selection leads to a reduction in girls' malnutrition, in particular, underweight and wasting. We further explore various underlying channels linking between prenatal sex selection and girls' outcomes.