Child Gender and Parental Investments: Are Boys and Girls Treated Differently

描述（由申请人提供）：在整个西方世界，男孩的死亡率高于女孩。然而，这种情况在一些南亚和东亚国家正好相反，这些国家的女孩死亡率高于男孩。但为什么在印度这样的地方，女孩的死亡率比男孩高？有一种观点认为，父母可能更喜欢男孩，在男孩身上的投入比在女孩身上更多：男孩可能比女孩吃得更有营养，得到更好的医疗保健。然而，关于男孩和女孩是否受到不同对待的现有证据尚无定论。一些研究发现有证据表明男孩比女孩受到更好的待遇。然而，其他研究没有发现差别待遇的证据。先前研究的一个问题是，他们假设男孩和女孩生活在具有相似特征的家庭中。但是，如果一个家庭想要有一定数量的儿子，并因此遵循生育停止规则，这种假设就不正确了。因此，假设男孩和女孩生活在相似的家庭中，对投资差异的估计将是有偏差的。我们开发了一种新的方法来解决这个计量经济学问题，以回答这个问题：男孩和女孩的待遇不同吗？我们将首先检查男孩和女孩是否在一个重要但不经常研究的儿童投资类型方面受到不同对待：儿童保育时间。为此，我们将使用印度时间使用调查的数据，该调查收集了个人如何分配时间的信息，包括他们花多少时间照顾孩子。为了将新方法与文献先前的发现相结合，我们将结合我们的经验方法和印度人口与健康调查的数据，进一步研究以前文献中研究过的其他儿童投资措施的性别差异，如疫苗接种、维生素补充和母乳喂养。最后，为了检验这些投资的重要性，我们将使用对这些投资对死亡率影响的文献的估计，粗略估计男女死亡率差异在多大程度上可以由男女投资差异来解释。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Throughout the Western world, boys have higher mortality rates than girls. This pattern is, however, reversed in a number of South and East Asian countries, in which mortality rates are higher for girls than for boys. But why are girls dying more than boys in places like India? There is a belief that parents may favor boys, investing more on them than on girls: Boys may be fed a more nutritious diet and receive better health care than girls. The existing evidence on whether boys and girls are treated differently is however inconclusive. Some studies find evidence that boys are better treated than girls. Other studies however find no evidence of differential treatment. One issue with previous studies is that they assume that boys and girls live in families with similar characteristics. But this assumption is incorrect if families want to have a certain number of sons and as a result follow fertility stopping rules. As a consequence, estimates of differences in investments that assume that boys and girls live in similar families will be biased. We develop a novel methodology that addresses this econometric issue to answer the question: are boys and girls treated differently? We will first examine whether boys and girls are treated differently in terms of an important but not frequently studied type of investment in children: childcare time. For this purpose, we will use data from the Indian Time Use Survey, which collected information on how individuals allocate their time-including how much time they spend taking care of children. To square the novel methodology with the literature's previous findings, we will-combining our empirical methodology and data from the Indian Demographic and Health Surveys-further examine gender differences in other measures of child investments that have been studied in the literature before, such as vaccinations, vitamin supplementation and breastfeeding. Finally, to examine the importance of these investments, we will provide a rough estimate of how much of boy-girl differences in mortality rates are explained by boy-girl differences in investments using estimates from the literature of the effects of these investments on mortality. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The mortality rates for girls in India are higher than for boys-the opposite being true in developed countries-and it has been argued that in India boys are given better care than girls. We develop a novel methodology to answer the question: are boys and girls treated differently? We will first examine whether boys and girls are treated differently in terms of an important but not frequently studied type of investment in children: childcare time. We will use data from the Indian Time Use Survey, which collected information on how individuals allocate their time-including how much time they spend taking care of children. We will also examine gender differences in other measures of child investments, such as vaccinations, vitamin A intake and breastfeeding.