American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Can Hepatitis B Mothers Account for the Number of Missing Women? Evidence from Three Million Newborns in Taiwan
American Economic Review
vol. 98,
no. 5, December 2008
(pp. 2259–73)
Abstract
The "missing women" phenomenon in many Asian countries has previously been regarded as the result of son preference. However, some studies have argued half of the missing women can be explained by infection with Hepatitis B virus (HBV). We demonstrate that the probability of having a male birth is only slightly higher for HBV mothers than for mothers without HBV. The sex ratio at birth rises for the higher birth order and that in families where the first two children are female. Our findings suggest that HBV status has little impact on the missing women phenomenon. (JEL I12, J16)Citation
Lin, Ming-Jen, and Ming-Ching Luoh. 2008. "Can Hepatitis B Mothers Account for the Number of Missing Women? Evidence from Three Million Newborns in Taiwan." American Economic Review, 98 (5): 2259–73. DOI: 10.1257/aer.98.5.2259Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I12 Health Production
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination