IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v242y2024ics0165176524003288.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life in pairs: Estimating the impact of twin’s sex on child survival in India

Author

Listed:
  • Bhattacharjee, Shampa
  • Roy Chaudhuri, Arka

Abstract

This paper shows that in India, male twins with female co-twins have higher survival rates, but opposite results hold for female twins. Biological factors and differential resource allocation drive the results for male and female children, respectively.

Suggested Citation

  • Bhattacharjee, Shampa & Roy Chaudhuri, Arka, 2024. "Life in pairs: Estimating the impact of twin’s sex on child survival in India," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:242:y:2024:i:c:s0165176524003288
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2024.111844
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176524003288
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2024.111844?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Seema Jayachandran & Ilyana Kuziemko, 2011. "Why Do Mothers Breastfeed Girls Less than Boys? Evidence and Implications for Child Health in India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(3), pages 1485-1538.
    2. Stacey H. Chen & Yen-Chien Chen & Jin-Tan Liu, 2019. "The Impact of Family Composition on Educational Achievement," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 54(1), pages 122-170.
    3. Emily Oster, 2019. "Unobservable Selection and Coefficient Stability: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 187-204, April.
    4. Rohini Pande, 2003. "Selective gender differences in childhood nutrition and immunization in rural India: The role of siblings," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 40(3), pages 395-418, August.
    5. Tom S. Vogl, 2013. "Marriage Institutions and Sibling Competition: Evidence from South Asia," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(3), pages 1017-1072.
    6. Ridhi Kashyap & Julia Behrman, 2020. "Gender Discrimination and Excess Female Under-5 Mortality in India: A New Perspective Using Mixed-Sex Twins," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(6), pages 2143-2167, December.
    7. Xiaoyan Lei & Yan Shen & James P. Smith & Guangsu Zhou, 2017. "Sibling gender composition’s effect on education: evidence from China," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 30(2), pages 569-590, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yuli Ye & Qinying He & Qiang Li & Lian An, 2024. "The brother's penalty: Boy preference and girls' health in rural China," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(8), pages 1748-1771, August.
    2. Ahsan, Md Nazmul & Thakur, Sounak, 2024. "The great Indian demonetization and gender gap in health outcomes: Evidence from two Indian states," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    3. Bao, Te & Yuan, Yuemei & Luo, Weidong & Xu, Bin, 2024. "Unlucky to have brothers: Sibling sex composition and girls’ locus of control," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    4. Futing Chen & Cuntong Wang & Yihe WangDing, 2024. "The Interplay of Sibling Sex Composition, Son Preference, and Child Education in China: Evidence from the One-Child Policy," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 43(5), pages 1-31, October.
    5. Michael Baker & Kevin Milligan, 2016. "Boy-Girl Differences in Parental Time Investments: Evidence from Three Countries," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(4), pages 399-441.
    6. Chiplunkar, Gaurav & Weaver, Jeffrey, 2023. "Marriage markets and the rise of dowry in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    7. Nayana Bose & Shreyasee Das, 2021. "Intergenerational effects of improving women’s property rights: evidence from India," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(3), pages 277-290, July.
    8. Saraswat, Deepak, 2024. "Gender composition of children and sanitation behavior in India," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    9. Luojia Hu & Analía Schlosser, 2015. "Prenatal Sex Selection and Girls’ Well‐Being: Evidence from India," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(587), pages 1227-1261, September.
    10. Rossi, Pauline & Rouanet, Léa, 2015. "Gender Preferences in Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Fertility Choices," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 326-345.
    11. Collins, Matthew, 2022. "Sibling Gender, Inheritance Customs and Educational Attainment: Evidence from Matrilineal and Patrilineal Societies," Working Papers 2022:5, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    12. Zurab Abramishvili & William Appleman & Sergii Maksymovych, 2019. "Parental Gender Preference in the Balkans and Scandinavia: Gender Bias or Differential Costs?," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp643, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    13. Guo, Hao & Hu, Chenxu & Ding, Xiaozhou, 2022. "Son preference, intrahousehold discrimination, and the gender gap in education in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 324-339.
    14. Diva Dhar & Tarun Jain & Seema Jayachandran, 2022. "Reshaping Adolescents' Gender Attitudes: Evidence from a School-Based Experiment in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(3), pages 899-927, March.
    15. Shrestha, Vinish & Jung, Juergen, 2023. "Healthcare reform and gender specific infant mortality in rural Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    16. Pulver, Ariel & Ramraj, Chantel & Ray, Joel G. & O'Campo, Patricia & Urquia, Marcelo L., 2016. "A scoping review of female disadvantage in health care use among very young children of immigrant families," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 50-60.
    17. Tarun Jain, 2014. "Where There Is a Will: Fertility Behavior and Sex Bias in Large Families," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 49(2), pages 393-423.
    18. Fenske, James & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Neumann, Cora, 2022. "Missing women in Colonial India," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1402, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    19. Roland Pongou, 2020. "Is Excess (Fe)Male Mortality Caused by the Prenatal Environment, Child Biology, or Parental Discrimination? New Evidence from Male-Female Twins," Working Papers 2008E Classification-I15,, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    20. Massimiliano Bratti & Simona Fiore & Mariapia Mendola, 2020. "The impact of family size and sibling structure on the great Mexico–USA migration," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(2), pages 483-529, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Child survival; Twins; Sibling sex; Sibling rivalry; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I19 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Other
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:242:y:2024:i:c:s0165176524003288. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.