Abstract
I examine whether prenatal sex selection has substituted postnatal excess female mortality by analysing the dynamics of child sex ratios between 1980 and 2015 using country-level life table data. I decompose changes in child sex ratios into a ‘fertility’ component attributable to prenatal sex selection and a ‘mortality’ component attributable to sex differentials in postnatal survival. Although reductions in numbers of excess female deaths have accompanied increases in missing female births in all countries experiencing the emergence of prenatal sex selection, relative excess female mortality has persisted in some countries but not others. In South Korea, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, mortality reductions favouring girls accompanied increases in prenatal sex selection. In India, excess female mortality was much higher and largely stable as prenatal sex selection emerged, but slight reductions were seen in the 2000s. In China, although absolute measures showed reductions, relative excess female mortality persisted as prenatal sex selection increased.
Highlights
An extensive literature has documented the rise and spread of prenatal sex selection, as indicated by male-to-female sex ratios at birth (SRBs) becoming more masculine across Asia, the Caucasus, and parts of the Balkans (Guilmoto 2015)
By 2010–15, in all countries where sex ratio at birth (SRB) distortions were noted, missing female births resulting from prenatal sex selection contributed significantly more than excess female deaths to increases in the masculinity of CSRs
High levels of relative excess female mortality (30 per cent) in India persisted until 2010–15. Levels of both absolute and relative excess female mortality were much lower in China, like India, little reduction in relative excess mortality accompanied the SRB rise in China
Summary
ISSN: 0032-4728 (Print) 1477-4747 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rpst. I examine whether prenatal sex selection has substituted postnatal excess female mortality by analysing the dynamics of child sex ratios between 1980 and 2015 using country-level life table data. Reductions in numbers of excess female deaths have accompanied increases in missing female births in all countries experiencing the emergence of prenatal sex selection, relative excess female mortality has persisted in some countries but not others. In India, excess female mortality was much higher and largely stable as prenatal sex selection emerged, but slight reductions were seen in the 2000s. In China, absolute measures showed reductions, relative excess female mortality persisted as prenatal sex selection increased.
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