| dc.description.abstract | With the time progressing, the number of births and fertility has been declining and makes the sex ratio at birth between boys and girls show a downward trend. By employing a data of married women who are aged 20-49 years old , and having at least one child in 1998 and 2004, this paper analyzes how the personal and environmental characteristic affects their gender preference for children (especially for son preference), and what is the effect of child gender preference affects the gender composition of their children.
This paper article uses “the 8th and 9th family and fertility survey and research data in Taiwan”, provided by the Bureau Health Promotion, Depart of Health, R.O.C. (Taiwan), to analyze how the personal and environmental characteristic affects the child gender preference of the women via the Ordered Probit Model, and how the child gender preference of the women affects the gender composition of their children via the Probit Model.
According to the analysis results, (1) there is a significant and negative effect to the child gender preference of the wife, if the wife were with the higher level of education and income. (2) If the wife cares more about having a son to carry on the family name, the child gender preference of the wife would be a significant and positive effect. (3) If the husband is the only son, or the marriage of women were arranged by their parents, the effect is also significant and positive to the child gender preference of the wife. (4) If the wife ,who already has more than three children with the first two are daughters, had a strong child gender preference, it would affect significantly and positive to the actual gender composition of the children. So we can speculate that the gender composition of the children is affected by the child gender preference of the wife.
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