Adamou, A., Drakos, C. and Iyer, S.

Missing women in the United Kingdom

IZA Journal of Migration

Vol. 2(10) (2013)

Abstract: This paper investigates the gender-selection decisions of immigrants in the United Kingdom, using data from the 1971–2006 General Household Survey. We examine sex-selection in the UK among immigrant families and the gender composition of previous births, conditional on socio-economic characteristics. Our key result is that better-educated immigrants balance their family after the birth of two sons, by having a daughter thereafter. Our study also is the first to estimate the number of missing women among Asian immigrants in a European country, contributing to research on the US and Canada that missing women are also a phenomenon of the developed world.

JEL Codes: J13, J15, O52, Z13

Author links: Sriya Iyer  

Publisher's Link: http://www.izajom.com/content/2/1/10