论文标题
对产前环境，儿童生物学和父母偏见对幼年死亡率性别差异的影响的双重估计
Twin Estimates of the Effects of Prenatal Environment, Child Biology, and Parental Bias on Sex Differences in Early Age Mortality
论文作者
论文摘要
先前文献中已经通过生物构成和家庭资源分配中的性别歧视的差异来解释了幼年死亡率的性别差异。估计这些因素的影响的研究通常假定后代性别比例是随机的，鉴于最近的证据表明儿童的性别部分由产前环境因素决定。这些因素也可能影响子宫内或出生后的儿童健康和生存，这意味着解释死亡率性别差异的常规方法可能会产生偏见的估计。我们提出了一种将这些差异分解为产前环境，儿童生物学和父母偏好的影响的方法。使用大量的双胞胎，我们比较了印度男女双胞胎双子的死亡率，这个地区以歧视女儿而闻名，以及撒哈拉以南非洲，该地区的儿子和女儿被认为是由父母平等估价的。我们发现：（1）产前环境对男性儿童的死亡产生积极影响； （2）后者的生物构成有助于其过剩的死亡率，但其作用先前被高估了； （3）对印度女童的父母歧视对她们的生存产生负面影响；但是，未能控制产前和生物学因素的影响，导致常规方法在婴儿期低估其影响237％，而在儿童期为44％。
Sex differences in early age mortality have been explained in prior literature by differences in biological make-up and gender discrimination in the allocation of household resources. Studies estimating the effects of these factors have generally assumed that offspring sex ratio is random, which is implausible in view of recent evidence that the sex of a child is partly determined by prenatal environmental factors. These factors may also affect child health and survival in utero or after birth, which implies that conventional approaches to explaining sex differences in mortality are likely to yield biased estimates. We propose a methodology for decomposing these differences into the effects of prenatal environment, child biology, and parental preferences. Using a large sample of twins, we compare mortality rates in male-female twin pairs in India, a region known for discriminating against daughters, and sub-Saharan Africa, a region where sons and daughters are thought to be valued by their parents about equally. We find that: (1) prenatal environment positively affects the mortality of male children; (2) biological make-up of the latter contributes to their excess mortality, but its effect has been previously overestimated; and (3) parental discrimination against female children in India negatively affects their survival; but failure to control for the effects of prenatal and biological factors leads conventional approaches to underestimating its effect by 237 percent during infancy, and 44 percent during childhood.
