ArticlePopulation and development review2016
In the Pursuit of Sons: Additional Births or Sex-Selective Abortion in Pakistan?
Article in Population and development review, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Skewed sex ratios and violence against women in Pakistan.Evolutionary human sciences · 2025Article
- An exploration of psychological and socio-cultural facets in perinatal distress of Pakistani couples: a triangulated qualitative study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Article
- Learning to Value Girls: Balanced Infant Sex Ratios at Higher Parental Education in the United States, 1969-2018.Demography · 2022Article
- The list experiment: An approach to measuring stigmatized behaviours related to sex-selective abortion.Population studies · 2021Article
- The Effect of Reframing the Goals of Family Planning Programs from Limiting Fertility to Birth Spacing: Evidence from Pakistan.Studies in family planning · 2021Article
- Child Sex Composition, Parental Sex Preferences, and Marital Outcomes: Evidence From a Matrilineal Context.Journal of marriage and the family · 2019Article
- Psychological and Sociodemographic Predictors of Fertility Intention among Childbearing-Aged Women in Hamadan, West of Iran: An Application of the BASNEF Model.Korean journal of family medicine · 2019Article
- Adoption: A Strategy to Fulfill Sex Preferences of U.S. Parents.Journal of marriage and the family · 2019Article
- Parents mention sons more often than daughters on social media.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Even though Pakistan is a highly patriarchal society, it has not featured prominently in studies focusing on sex-selective abortion and sex ratios at birth. But with fertility declining and existing strong son preference-Pakistan has one of the highest desired sex ratios in the world-how will Pakistani families respond? In the pursuit of sons, will they have additional children or resort to sex-selective abortions? Or is there evidence that the pursuit of sons is weakening? Using data from three rounds of the demographic and health survey, we show clear evidence of son preference in fertility intentions, patterns of contraceptive use and parity progression ratios. More specifically, we find pervasive evidence that Pakistanis continue childbearing to have a son, to have more than one son and to have at least one daughter. We do not find consistent and convincing evidence that sex ratios at birth (which indicate sex-selective abortion) are increasing.
Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.