ArticleScientific reports2019
Sex ratios at birth vary with environmental harshness but not maternal condition.
Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Historical Trends and Implications of the Sex Ratio at Birth in Georgia, 1926-2024.Research square · 2026Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the monthly proportion of male births and spontaneous fetal death rates in Japan: a descriptive epidemiological study using national vital statistics.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Association of preconception maternal glucocorticoid concentrations with sex ratio at birth: Evidence from a prospective cohort study.Annals of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Factors influencing sex ratio at birth in Krosno, Poland.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Socioeconomic status and sex ratio in the contemporary Hungarian population.Evolutionary human sciences · 2024Article
- Windows of Vulnerability: Consequences of Exposure Timing during the Dutch Hunger Winter.Population and development review · 2022Article
- Adult sex ratios: causes of variation and implications for animal and human societies.Communications biology · 2022Review
- The effect of nicotine-containing products and fetal sex on placenta-associated circulating midpregnancy biomarkers.Biology of sex differences · 2022Article
- An empirical analysis of the impact of gender inequality and sex ratios at birth on China's economic growth.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Girls start life on an uneven playing field: Evidence from lowland rural Nepal.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2022Article
- Foetal loss and feminine sex ratios at birth in sub-Saharan Africa.Population studies · 2021Article
- A cautionary tale for measuring the effect of the 10/17 Las Vegas shooting and the 01/18 Hawaii false missile alert.Early human development · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The sex ratio at birth (SRB) may be patterned by maternal condition and/or environmental stressors. However, despite decades of research, empirical results from across the social and biological sciences are equivocal on this topic. Using longitudinal individual-level data from a US population during the interwar period (1918-1939), inclusive of three distinct eras (Spanish Flu, Roaring '20 s, and the Great Depression), we evaluate predictions from two theoretical frameworks used to study patterning in SRB - (1) 'frail males' and (2) adaptive sex-biased investment theory (Trivers-Willard). The first approach centers on greater male susceptibility to exogenous stressors and argues that offspring survival should be expected to differ between 'good' and 'bad' times. The second approach contends that mothers themselves play a direct role in manipulating offspring SRB, and that those in better condition should invest more in sons. In-line with 'frail male' predictions, we find that boys are less likely to be born during the environmentally challenging times of the Spanish Flu and Great Depression. However, we find no evidence that maternal condition is associated with sex ratios at birth, a result inconsistent with the Trivers-Willard hypothesis.
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