Preferences for a mixed-sex composition of offspring: A multigenerational approach

Abstract

Parents with two boys or two girls are more likely to have a third child than those with a ‘sex mix’. However, little is known on whether these ‘mixed-sex preferences’ extend beyond the nuclear family. This study leverages the random variation in sex at birth to assess whether the sex of nieces and nephews, in combination with own children, matters for fertility choices. Using three-generational data from the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), I show that extended families (including grandparents, their children, and their grandchildren) are collectively more likely to have three or more grandchildren when lacking sex mix, whether the first two grandchildren are siblings or cousins. I explore the pathways for these offspring sex preferences, finding support for a preference for an uninterrupted line of male descendants. This multigenerational approach also contributes a new estimation strategy that causally estimates the effects of family sizes on outcomes beyond fertility.

Keywords:

• fertility
• sex preferences
• causal
• balanced family
• intergenerational transmission
• peer effects
• parents
• siblings
• gender
• symbolic capital

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 This research was conducted while the author was at Princeton University. The author’s current affiliation is the European University Institute ([email protected]). Please direct all correspondence to Federica Querin, European University Institute, Via dei Roccettini 9, 50014 San Domenico di Fiesole FI, Italy; or by Email: [email protected]

2 I am grateful for feedback and support provided by Dalton Conley, Alícia Adserà, and the participants in the PopDays 2019 conference.

3 Funding: Research reported in this publication was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number P2CHD047879. The content is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.