New evidence on son preference among immigrant households in the United States

Panel A: Demographics	Mean	SD
Household size	3.99	0.98
Family income	98,810	89,883
Mother in labor force	0.62	0.49
Mother’s age at marriage	27.87	5.86
Mother’s age of first birth	26.61	4.74
Mother’s education high school and above	0.93	0.25
Mother’s education bachelor’s degree and above	0.46	0.5
Father in labor force	0.92	0.27
Father’s education high school and above	0.89	0.31
Father’s education bachelor’s degree and above	0.39	0.49
Panel B: Country of Birth/Ancestry

First-generation immigrants	0.21	0.41
Year of migration	2000.7	9.68
Immigrants from East, SE Asian countries and regions	0.07	0.26
Immigrants from China	0.01	0.1
Immigrants from Japan	0.003	0.05
Immigrants from Korea	0.01	0.07
Immigrants from the Philippines	0.01	0.1
Immigrants from Vietnam	0.01	0.08
Immigrants from India	0.02	0.15
Higher-order generation immigrants (SE Asian countries)	0.02	0.14
Panel C: Household Fertility

Number of children	1.91	0.89
% of household with all girls	0.3	0.46
% of household with all boys	0.32	0.47
% of household with mix	0.38	0.49

[i] Notes: The sample covers families with married mothers between age 18 and 40, and with at least one child and the oldest one is 12 years old or younger in the United States. The unit of observations is the household, and there are 490,858 households in the sample. Source: American Community Survey from 2012 to 2016.

Table 2

Son preference in the United States

Dep var.	Fertility			Male child
Dep var.	2nd child born (1)	3rd child born (2)	3rd child born (3)	2nd child male (4)	3rd child male (5)	3rd child male (6)
Full Sample
All girls	−0.002	0.032***	−0.004	−0.005***	0.019***	−0.003
	(0.001)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.001)	(0.002)	(0.002)
Mix			-0.056***			−0.035***
			(0.002)			(0.002)
Native-Born

All girls	−0.004***	0.030***	−0.008***	−0.005***	0.018***	−0.005***
	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.003)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)
Mix			-0.060***			−0.037***
			(0.002)			(0.002)
First-generation Immigrants

All girls	0.006**	0.038***	0.014***	−0.002	0.023***	0.008**
	(0.003)	(0.004)	(0.005)	(0.003)	(0.003)	(0.004)
Mix			−0.039***			−0.024***
			(0.004)			(0.003)
First-generation Immigrants from Countries other than South East Asia

All girls	−0.002	0.034***	0.007	−0.005	0.019***	0.002
	(0.004)	(0.005)	(0.006)	(0.004)	(0.004)	(0.005)
Mix			−0.042***			−0.026***
			(0.005)			(0.004)
South East Asian Immigrants

All girls	0.023***	0.050***	0.031***	0.005	0.035***	0.024***
	(0.005)	(0.006)	(0.008)	(0.005)	(0.005)	(0.006)
Mix			−0.029***			−0.017***
			(0.006)			(0.005)

[i] Notes: The dependent variable Fertility is equal to 1 for mothers having another child within 6 years of previous child’s birth. 2nd Child Born represents the sample of families with at least one child and may still have additional children after this window or a second birth. The unit of observations is the household, and the sample size for this regressions is 480,360; 383,683; 101,310; 66,718; 34,592, respectively. 3rd Child Born represents the sample of families with at least two children and may have additional children later. The sample size is 308,378; 248,195; 63,093; 44,261; 18,832, respectively, for these regressions. *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01.

Source: American Community Survey from 2012 to 2016.

Table 3

Child gender and mother’s marital status

	Full sample	Natives	First-generation immigrants	Non-South East Asian immigrants	South East Asian immigrants
All girls	0.005***	0.006***	0.003**	0.003***	0.002
	(0.000)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)
Number of observations	1,112,703	874,581	249,433	171,255	78,178

[i] Notes: The dependent variable is a dummy equal to 1 if the mother with at least one child is divorced, separated, or never married. *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01.

Source: American Community Survey from 2012 to 2016.

Table 4

Son preference by maternal country of origin

Dep var.	Fertility			Male child
Dep var.	2nd child born (1)	3rd child born (2)	3rd child born (3)	2nd child born (4)	3rd child born (5)	3rd child born (6)
Chinese
All girls	0.012*	0.080***	0.069***	0.004	0.057***	0.050***
	(0.006)	(0.008)	(0.009)	(0.005)	(0.006)	(0.007)
Mix			−0.018***			−0.010*
			(0.007)			(0.005)
Japanese

All girls	−0.020*	0.009	−0.030*	−0.017*	0.002	−0.013
	(0.011)	(0.014)	(0.017)	(0.010)	(0.011)	(0.014)
Mix			−0.061***			−0.023*
			(0.015)			(0.012)
Korean

All girls	0.012	0.066***	0.040***	0.007	0.033***	0.015*
	(0.007)	(0.009)	(0.011)	(0.007)	(0.007)	(0.009)
Mix			−0.041***			−0.027***
			(0.009)			(0.007)
Philippine

All girls	0.007	0.042***	0.024**	0.002	0.028***	0.016*
	(0.006)	(0.008)	(0.010)	(0.005)	(0.007)	(0.008)
Mix			−0.029***			−0.018***
			(0.008)			(0.007)
Vietnamese

All girls	0.010	0.057***	0.026**	0.005	0.024***	0.003
	(0.007)	(0.010)	(0.012)	(0.007)	(0.008)	(0.010)
Mix			−0.047***			−0.032***
			(0.010)			(0.008)
Indian

All girls	0.018***	0.068***	0.056***	0.017***	0.048***	0.045***
	(0.005)	(0.005)	(0.006)	(0.004)	(0.005)	(0.005)
Mix			−0.017***			−0.004
			(0.005)			(0.004)

[i] Notes: See Table 2 notes for definitions. The sample size for each group in Columns (1) and (4) is 25,936; 7,631; 17,474; 26,812; 16,910; 38,479, respectively. The sample size for each group in Columns (2, 3, 5, and 6) is 13,301; 4,267; 10,368; 15,092; 10,264; 19,890, respectively. *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01.

Source: Census and American Community Survey samples from 1980 to 2017.

Son preference—fertility timing; regression adjusted means with confidence intervals

Son preference—male births, regression adjusted means with confidence intervals

Table 5

Son preference and parental background

Dep var.	Has 3rd child				3rd child is male
Dep var.	Main sample (1)	Asian mom and dad (2)	Asian mom and non-Asian dad (3)	Asian dad and non-Asian mom (4)	Main sample (5)	Asian mom and dad (6)	Asian mom and non-Asian dad (7)	Asian dad and non-Asian mom (8)
Chinese
All girls	0.069***	0.090***	0.003	−0.038	0.050***	0.068***	0.006	−0.015
	(0.009)	(0.010)	(0.032)	(0.060)	(0.007)	(0.008)	(0.025)	(0.048)
N	13,301	10,456	1,172	491	13,301	10,456	1,172	491
Japanese

All girls	−0.030*	−0.064***	−0.011	−0.092*	−0.013	−0.037*	0.008	−0.083*
	(0.017)	(0.025)	(0.028)	(0.055)	(0.014)	(0.020)	(0.022)	(0.044)
N	4,267	2,067	1,708	545	4,267	2,067	1,708	545
Korean

All girls	0.040***	0.053***	0.004	−0.009	0.015*	0.026**	−0.015	0.039
	(0.011)	(0.013)	(0.024)	(0.061)	(0.009)	(0.010)	(0.019)	(0.049)
N	10,368	6,976	2,546	536	10,368	6,976	2,546	536
Philippine

All girls	0.024**	0.036***	−0.001	−0.017	0.016*	0.026**	0.005	0.069**
	(0.010)	(0.013)	(0.018)	(0.037)	(0.008)	(0.011)	(0.015)	(0.032)
N	15,092	8,872	4,474	1,320	15,092	8,872	4,474	1,320
Vietnamese

All girls	0.026**	0.027*	−0.003	0.105	0.003	0.002	−0.001	0.065
	(0.012)	(0.014)	(0.042)	(0.069)	(0.010)	(0.011)	(0.034)	(0.057)
N	10,264	8,406	937	431	10,264	8,406	937	431
Indian

All girls	0.056***	0.057***	−0.069	0.020	0.045***	0.048***	−0.046	0.068*
	(0.006)	(0.007)	(0.062)	(0.047)	(0.005)	(0.005)	(0.055)	(0.036)
N	19,890	18,422	397	724	19,890	18,422	397	724

[i] Notes: All regressions additionally control for mix. *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01.

Source: Census and American Community Survey samples from 1980 to 2017.

Table 6

The acquisition of son preference beliefs over the life cycle

	Fertility (1)	Male child (2)
2nd Child Born
All girls	−0.008	−0.018**
	(0.009)	(0.008)
Arrived at age 9+	−0.110***	−0.060***
	(0.006)	(0.006)
All girls*arrived at age 9+	0.021**	0.027***
	(0.009)	(0.008)
Observations	136,931	136,931
3rd Child Born

All girls	−0.020	0.001
	(0.014)	(0.012)
Arrived at age 9+	−0.138***	−0.066***
	(0.011)	(0.008)
All girls*arrived at age 9+	0.065***	0.028**
	(0.015)	(0.012)
Mix	−0.084***	−0.037***
	(0.012)	(0.010)
Mix*arrived at age 9+	0.060***	0.022**
	(0.013)	(0.010)
Observations	75,280	75,280

[i] Notes: See Table 2 notes for definitions. *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01.

Source: Census and American Community Survey samples from 1980 to 2017.

Table 7

The intergenerational persistence of son preference

Dep var.	Fertility			Male child
Dep var.	2nd child born (1)	3rd child born (2)	3rd child born (3)	2nd child male (4)	3rd child male (5)	3rd child male (6)
SE Asian
All girls	−0.003	0.025***	−0.008	−0.002	0.017**	−0.004
	(0.007)	(0.009)	(0.011)	(0.007)	(0.007)	(0.009)
Mix			−0.052***			−0.032***
			(0.009)			(0.007)
Chinese

All girls	−0.012	−0.010	−0.044**	−0.002	−0.002	−0.025
	(0.012)	(0.016)	(0.020)	(0.011)	(0.013)	(0.016)
Mix			−0.053***			−0.035***
			(0.017)			(0.013)
Japanese

All girls	0.000	0.020	−0.028	0.013	0.023*	0.008
	(0.011)	(0.015)	(0.018)	(0.011)	(0.012)	(0.015)
Mix			−0.073***			−0.024**
			(0.015)			(0.012)
Korean

All girls	−0.020	0.075***	0.059*	−0.024	0.054**	0.045*
	(0.020)	(0.026)	(0.032)	(0.018)	(0.021)	(0.025)
Mix			−0.025			−0.014
			(0.026)			(0.020)
Philippine

All girls	−0.004	0.042***	0.014	0.005	0.018	0.001
	(0.011)	(0.016)	(0.019)	(0.010)	(0.012)	(0.015)
Mix			−0.042***			−0.027**
			(0.015)			(0.013)
Vietnamese

All girls	0.024	0.034	−0.011	0.013	0.001	−0.027
	(0.030)	(0.044)	(0.053)	(0.027)	(0.037)	(0.045)
Mix			−0.069*			−0.042
			(0.041)			(0.034)
Indian

All girls	0.026	0.068***	0.062**	−0.003	0.040**	0.032
	(0.019)	(0.025)	(0.029)	(0.018)	(0.019)	(0.022)
Mix			−0.010			−0.012
			(0.025)			(0.018)

[i] Notes: The samples contain families who are descendants of immigrants of those Asian countries. Left panel: The sample size for each group is 19,058; 6,338; 7,366; 7,932; 2,724; 1,168; 2,442, respectively. Right panel: The sample size for each group is 10,960; 3,579; 4,312; 1,398; 4,724; 632; 1,375, respectively. *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01.

Source: Census and American Community Survey samples from 1980 to 2017.

Table A1

Summary statistics

Panel A: Demographics	Mean	SD
Household size	4.09	1.27
Family income	25,120	25,341
Mother in labor force	0.97	0.18
Mother’s age at marriage	25.68	3.87
Mother’s age of first birth	27.73	4.39
Mother’s education high school and above	0.90	0.30
Mother’s education bachelor’s degree and above	0.54	0.50
Father in labor force	0.97	0.18
Father’s education high school and above	0.91	0.29
Father’s education bachelor’s degree and above	0.57	0.49
Panel B: Country of Birth/Ancestry

First-generation immigrants	0.74	0.44
Year of migration	1992	11.98
Immigrants from East, SE Asian countries and regions	0.70	0.46
Immigrants from China	0.13	0.34
Immigrants from Japan	0.04	0.19
Immigrants from Korea	0.09	0.29
Immigrants from the Philippines	0.14	0.34
Immigrants from Vietnam	0.09	0.28
Immigrants from India	0.20	0.40
Higher-order generation immigrants (SE Asian countries)	0.10	0.30
Panel C: Household Fertility

Number of children	1.72	0.76
% of household with all girls	0.33	0.47
% of household with all boys	0.35	0.48
% of household with mix	0.32	0.47

[i] Notes: The sample covers Asian immigrant families with married mothers between age 18 and 40, and with at least one child and the oldest one is 12 years old or younger in the United States. The unit of observations is the household, and there are 198,016 households in the sample.

Source: Census and American Community Survey samples from 1980 to 2017.

Table A2

Fertility change regressions in the United States with covariates shown

	Full sample	Natives	First-generation immigrants	Non-SE Asian immigrants	SE Asian immigrants
All girls	−0.002	−0.004***	0.006**	−0.002	0.023***
	(0.001)	(0.002)	(0.003)	(0.004)	(0.005)
Mother’s education high school	−0.090***	−0.092***	−0.081***	−0.079***	−0.080***
and above	(0.003)	(0.004)	(0.005)	(0.005)	(0.012)
Mother’s education bachelor’s	−0.053***	−0.046***	−0.087***	−0.056***	−0.094***
degree and above	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.004)	(0.005)	(0.007)
Mother’s age at marriage	−0.015***	−0.017***	−0.009***	−0.009***	−0.009***
	(0.001)	(0.001)	0.000	0.000	(0.001)
Family income	0.000***	0.000***	0.000***	0.000***	0.000***
	(0.001)	(0.001)	0.000	0.000	(0.001)
Father’s education high school	−0.007***	−0.002	−0.020***	−0.021***	0.016
and above	(0.003)	(0.003)	(0.005)	(0.005)	(0.012)
Father’s education bachelor’s	0.011***	0.022***	−0.025***	0.015***	−0.043***
degree and above	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.004)	(0.005)	(0.007)
Male Household	0.011***	0.004**	0.024***	0.014***	0.019***
	(0.001)	(0.002)	(0.003)	(0.004)	(0.006)
Mother’s age	0.023***	0.024***	0.019***	0.015***	0.030***
	(0.001)	(0.001)	0.000	0.000	(0.001)
Constant	0.227***	0.396***	0.282***	0.399***	−0.03
	(0.019)	(0.018)	(0.065)	(0.075)	(0.139)
Number of observations	480,360	383,683	101,310	66,718	34,592

[i] Notes: See Notes for Table 1. *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01.

Source: American Community Survey from 2012 to 2016.

Table A3

Son preference among first-generation immigrants from Asia (recent ACS sample)

Dep var.	Fertility			Male child
Dep var.	2nd child born (1)	3rd child born (2)	3rd child born (3)	2nd child born (4)	3rd child born (5)	3rd child born (6)
China
All girls	0.043***	0.079***	0.064***	0.009	0.065***	0.061***
	(0.013)	(0.017)	(0.019)	(0.012)	(0.014)	(0.015)
Mix			−0.023 (0.015)			−0.006 (0.011)
Japan

All girls	−0.036	0.002	−0.04	−0.024	0.003	−0.031
	(0.027)	(0.039)	(0.045)	(0.025)	(0.031)	(0.037)
Mix			−0.068*			−0.054*
			(0.037)			(0.030)
Korea

All girls	0.016	0.027	−0.003	0.012	0.014	0.012
	−0.018	−0.025	−0.03	−0.018	−0.018	−0.022
Mix			−0.046*			−0.002
			(0.024)			(0.018)
Philippines

All girls	0.013	0.043**	0.029	0	0.016	0.013
	(0.014)	(0.020)	(0.024)	(0.013)	(0.016)	(0.019)
Mix			−0.021			−0.005
			(0.020)			(0.016)
Vietnam

All girls	0.034**	0.094***	0.069**	0	0.056***	0.042*
	(0.017)	(0.023)	(0.027)	(0.017)	(0.019)	(0.023)
Mix			−0.040*			−0.022
			(0.022)			(0.018)
India

All girls	0.029***	0.037***	0.027***	0.011	0.029***	0.021**
	(0.009)	(0.008)	(0.010)	(0.008)	(0.007)	(0.008)
Mix			−0.016**			−0.013**
			(0.008)			(0.006)

[i] Notes: See Table 2 notes for definitions. The sample size for each group in Columns (1) and (4) is 5,126; 1,364; 2,671; 4,601; 3,099; 11,282 respectively. The sample size for each group in columns (2, 3, 5, and 6) is 2,620; 775; 1,549; 2,505; 5,655, respectively. *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01.

Source: American Community Survey from 2012 to 2016.

Table A4

The intergenerational transmission of son preference (recent ACS sample)

Dep var.	Fertility			Male child
Dep var.	2nd child born (1)	3rd child born (2)	3rd child born (3)	2nd child male (4)	3rd child male (5)	3rd child male (6)
SE Asian
All girls	0.01	0.046***	0.018	−0.003	0.019*	−0.007
	(0.010)	(0.014)	(0.016)	(0.009)	(0.011)	(0.013)
Mix			−0.045***			−0.041***
			(0.013)			(0.011)
China

All girls	0.015	0.036	−0.007	0.007	0.028	0.002
	(0.021)	(0.029)	(0.035)	(0.020)	(0.025)	(0.029)
Mix			−0.068**			−0.041*
			(0.029)			(0.023)
Korea

All girls	−0.002	0.105**	0.046	−0.001	0.074**	0.023
	(0.030)	(0.042)	(0.052)	(0.028)	(0.033)	(0.041)
Mix			−0.090**			−0.078**
			(0.041)			(0.033)
Philippines

All girls	0.005	0.061**	0.049	−0.003	0.009	−0.02
	(0.019)	(0.027)	(0.032)	(0.018)	(0.021)	(0.025)
Mix			−0.018			−0.046**
			(0.026)			(0.021)
Vietnam

All girls	0.018	0.073	0.005	0.051	−0.031	−0.071
	(0.042)	(0.066)	(0.077)	(0.040)	(0.051)	(0.062)
Mix			−0.098*			−0.057
			(0.057)			(0.051)
India

All girls	0.035	0.088**	0.109***	−0.029	0.058**	0.076***
	(0.027)	(0.035)	(0.040)	(0.025)	(0.027)	(0.028)
Mix			0.032			0.028
			(0.033)			(0.021)

[i] Notes: The samples contain families who are descendants of immigrants of those Asian countries. The dependent variable, fertility, indicates having another child within 6 years of previous child’s birth. “2nd child born” represents the sample of families with at least one child and may have additional children later. The unit of observations is the household, and the sample size for each group is 9,491; 2,067; 1,078; 2,724; 574; 1,238 respectively. The sample size for each group is 5,520; 1,154; 626; 1,609; 313; 720 respectively. *p<0.1, **p<0.05, ***p<0.01.

Source: American Community Survey from 2012 to 2016.

Table A5

Marriage patterns

Spouse’s birthplace or ancestry	First-generation immigrants
Spouse’s birthplace or ancestry	China	Japan	Korea	Philippines	Vietnam	India
First-generation immigrants
China	0.77	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.02	0.01
Japan	0.01	0.38	0.01	0.01	0.00	0.00
Korea	0.01	0.01	0.65	0.00	0.00	0.00
Philippines	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.61	0.00	0.00
Vietnam	0.02	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.82	0.00
India	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.92
Higher-order generation immigrants

China	0.11	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.02	0.00
Japan	0.01	0.03	0.00	0.01	0.00	0.00
Korea	0.01	0.00	0.13	0.01	0.01	0.00
Philippines	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.12	0.00	0.00
Vietnam	0.01	0.00	0.01	0.01	0.24	0.00
India	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.33

[i] Notes: The entry represents the proportion of the race of first-generation or higher-order generation immigrants’ husband. For example, the first entry, 0.77, indicates that 77% of first-generation Chinese immigrants (mothers) get married with the first-generation immigrants from abroad of the United States.

Source: Census and American Community Survey samples from 1980 to 2017.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/izajodm-2020-0014 | Journal eISSN: 2520-1786

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Language: English

Published on: Aug 17, 2020

Published by: Sciendo

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

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