This paper extends the existing literature on son preference using an epidemiological approach to determine which cultural beliefs contribute most to son preference. We measure son preference by the increased fertility response due to a first-born female child. The coefficient giving the increase in the fertility response to a first-born female associated with a change in the equity index grows by over 50% when religious variables are included. We believe this highlights the importance of controlling for multiple cultural factors which may be correlated across home countries. The analysis shows that the major cultural determinants of son preference are gender economic inequities, while measures of women's relative educational and political standing are largely irrelevant. Across the distribution of economic equity on our sample, the fertility response to a first-born female change from a 6.5% increase to a 1.6% decrease in the average number of children per household.

中文翻译：

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文化与儿子偏好：来自美国移民的证据

本文使用流行病学方法扩展了关于儿子偏好的现有文献，以确定哪些文化信仰对儿子偏好的贡献最大。我们通过由于第一个出生的女孩而增加的生育反应来衡量儿子的偏好。当包括宗教变量时，与权益指数变化相关的第一胎女性生育反应增加的系数增加了 50% 以上。我们认为这凸显了控制可能与母国相关的多种文化因素的重要性。分析表明，重男轻女的主要文化决定因素是性别经济不平等，而衡量女性相对教育和政治地位的措施在很大程度上是无关紧要的。在我们样本的经济公平分布中，