Wealth, Education, and Gender Bias: An Investigation into Rising Sex Ratios in Haryana, India

Over the past two decades, India has seen a startling rise in the male-to-female sex ratio of children under the age of 7, which has been especially troubling because it has taken place in the midst of rapid economic growth. My thesis aims to investigate why gender equality, often viewed as a consequence of economic development, has not improved despite rising income and education levels. More specifically, I attempt to test the hypothesis that both income and education have positive effects on male-to-female sex ratios at the household level. Using data collected from the state of Haryana, which has among the highest sex ratios in the nation, I regress family sex ratios on household income, landholdings, maternal education levels, including cohort, village, and district controls. Contrary to my hypothesis, I find that income, when separated from landholdings, has a negative effect on sex ratios, while land has a positive effect and education has no effect. The results of this paper emphasize the importance of distinguishing between income and land as different kinds of wealth that have opposing effects on sex ratios. This distinction makes it clear that the net cost of sons relative to daughters, as perceived by their parents, plays an important role in determining sex ratios, and therefore mus