Abstract
In belligerent countries, male-to-female sex ratios at birth increased during and shortly after the two world wars. These rises occurred amidst dramatically changed marriage-market conditions caused by war-related declines in adult sex ratios, and still defy explanation. Based on county-level census data for the German state of Bavaria in the years just before and immediately after World War II, we explore the reduced-form relationship between changes in marriage-market tightness (the adult sex ratio) and changes in the offspring sex ratio, and we discuss potential mechanisms that might link the two. Our results suggest that war-induced shortfalls of men significantly increased the percentage of boys among newborns.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 859-877 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Scandinavian Journal of Economics |
| Volume | 116 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 Jul |
Keywords
- Marriage markets
- Sex ratio at birth
- World War
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Economics and Econometrics