Gender and savings in rural India

In this study we use data from rural India to examine the impact of the bir th of a boy relative to the birth of a girl (i.e., the "gender shock") on t he savings, consumption and income of rural Indian households, We find that the gender shock reduces savings for medium and large farm households, alt hough there is no evidence that the shock affects savings for the landless and the small farm households. We also estimate the effect of the shock on income and consumption for the former group in order to determine the sourc e of the drop in savings. The results indicate that the fall in savings sub sequent to the gender shock arises from its effect on consumption in the ye ar following the birth, and from its effect on income in other years.