WILL SEX SELECTION REDUCE FERTILITY

This paper investigates both theoretically and numerically the impact of sex selection on fertility. A static quantity-quality model of fert ility is employed to compare fertility choices in two regimes: one in which parents cannot choose the gender of children and another in whic h parents can fully choose the gender of children. The static theory s hows that whether sex selection reduces fertility depends on the secon d and third derivatives of the utility function and the child expendit ure function. A numerical dynamic analysis is also presented. Using em pirical dynamic models of fertility and Monte Carlo integration techni que, the simulation shows that sex selection on the firstborn child am ong the Chinese in Malaysia could reduce fertility by about 3%.