Patrilocality and Child Sex Ratios in India

Abstract

In multi-level and multi-layered foundations of gendered approaches for understanding the kinship system, family-building behavior, son preference, and male-skewed child sex ratios in India; patriarchy and patrilineality have received greater attention than patrilocality. To fill this gap, we construct a measure of patrilocality and hypothesize that households practice sex selection and daughter discrimination because of patrilocality norms that dictate the later life co-residence between parents and sons. Our findings reveal that the child sex ratio, sex ratio at birth, and sex ratio at last birth are negatively correlated with patrilocality rates across states and districts of India. The robustness of these findings is verified by using alternative definitions of patrilocality, examining the association between patrilocality and patrilineality, and assessing the relationship between patrilocality and child sex ratios across states and by urbanization levels. We conclude that, in the absence of strong social security measures and a lack of preference for old-age homes, amidst the accepted practice of patrilocality coupled with increasingly lower fertility norms, the dependency on sons will continue, leading to the continuation of sex selection in India.