How Does Intra-household Competition Influence Fertility Behaviour in Presence of Social Norms in India?

Abstract

Son preference, a social norm favouring sons over daughters, remains a pressing concern in South and East Asia. In India, in particular, norms such as patrilocality, inheritance through sons, expectations of old-age support from sons, and the burden of dowry for daughters give rise to male-biased sex ratios. While the existing literature has focused on individual fertility choices under these norms, less attention has been given to the role of intra-household dynamics experienced in multi-generational extended households. In such households, sisters-in-law (the wives of co-residing brothers) often live together, generating peer effects and influencing each other's fertility behaviour. We study whether the quasi-random assignment of the sex of a sister-in-law’s first-born child influences women’s fertility behaviour in a competitive environment, and in presence of son-preferring social norms. We use three rounds of the Demographic and Health Survey of India (2005-2006, 2015-2016 and 2019-2021) and focus on the households with at least two co-residing sisters-in-law, we include household fixed effects and individual controls. The results indicate that women whose sister-in-law has had a first-born son are 7 percentage points less likely to use contraception, 29 percentage points more likely to exhibit son-stopping fertility behaviour (defined as having a last-born boy with all previous births being girls), and 7 percentage points more likely to have more than two children. Our findings suggest that policies aiming to reduce gender bias should incorporate the role of extended family structures and intra-household peer effects.