[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-112860-en":3,"doc-seo-112860-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},112860,962075114101,"Seraphina","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/e000253a75eb197efd?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1780044092746381165",8,"Research & Report","Preventing More “Missing Girls” - A Review of Policies to Tackle Son Preference","In parts of Asia, the South Caucasus, and the Balkans, son preference drives prenatal and postnatal sex selection, leading to excess girl mortality and child sex ratios biased toward boys. Each year, an estimated 1.8 million girls “go missing,” reflecting both immediate gender inequities and long-term risks for women’s status. Governments have tried direct interventions such as banning prenatal sex-selection technologies and offering financial incentives for families with girls; cross-country evidence finds no conclusive effectiveness. Bans may worsen outcomes, incentives may yield only short-term gains, while policies that indirectly raise the value of daughters show more promise.","Pub lic Disclosure Authorized Pub lic Disclosure Authorized  \nPreventing More “Missing Girls”: A Review of Policies to Tackle Son  \nPreference  \nSneha Kumar and Nistha Sinha  \nIn parts of Asia, the South Caucasus, and the Balkans, son preference is strong enough to trigger significant levels of sex selection, resulting in the excess mortality of girls and skew ing child sex ratios in favor of boys. Every year, an estimated 1.8 million girls go “missing”because of the widespread use of sex selective practices in these regions. The pervasive use of such practices is reflective of the striking inequities girls face immediately, and it also has possible negative implications for efforts to improve women’s status in the long term. Recognizing this as a public policy concern, governments have employed direct measures such as banning the use of prenatal sex selection technology, and providing financial incentives to families that have girls. This study reviews cross-country experiences to take stock of the direct interventions used and finds no conclusive evidence that they are effective in reducing the higher mortality risk for girls. Infact, bans on the use of sex selection technology may inadvertently worsen the status of the very individuals they intend to protect, and financial incentives to families with girls offer only short-term benefits at most. Instead, what seems to work are policies that indirectly raise the value of daughters. The study also underscores the paucity of causal studies in this literature.  \nJEL codes: J13, J16, J18, O10, N35  \nKeywords: missing girls, sex ratios, sex selection, gender discrimination, Asia, South Caucasus.  \nIn parts of Asia, the South Caucasus, and the Balkans, son preference is strong enough to trigger substantial levels of prenatal and postnatal sex selection, resulting in the excess mortality of girls and skewing child sex ratios in favor of boys (see figure 1) . Every year, an estimated 1 . 8 million girls under the age of five go “missing”1  \nThe World Bank Research Observer  \n© The Author(s) 2019 . Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Bank for Reconstruction and  \nDevelopment / THE WORLD BANK. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [journals.permissions@oup.com](journals.permissions@oup.com)  \n[doi: 10.1093/wbro/lkz002 35:87](doi: 10.1093/wbro/lkz002 35:87)–[121](121)  \nDownloaded from [https://academic.oup.com/wbro/article/35/1/87/5540376 by International Monetary Fund user on 23 June 2021](https://academic.oup.com/wbro/article/35/1/87/5540376 by International Monetary Fund user on 23 June 2021)  \n\n| Figure 1 . Child Sex Ratios for Select Regions and Countries, 2010–2015 |  |\n| --- | --- |\n| SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA\u003Cbr>NORTHERN AMERICA EUROPE Pakistan Georgia India Vietnam Armenia Azerbaijan\u003Cbr>China |  |\n| 1.00 1.02 1.04 1.06 1.08 1.10 1.12 1.14 1.16\u003Cbr>Source: United Nations (2017) .\u003Cbr>Note: Child sex ratio: boys/girls, \u003C5years of age fig. 1 displays child sex ratios for countries where the ratio is greater than 1.06; 1.06 is used as a cutoff to restrict this figure to countries where the ratio of boys to girls is strikingly skewed. Normal child sex ratios, i.e., when there is no prenatal and postnatal sex selection, would be 1.00 or close to 1.00 . Normal sex ratios at birth (SRB), i.e., when there is no prenatal sex selection, would be 1.06 . The Republic of Korea is not included here because it has seen a turnaround in its sex ratio since the mid-1990s. |  |\n\nbecause of sex selective practices widely adopted in these regions (World Bank 2012) . To provide a sense of magnitude, this is almost as if the entire female population of Los Angeles, California, vanished every year.  \nWhile excess girl mortality has been documented in countries like mainland China, Taiwan, India, and Pakistan since the early twentieth century2 (Visaria 1971; Das Gupta and Li 1999), it is a more recent phenomenon in countries like Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Geor","cbCaipi2YCbhDPA2","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaipi2YCbhDPA2","pdf",383698,1,35,"English","en",105,"# Background and scale of the problem\n## Regions affected and evidence of excess mortality\n# Policy interventions reviewed\n## Bans on prenatal sex selection technology\n## Financial incentives for families with girls\n# Assessment of effectiveness\n## Lack of conclusive evidence for direct interventions\n## Potential adverse effects of bans\n# Alternative policy direction\n## Policies that raise the value of daughters\n# Research gaps\n## Limited causal studies","[{\"question\":\"What drives “missing girls” in the reviewed regions?\",\"answer\":\"Strong son preference enables prenatal and postnatal sex selection, producing excess mortality of girls and child sex ratios skewed toward boys.\"},{\"question\":\"Why do bans on prenatal sex-selection technology fail to reliably reduce girl mortality?\",\"answer\":\"Cross-country review finds no conclusive evidence of effectiveness; bans may inadvertently worsen the status of the individuals they aim to protect.\"},{\"question\":\"What policy approach is presented as more promising than direct bans or incentives?\",\"answer\":\"Policies that indirectly raise the value of daughters are suggested to work better than direct prohibitions or short-term financial incentives.\"}]",1784497756,88,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":85,"head_meta":87,"extra_data":89,"updated_unix":27},"preventing-more-missing-girls-a-review-of-policies-to-tackle-son-preference","",{"@graph":35,"@context":84},[36,53,67],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,50],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/preventing-more-missing-girls-a-review-of-policies-to-tackle-son-preference/112860/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":61,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":62,"interactionStatistic":63},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":40,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-19",true,{"@type":64,"interactionType":65,"userInteractionCount":4},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":66},"ViewAction",{"@type":68,"mainEntity":69},"FAQPage",[70,76,80],{"name":71,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":73},"What drives “missing girls” in the reviewed regions?","Question",{"text":74,"@type":75},"Strong son preference enables prenatal and postnatal sex selection, producing excess mortality of girls and child sex ratios skewed toward boys.","Answer",{"name":77,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":78},"Why do bans on prenatal sex-selection technology fail to reliably reduce girl mortality?",{"text":79,"@type":75},"Cross-country review finds no conclusive evidence of effectiveness; bans may inadvertently worsen the status of the individuals they aim to protect.",{"name":81,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":82},"What policy approach is presented as more promising than direct bans or incentives?",{"text":83,"@type":75},"Policies that indirectly raise the value of daughters are suggested to work better than direct prohibitions or short-term financial incentives.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":86,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":88,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":91},[92,96,100,104,109,114,119,122,127,130,134],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":105,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":120,"slug":121},30,"research-report",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":126},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":129},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":131,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":132,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":133},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":135,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":136,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":137},19,"General","general"]