印度的男孩偏好、代际家庭动态与女性心理健康
Son preference, intergenerational household dynamics, and women’s mental health in India
Journal of Development Economics · 2026 · [{"name": "S Anukriti", "affiliation": ["World Bank Group"]}, {"name": "Catalina Herrera‐Almanza", "affiliation": ["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]}, {"name": "S M Mostaq Hossain", "affiliation": ["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]}, {"name": "Mahesh Karra", "affiliation": ["Columbia University"]}]
中文摘要
我们利用印度农村扩展家庭的原始调查数据，考察重男轻女如何跨代影响女性心理健康。利用头胎子女性别的外生变异，我们发现，同住儿媳（DIL）头胎为儿子的婆婆（MIL）面临焦虑或抑郁的风险低15%。相比之下，头胎性别对儿媳心理健康平均而言没有影响，尽管在生育窗口即将关闭的年长儿媳中，未生育儿子的不利影响开始显现。我们还发现，儿媳的头胎儿子会使婆婆的时间分配转向育儿，并在孩子年幼时增加其对儿媳就业的支持，从而提高较年轻儿媳的劳动力参与率。这些发现揭示了一条将重男轻女与女性心理健康、家庭内部动态以及生育之外的经济结果相联系的代际路径。
Abstract
We examine how son preference affects women’s mental health across generations using original survey data from extended households in rural India. Leveraging exogenous variation in the sex of the firstborn child, we find that mothers-in-law (MILs) whose co-resident daughter-in-law (DIL) had a firstborn son face a 15 percent lower risk of anxiety or depression. In contrast, firstborn sex has no average effect on DIL mental health, although adverse effects of not having a son emerge among older DILs who face a closing reproductive window. We also find that a DIL’s firstborn son shifts MIL time allocation toward childcare and increases her support for DIL employment when children are young, boosting younger DILs’ labor force participation. These findings reveal an intergenerational pathway linking son preference to women’s mental health, intrahousehold dynamics, and economic outcomes beyond fertility alone.