Child-specific son preference, birth order and cognitive skills in early childhood

We propose an innovative child-specific measure of son preference. It allows to explicitly address birth order and sex composition effects. We first establish that, when using this child-specific measure, son preference is more common among later born children and in families with fewer sons. We then study the son preference-specific girl-penalty in early cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Son preferences have adverse effects on cognitive and language skills of two-year-old girls at higher birth orders, for girls with sisters and for girls of mothers with a high number of desired sons.