Religion and abortion: the role of politician identity

Leveraging close elections to generate quasi-random variation in the religious identity of state legislators in India, we find lower rates of female foeticide in districts with Muslim legislators, which we argue reflects a greater (religious) aversion to abortion among Muslims. These districts exhib...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Bhalotra, Sonia (Author) ; Clots-Figueras, Irma 1977- (Author) ; Lakshmi Iyer (Author)
Format: Electronic Book
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
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Published: Bonn, Germany IZA January 2018
In: Discussion paper series (no. 11292)
Year: 2018
Series/Journal:Discussion paper / IZA no. 11292
Further subjects:B Grey literature
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Summary:Leveraging close elections to generate quasi-random variation in the religious identity of state legislators in India, we find lower rates of female foeticide in districts with Muslim legislators, which we argue reflects a greater (religious) aversion to abortion among Muslims. These districts exhibit increases in fertility that offset the decrease in girl abortion. We find no evidence of greater postnatal neglect of girls once more girls are born. Our findings show that politician preferences over abortion influence abortion-related outcomes, most likely through greater enforcement of laws against sex determination.
Persistent identifiers:HDL: 10419/177096