The Disliked Daughter- A Theoretical Study of Societies with Missing Females

We develop a theoretical model to study sex selection behaviour as a collective choice constraint by a formidable set of actions which are not permissible, by incorporating social interactions wherein families induct biasness against girl child as a virtue of their collective dislike against daughters. The core feature of the equilibrium daughter dislike is the inverse relationship between gender equality and expected gains from sex selection. Using this framework, we study sex selection with fertility behaviour for families whose decisions are motivated by son preference vis-à-vis daughter aversion and find that sex selection is more for daughter averse families. Our main finding suggests masculinity in child population is a societal level problem and is autochthonous to societies where daughter dislike prevails, independent of son preference arising from social customs and practices. Morals and values also do matter for effective functioning of institutions formulating resistance against the diffusion of this malicious practice