Impact of prenatal sex selection on intimate partner violence against women: Evidence from India.

A reduction in unwanted births may have significant implications for intra-household dynamics and women's welfare. In recent decades, India has seen a sharp rise in sex-selective abortions following the diffusion of prenatal sex detection technology, leading to fewer unwanted female births. This paper studies the impact of prenatal sex selection on intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in India. We measure prenatal sex selection by interacting the state-level sex ratio at birth with the firstborn's sex, a proxy for a household's propensity to practice sex selection. Because sex-selective abortions are rare for first births, the firstborn's sex can be treated as quasi-random. We include state-survey round fixed effects to control for evolving state-level preferences. We show that this measure is positively associated with ultrasound use during pregnancy, terminated pregnancies, and the likelihood of male births, indicating higher incidence of sex-selective abortion. Using nationally representative National Family Health Survey data, we find that greater prenatal sex selection reduces women's exposure to IPV. This effect is not driven by reduced fertility, changes in women's bargaining power, or female labor supply. Instead, we find that it operates through a reduction in the gap between the desired and actual male-female sex ratio within households, bringing actual composition closer to desired composition.