Data for: Divorce, abortion, and the child sex ratio: The impact of divorce reform in China

Abstract of associated article: This paper estimates the effect of China's pro-women divorce reform on sex-selection behavior within marriages. The 2001 reform liberalized divorce in favor of women and secured women's property rights after separation. The paper applies a regression discontinuity analysis on the child sex ratio and finds that the likelihood of having a son after a firstborn daughter decreased by 8.1 percentage points, amounting to a reduction of 11.7% compared with the prior proportion of male children. Further analyses provide evidence in support of the hypothesis that improved divorce options empower women within marriage, and enable them to avoid health-damaging sex-selective abortion. The effect of the divorce reform is stronger in provinces where divorce is comparatively viable because of more lenient family planning policies governing fertility in the next marriage. The effect is also stronger among women who face higher health costs of abortion.关联论文摘要：本文旨在评估中国女性友好型离婚改革对婚姻内性别选择行为的影响。2001年的改革放宽了离婚限制并向女性倾斜，同时保障了女性分居后的财产权益。本文采用断点回归分析（regression discontinuity analysis）方法，针对出生人口性别比（child sex ratio）开展实证研究，发现第一胎为女儿后再生育儿子的概率下降了8.1个百分点，相较于此前的男婴占比，降幅达11.7%。进一步的分析为以下假说提供了实证支撑：离婚选择权的提升增强了女性在婚姻中的话语权，并使其能够规避损害健康的性别选择性人工流产（sex-selective abortion）。在因后续婚姻生育对应的计划生育政策更为宽松，从而离婚可行性相对更高的省份，该离婚改革的效应更为显著；在面临更高人工流产健康成本的女性群体中，该改革的效应同样更为突出。