Skewed Sex Ratio at Birth in Migratory Context: A Study on the Determinants of Prenatal Sex Selection in Italy

Elena Ambrosetti, University La Sapienza
Livia Elisa Ortensi, Università degli Studi di Milano - Bicocca
Cinzia Castagnaro, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)
Marina Attili, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)
Angela Paparusso , Institute of Research on Population and Social Policies (CNR-IRPPS)

Using data from different sources set up by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (i.e. the Survey on births from the Population Registers, the Longitudinal Register on reproductive histories and the Delivery Certificate Survey), the aim of our paper is to assess 1) if a skewed sex ratio at birth is observed among migrants; and 2) the possible factors affecting skewed SRB in migratory context. Preliminary results of the analysis of SRB by birth order show that it is above the biological constant for the period 2005-2016 for births of Albanian, Chinese, Indian and Tunisian couples. Descriptive analysis by birth order (first, second and third) and sex of the previous child shows significantly increased values of SRB for Indian communities when the first and second births were girls. To disentangle the determinants of skewed SRB we will implement a logistic regression model using the above-mentioned data sources linked together.

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 Presented in Session 7. Migration & Urbanization