Impact of terrorism on child sex at birth: evidence from Pakistan

Abstract

Using insights from the literature on psychology and medicine, we examine the impact of stress induced by terrorism on child sex at birth. The psychological and social stressors associated with terrorist events prior to conception may trigger changes in parental hormones that have an implication for birth outcomes. We extract data on 11,331 live births conceived between 2007 and 2012 from Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012–2013 and match these data with household information, monthly terrorist incidents at home district, and other district-level characteristics. Our analysis shows that parental exposure to terrorism prior to conception reduces the likelihood of a male birth. We examine the birth outcome of siblings by exploiting the variation in exposure to terrorism across pregnancies for a given mother and confirm our finding. The results provide microeconomic evidence of the potential long-term impact of terrorism on population dynamics and development.