**Table 3:** The effect of a first-born girl on the number of children ever born

|dep var.||||# chil|dren ever bo|rn|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||Age|15-49|||Age|30-49|
|||all women|||cur|rently married|women||
|Sample||||all m|arried|continuously<br>married|all married|continuously<br>married|
||(1)|(2)|(3)|(4)|(5)|(6)|(7)|(8)|
|frst-born girl<br>age|0.025<br>(0.027)<br>0.289***|0.040*<br>(0.022)<br>0.488***|0.041*<br>(0.022)<br>0.491***|0.045*<br>(0.023)<br>0.466***|0.056**<br>(0.025)<br>0.451***|0.073***<br>(0.025)<br>0.441***|0.090**<br>(0.041)<br>0.576***|0.115***<br>(0.043)<br>0.529***|
||(0.025)|(0.020)|(0.020)|(0.023)|(0.022)|(0.023)|(0.117)|(0.126)|
|age sq.<br>age at frst birth<br>eduyrs|-0.002***<br>(0.000)|-0.004***<br>(0.000)<br>-0.256***<br>(0.003)|-0.004***<br>(0.000)<br>-0.251***<br>(0.003)<br>-0.027***<br>(0.003)|-0.004***<br>(0.000)<br>-0.255***<br>(0.005)<br>-0.023***<br>(0.004)|-0.003***<br>(0.000)<br>-0.249***<br>(0.005)<br>-0.023***<br>(0.004)|-0.003***<br>(0.000)<br>-0.246***<br>(0.005)<br>-0.023***<br>(0.004)|-0.005***<br>(0.002)<br>-0.238***<br>(0.006)<br>-0.028***<br>(0.006)|-0.004***<br>(0.002)<br>-0.233***<br>(0.007)<br>-0.029***<br>(0.006)|
|husband age||||0.038***<br>(0.008)|0.037***<br>(0.008)|0.035***<br>(0.008)|0.042**<br>(0.017)|0.042**<br>(0.017)|
|husband age sq.||||-0.000***<br>(0.000)|-0.000***<br>(0.000)|-0.000***<br>(0.000)|-0.001***<br>(0.000)|-0.001***<br>(0.000)|
|husband eduyrs||||-0.001|0.001|-0.000|-0.001|-0.002|
|||||(0.003)|(0.003)|(0.003)|(0.005)|(0.005)|
|age at frst marriage||||-0.006|-0.008|-0.012**|-0.003|-0.007|
|||||(0.005)|(0.005)|(0.006)|(0.006)|(0.007)|
|frst-born dead|||||0.531***<br>(0.045)|0.595***<br>(0.048)|0.619***<br>(0.067)|0.715***<br>(0.073)|
|frst-born girl x|||||0.010|-0.062|0.021|-0.079|
|frst-born dead|||||(0.067)|(0.069)|(0.099)|(0.106)|
|Observations|23440|23440|23440|20479|20479|17587|11897|9775|
|R-squared|0.529|0.664|0.665|0.675|0.681|0.705|0.510|0.543|

_Notes._ OLS estimates. Robust standard errors adjusted for clustering at the household level in parentheses. Sample of women indicated at the top of the table. Using survey weights. Includes six region dummies, urban dummy, birth year fixed effects, ethnicity and religion, ethnic and region-specific time trends, and a wealth index.<sup>_∗∗∗_</sup> ,<sup>_∗∗_</sup> , and<sup>_∗_</sup> indicate significance at 1%, 5% and 10% levels, respectively.

The rising coefficient of _firstborngirl_ across specifications in table 3 confirms that it is important to control for observable characteristics. In particular, surviving women with first-born daughters tend to be more educated and to have the first child later. Since education and age at first birth are negatively correlated with fertility, ignoring these controls would lead to underestimating the effect of a first-born girl on fertility. Similarly, not taking into account that boys are biologically weaker than girls at young ages and are therefore more likely to die would generate a downward bias since mortality is associated with higher fertility.

The results so far suggest that the sex composition of earlier-born children affects subsequent _realized_ fertility. The next question is whether it has an effect on mothers’ fertility preferences. Table 4 shows that women with a first-born girl are 1 _._ 8 percentage points (significant at the 5% level) more likely to report that they want another child than those with a first-born son (column 19