# **_4. Policy options_**

What policies can reduce sex-selection? Clearly broad efforts to increase gender equity, especially in access to schooling, paid work, credit, inheritance, political representation, and related efforts can help women be economically productive and active in the public sphere. Similarly, as discussed above, urbanization and industrialization undermine traditional kinship systems and help reduce the gap between the value of boys and girls to their parents. Such policies were strongly implemented during the Soviet era in the South Caucasus countries, and the progress made needs to be sustained and intensified.

One direct approach is to restrict access to (or ban) prenatal sex-detection and/or sex-selective abortion. Such bans have been tried in several countries, including the Republic of Korea, China, and India. In all three countries, efforts to implement the bans were intensified over time and sanctions increased. There is no rigorous evaluation of the impact of these bans<sup>15</sup> , and the trends do not suggest much impact. In all three countries, sex ratios at birth continued to rise despite the bans (though the counterfactual in the absence of the bans is not known). After multiple efforts to ratchet up the ban, China began a vigorous effort from 2003 to implement the ban, but this effort showed little impact on sex ratios at birth (Guo et al 2014). Aside from their uncertain effectiveness in reducing sex-selection, such bans can push women into using lowerquality providers --- and paying heavily for using them --- with the potential health threats posed by resorting to such providers.

Another approach tried in India has been to offer financial incentives to raise girls and educate them. There is weak evidence that these help reduce sex-selection (Sinha and Joong 2009; Holla et al 2007). China’s Care for Girls program included some incentives, but its impact has not been evaluated (Guo et al 2014). One consideration is what kind of message is given on the value of daughters when the state “compensates” parents specifically for having a girl.

Another consideration is that if parents do not want girls, very substantial transfers would be needed to begin to significantly offset the full costs of raising a girl. Small incentives are unlikely to alter parental choices about having an unwanted child. Also, there might need to be some complex targeting, since only a small proportion of girls are unwanted enough for parents to resort to sex-selection.

Son preference can be reduced by exposure to media messaging. Using a “natural experiment” generated by different timing of the introduction of cable television in India, Jensen and Oster (2009) found access to these media to be associated with reduced son preference, as well as lower fertility and acceptance of domestic violence. The authors argue that this has much to do with the values of the characters typically portrayed on television, accelerating the spread of new ideas among people. Analyzing cross-sectional data (not “natural experiment” data) from India, Pande and Astone (2007) also find that media exposure reduces son preference in India.

Studies using similar “natural experiment” data have also found significant impact of radio and television exposure on fertility behavior. A radio soap opera in Tanzania aimed at increasing contraceptive use was found effective at doing so (Rogers et al 1999). In Brazil, soap operas depicting small successful families significantly lowered fertility among their audiences, especially among women of lower socio-economic status (La Ferrara et al 2012). The power of 9