Open Access
The missing link between parents' preferences and daughters' survival : the moderator effect of societal discrimination
(Elsevier, 2016-02-01) Echavarri, Rebeca; Husillos Carques, Francisco Javier; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Economía; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
The premature mortality of female children is an alarming demographic outcome in many countries of the world. The most popular explanation for this phenomenon is the prevalence of son preference. However, empirical findings indicate that the assumption of a positive relationship between wanted daughters and female children¿s survival is not found in every scenario, and it does not have a clear explanation in the literature. To fill this gap, we present a simple model that provides insights into how the positive marginal effect of wanted daughters on their survival might decrease with higher societal discrimination against young females. The model draws on the emerging literature that examines the erosion of cognitive and noncognitive skills that results from poverty and discrimination. Our theoretical findings are tested for the case of India, using the third round of the National Family Health Survey, with Zero-Inflated Poisson models. Our estimates provide support for the interaction of parents¿ preferences and societal discrimination against female children. In particular, we show that the statistical significance of the marginal effect of wanted daughters on their survival disappears in contexts of high societal discrimination against female children. Our study contributes to the literature by questioning the commonly held assumption of additive separability between the effect of family and societal characteristics. One central implication is that the alleviation of poverty alone might fail to automatically reduce sex-based discriminatory practices, and that multidimensional interventions are required that target the individual and society
Open Access
Economic development, female wages and missing female births in Spain, 1900-1930
(Springer, 2023) Echavarri, Rebeca; Beltrán Tapia, Francisco J.; Economía; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
Focusing on Spain between 1900 and 1930, a period characterised by significant structural transformations and rapid economic growth, this article shows that the sex ratio at birth (SRB) was abnormally high, at least until the 1920s. Apart from questioning whether female under-registration and different mortality environments alone can explain the results reported here, our analysis of regional information indicates that SRBs were higher in provinces where the economic structure was dominated by agriculture and manufacturing (relative to the service sector). In addition, exploiting the annual variation in low-skilled wages at the province level makes it possible to distinguish between the roles played by under-registration and outright neglect: while higher wages could increase the opportunity cost of registering a female birth (and therefore result in higher SRBs), they could also reduce the pressure to neglect female babies (and therefore result in lower SRBs). We find evidence of both effects (income and opportunity cost) of wages on SRBs between 1914 and 1920 in Spain, a period in which WWI arguably subjected the Spanish economy to an exogenous demand shock. These two effects, however, imply very different discriminatory practices. In fact, on average, the income effect was larger than the effect arising from the opportunity cost, which supports the idea that female neglect around birth was more prevalent than previously assumed during the early twentieth century in Spain. As expected, the relationship between wages and the SRB vanished during the 1920s, along with the unbalanced SRB. These results stress that gender discrimination around birth does not necessarily disappear with economic growth unless this process is accompanied by expanded labour opportunities for women.
Open Access
Neonatal discrimination and excess female mortality in childhood in Spain in the first half of the twentieth century
(Springer, 2021-03-09) Echavarri, Rebeca; Economía; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
The abnormally high sex ratio at birth (SRB) is a demographic outcome that appears in several countries in Asia and Africa and results from sex-based discrimination. Whether or not neonatal discrimination was a widespread response to socioeconomic demands during the demographic transition in Europe remains an open question. To address this concern, this paper exploits the exogenous increase in the cost of child rearing caused by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Using random discontinuity techniques, a sharp and statistically signifcant increase in SRB appears with the war. This fnding provides an opportunity to examine a challenging concern: whether neonatal discrimination fosters or reduces the discrimination sufered by girls in childhood. To examine the multiplier efects of discrimination, the paper investigates the potential role that women’s bargaining power could play in preventing the functioning of the transmission mechanism. To that end, the paper exploits historical geographical diferences in women’s bargaining power that were inherent to the predominant kinship system in Spanish provinces (stem vs. nuclear). The results show that an increase of one standard deviation in the interaction term between gender and SRB led, on average, to a 9% points increase in under-fve mortality in nuclear provinces. However, this positive relationship is not found in stem provinces, where women had greater bargaining power. The paper points out that policies aimed at creating a more egalitarian legal framework may fail if they are not accompanied by actions aimed at afecting beliefs and preferences for equality in society.
Open Access
Gender bias in sex ratio at birth: the case of India
(2006) Echavarri, Rebeca; Economía; Ekonomia
A deeply-rooted preference for sons may decrease the relative number of female births. Though there are variables that may help to erode the couple's preference for sons, these same variables may also increase the availability of means to ensure male births. This is the case of educational achievements. It is not difficult to assume, for example, that a higher level of education helps to erode the couple's preference for sons. However, the effect of an increase in education on female disadvantage at birth is not so straightforward. More education may increase the couple's awareness of the possibility of using prenatal sex detection. We discuss the issue throughout the paper by developing an empirical framework for the case of India.
Open Access
Using visual stimuli to promote healthy snack choices among children
(Elsevier, 2021) Benito Ostolaza, Juan Miguel; Echavarri, Rebeca; García Prado, Ariadna; Osés Eraso, Nuria; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Economía
Most interventions against obesity use information to persuade people to change their behavior, with moderate results. Because eating involves automatic routines, new approaches have emerged appealing to non-reflective cognitive processes. Through a randomized controlled trial, we evaluated the impact of visual stimuli (positive and negative) on children's snack-choices at school. Results showed that the negative stimulus had no effect, while the positive stimulus increased the probability among girls of choosing a healthy snack. We also found that children with excess weight had a larger baseline probability of choosing the healthy snack than those without. We conclude that happy emojis, used to nudge non-reflective processes, can steer children towards healthy choices.
Open Access
Dimensión económica de los principios rectores: carencias de un marco conceptual contradictorio
(La Ley (Wolters Kluwer), 2011) Archel Domench, Pablo; Husillos Carques, Francisco Javier; Echavarri, Rebeca; Economía; Ekonomia; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
La Ley 2/2011 de 4 de marzo de Economía Sostenible nace con el objetivo, según reza su artículo primero, de introducir las reformas estructurales necesarias para crear las condiciones que favorezcan un desarrollo económico sostenible. Lo que nos encontramos a lo largo de un abanico de artículos y disposiciones es un compendio de medidas de lo más diverso que abarcan, entre otros asuntos, desde el modelo energético deseable para nuestro país hasta las descargas en Internet. La oportunidad de la Ley viene justificada, tal y como se nos dice en el Título Preliminar, por la necesidad de adoptar medidas que permitan afrontar la crisis económica y financiera mundial que ha interrumpido el largo periodo continuo de crecimiento, una de cuyas consecuencias más negativas es el fuerte incremento del desempleo en un corto espacio de tiempo. El objetivo de nuestro trabajo es analizar los conceptos y principios que aparecen en el Título Preliminar (artículos 1 a 3) donde se define el objetivo de la ley, el concepto de Economía Sostenible y se enuncian brevemente los principios resultantes, hasta un total de nueve, de la acción de los poderes públicos. De esta manera, el Título Preliminar vendría a ser una especie de marco conceptual, un espacio en el que se fijan los conceptos básicos sobre cuya base se va a construir el resto del articulado posterior. Para ello, nuestro trabajo lo estructuramos de la siguiente manera. En primer lugar, la siguiente sección efectúa un breve repaso de los conceptos económicos básicos que han ilustrado la literatura sobre el Desarrollo a lo largo de los últimos años y que son empleados para articular el Titulo Preliminar de la Ley de Economía Sostenible. Partiendo de la obra de Adam Smith (La riqueza de las naciones) y pasando por los planteamientos que identificaban desarrollo con crecimiento de la riqueza, nuestro trabajo se abre a otras voces que, como las de Amartya Sen (1988, 1999), analizan de forma crítica la relación entre crecimiento y desarrollo. Seguidamente, el epígrafe tercero analiza en detalle los tres artículos del Título Preliminar. Nuestro trabajo no se limita a exponer el contenido de los mismos, sino que pretende ser una aportación crítica al debate existente sobre el significado de la expresión Desarrollo Económico Sostenible. Por último, la sección cuarta presenta un resumen del capítulo y efectúa unos comentarios finales.
Open Access
Theory on economic development: from growth of wealth to expansion of freedom
(2003) Echavarri, Rebeca; Economía; Ekonomia
In Economic Theory, development is the topic, which delves into human welfare. Its aim is linked to welfare expansion in the context of regions. In this working paper, I am assuming that aims and strategies of development are linked to the evolution of welfare notion. At the same time, this paper supports the perspective that regional development occurs when there is a freedom expansion for living a full human life in that region.
Open Access
Sex-selective abortions and fatal neglect of young girls
(Springer, 2024-12-31) Echavarri, Rebeca; Economía; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
A significant portion of female neonatal, infant and child mortality could be avoided. These girls form part of the phenomenon known as missing women. Previous literature has examined whether families that prevent unwanted (female) pregnancies from reaching term provide greater care to the surviving daughters, but it reports mixed results. An avenue that has received limited attention is the possibility that explicit discrimination against girls legitimates otherwise non-realized behaviors, leading to additional fatal neglect. This paper contributes to the literature, going a step further in the causal identification of aggregate prenatal discrimination effects on postnatal discrimination by comparing the survival outcomes of brothers and sisters who were exposed to different levels of prenatal discrimination around the time of their births. The sample of siblings is reconstructed from the birth history of women in the Indian National Family Health Survey (2016-2017). Prenatal discrimination is measured by the male to female sex ratio at birth (SRB), computed by backward induction from the Census of India (2011). Results show that the greater the difference between the SRB in the birthyears of sisters and the SRB in the birthyears of brothers, the greater the difference in mortality between sisters and brothers. This finding lends support to the idea that prenatal discrimination legitimized otherwise latent discrimination. Furthermore, the excess female mortality associated with this mechanism is found in rural areas, but not in urban ones, and this relationship is more intense for infant girls born in high parities and therefore more likely to belong to families that did not resort to sex-selective abortions to control family sex-composition. This paper contributes to the problematization of the intertwining dimensions of discrimination, providing a better understanding of the missing women phenomenon.
Embargo
Economía y género
(Aranzadi, 2020) Echavarri, Rebeca; Martínez de Morentin, Sara; Economía; Ekonomia; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
La igualdad de oportunidades entre hombres y mujeres es un reto que las empresas afrontan hoy en día formulando planes de igualdad. En este capítulo exploramos razones para alcanzar dicha igualdad desde una perspectiva normativa, es decir la igualdad de género es un valor en sí mismo que las sociedades modernas y sus empresas deberían alcanzar. También examinamos las razones por las que es importante desarrollar planes de igualdad desde una perspectiva instrumental, es decir, discutiremos cómo la igualdad de oportunidades puede mejorar el rendimiento del personal y reducir costes para la empresa.
Open Access
Ranking profiles of capability sets
(Springer, 2008-01-08) Echavarri, Rebeca; Permanyer, Iñaki; Economía; Ekonomia
In this paper, we present an innovative approach for ranking profiles of capability sets on the basis of equity. An interesting way of capturing the notion of equity is to take into account the extent to which each of the different functioning vectors is shared by the population under consideration (of size n). This is done by defining the ‘common capability sets‘ enjoyed by k individuals as the set of functioning vectors simultaneously available to at least k individuals (1 ≤ k ≤ n). These sets are closely related to the original capability sets and have some interesting properties that are examined throughout the paper. We define and axiomatically characterize a capability profile ranking that lexicographically compares the different common capability sets.