title: Why do mothers favor girls and fathers, boys? : A hypothesis and a test of investment disparity.
abstract: Growing evidence suggests mothers invest more in girls than boys and fathers more in boys than girls. We develop a hypothesis that predicts preference for girls by the parent facing more resource constraints and preference for boys by the parent facing less constraint. We test the hypothesis with panel data from the Tsimane', a foraging-farming society in the Bolivian Amazon. Tsimane' mothers face more resource constraints than fathers. As predicted, mother's wealth protected girl's BMI, but father's wealth had weak effects on boy's BMI. Numerous tests yielded robust results, including those that controlled for fixed effects of child and household.
authors.affiliation: Sustainable International Development Program, MS 078, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, 02254-9110, Waltham, MA. rgodoy@brandeis.edu.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Godoy
authors.affiliation: Sustainable International Development Program, MS 078, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, 02254-9110, Waltham, MA.
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Reyes-García
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: McDade
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan, USA.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tanner
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University, USA.
authors.forename: William R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Leonard
authors.affiliation: Brandeis University, USA.
authors.forename: Tomás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Huanca
authors.affiliation: Brandeis University, USA.
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vadez
authors.affiliation: Brandeis University, USA.
authors.forename: Karishma
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Patel
keywords: Bolivia; Parental investment; Sex bias; Trivers-Willard; Tsimane’