Women’s Worth: Trade, Female Income, and Fertility in India

This paper shows that trade policy can have significant intergenerational distributional effects across gender and social strata. We compare women and births in rural Indian districts differentially exposed to the 1991 trade reform. For lower (higher) socioeconomic status women, the tariff cuts increased (decreased) fertility and decreased (increased) the sex ratio at birth and relative survival for girls in districts more exposed to tariff cuts relative to the national trend. Relative female income increased (decreased) for lower castes (upper castes) in districts experiencing a larger loss of protection. Meanwhile, total household expenditure relatively decreased for all castes, with larger declines for lower castes.