Evidence of Son Preference in the Child Trafficking Market for Illegal Adoption in China

Author: Xiong, Wanru

Abstract: This article presents evidence of son preference in the child trafficking market for illegal adoption in China, where son preference is explicitly revealed by choice and quantified by the price premium of a boy. The author identified 1,328 court documents of trafficking transactions of children below the age of four for illegal adoption from 2008 to 2017 in China. 59% of the victims were boys. Nearest-neighbor matching estimators show that under similar conditions, adopted baby boys are about 1.6 times as expensive as girls, which is equivalent to a premium of around 21,000 yuan (about 3,000 USD). The price ratios declined in recent years. These statistics and the qualitative materials from the court documents show both the manifestation and the role of son preference in illegal adoptions. The results can be used to study other discrimination against girls and design policy measures to promote gender equality.

Keywords: child trafficking, illegal adoption, son preference, court documents, China