Weathering with You: Climate Impacts on Famine and Sex-Selective Infanticide in Northeastern Japan, 1750-1869
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The extent of family planning among even poor peasants in Tokugawa Japan has always stood out in global demographic history. The prevalence of abortion and infanticide as tools to determine family composition have drawn attention to whether parents were motivated by economic foresight, superstition, or necessity. I investigate how peasant death and birth rates are affected by harvest yields in the Minamiyama region of Northeastern Japan from 1750 to 1869. Using a pooled ordinary least squares regression with panel-correlated standard errors (PCSE), I find significant positive associations between yearly female birth rate and the number of sunny days in the June through September growing season. The relationship between male births and days of sun is not significant across multiple specifications of the model, which (combined with textual evidence) suggests intentionally sex-selective infanticide during short-term income shocks.
Description
Type of resource | text |
---|---|
Date created | June 4, 2021 |
Creators/Contributors
Author | Chen, Kai Xiao (Sean) |
---|
Subjects
Subject | sex-selection |
---|---|
Subject | infanticide |
Subject | famine |
Subject | demography |
Subject | Japan |
Subject | economic history |
Subject | Department of Economics |
Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Chen, Kai Xiao. (2021). Weathering with You: Climate Impacts on Famine and Sex-Selective Infanticide in Northeastern Japan, 1750-1869. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/rh938jp9996
Collection
Stanford University, Department of Economics, Honors Theses
View other items in this collection in SearchWorksContact information
- Contact
- kxsean@stanford.edu
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...