Migration, Sex Bias and Child Growth in Rural Pakistan
Author(s): G. Mansuri
This paper focuses on early child growth in relation to migration in the context of rural Pakistan. The study uses data from the Pakistan Rural Household Survey (PRHS) 2001-2002 that contains detailed information about household and individual characteristics, including demographics, occupation, health, education, investments, assets, household expenditure, and the migration experience of all the household members. The results of the study demonstrate that migration has a positive and extremely significant impact on height for age for girls. Girls born before the household’s first migration episode do much worse than girls born after. In contrast, the effects are much smaller for boys, suggesting that boys may generally get preference in terms of nutrition and healthcare when resources are stretched. However, there is no discernible difference among boys born before and after the first migration episode.