Missing Girls:

1
Missing Girls An Evaluation of Sex Ratios in
China
Abstract
Descriptive Statistics Year, Recorded Sex Ratio
in China, 1960-1987 Variable N
Mean Median TrMean StDev SE
Mean Year 28 1973.5 1973.5
1973.5 8.2 1.6 Sex ratio
28 107.41 106.85 107.41 2.27
0.43 Variable Minimum Maximum
Q1 Q3 Year 1960.0
1987.0 1966.3 1980.8 Sex ratio
102.50 112.30 106.23 108.35
As humanitarian and gender equality issues have
been gaining more attention in the last several
decades, so to has China. Infamous for its one
child policy, Chinese cultural and economic
traditions are based largely upon the idea of
primogeniture, or the passing one of property
from a father to his eldest son. A nation that
has struggled with overpopulation for the past
few generations, China has seen a fall in the
recorded birthrates of female children since the
governments implementation of the one child
policy in 1979.
http//www.gendercide.org/case_infanticide.html
Regression Analysis Sex ratio versus Year The
regression equation is Sex ratio - 47 0.0782
Year Predictor Coef SE Coef
T P Constant -47.0 102.4
-0.46 0.650 Year 0.07824 0.05189
1.51 0.144 S 2.218 R-Sq 8.0
R-Sq(adj) 4.5 Analysis of Variance Source
DF SS MS F
P Regression 1 11.185
11.185 2.27 0.144 Residual Error 26
127.902 4.919 Total 27
139.087 Unusual Observations Obs Year
Sex rati Fit SE Fit Residual
St Resid 7 1966 112.200 106.824
0.572 5.376 2.51R 9 1968
102.500 106.980 0.507 -4.480
-2.08R R denotes an observation with a large
standardized residual
Figure 1 Annual Sex Ratios among live births,
Sweden 1750-1989, 21 year moving average, and 95
percent confidence limits allowing for linear
trend
Sex Ratios Among Live Births in China, 1960-87
Introduction
Regression Plot
In March 1991 a team of Norwegian statisticians,
headed by Sten Johansson and Ola Nygren published
an in the Population and Developmental Review, an
article entitled, The Missing Girls of China A
New Demographic Account. The article outlines a
study of the birthrates of girl babies in China,
comparing the sex ratio of recorded birthrates in
China between 1980 and 1987 to a control based on
the recorded sex ratios of birthrates in Norway
over a period of 240 years beginning in 1749.
Birthrates are the number of male births for
every one hundred female births.
Figure 2
Discussion
Sex Ratios Among Reported Live Births in China,
1981-87, Within an Outside Local Birth Plans
according to the 1988 two-per thousand Fertility
Survey
Conclusion
Using a regression analysis I concluded that the
differences between sex ratio among live in China
from 1960-87 were not statistically significant
and the mean sex ratio was 107.4 males to every
one hundred females born. 1966 and 1968 were
outliers with the birthrate measuring 112.2
males to 100 females in 1966 and 102.5 males to
100 females in 1968. These erratic birth rates
have been called less reliable by the authors of
the study. In Figure 1 the authors of the study
use a more sophisticated and complex score to
compute the confidence limits for the birthrate
information for Sweden. I used the confidence
limits that we are familiar with from class to
prepare Figure 3 and found that my results using
linear regression yielded a wider range for the
confidence limits and than the equation used by
the authors in Figure 1 when applied to the same
information. Thus, the leaders of this study
employed a more complex equation in order to
obtain more precise results.
Sex ratios in China are important because of the
sensitive gender issues imbued in the culture.
Although an analysis of the sex ratios in China
from 1960-87 reveal that there is not a
statistically significant relationship between
sex and and a given year, there is a difference
between the sex Ratios of reported when one looks
at the reported sex ratios in the 1980s alone.
This is significant because the one child policy
was implemented by the Chinese government in 1979
and in the 1980 we saw a rise the sex ratio
especially among the children born outside of the
plan which allows couples to have only two
children. Thus, since we know from Figure 1 that
the sex ratio between male and female children is
usually around 105.5 males to 100 females, the
statistics displayed in Figure 3 do not make
sense. Theses female infants not being reported
are missing. Many Chinese girls have been sold
into prostitution rings, black market adoption or
have been killed through infanticide.
Figure 3