Baby Bonus, Fertility, and Missing Women

<h3>ABSTRACT</h3> I estimate the effects of pro-natalist cash transfers on fertility, sex ratio at birth, and infant health in South Korea, using registry data from 2000 to 2015. I find that the total fertility rate in 2015 would have been 4.7% lower without the transfers. Cash transfers also lowered the sex ratio at birth, historically skewed toward boys in South Korea. Additionally, I show that the cash transfers led to reductions in birth weight and gestational length, which appear to be driven by negative selection into fertility, and that the cash transfers had positive impacts on birth weight among low-income families.