Segregation, fertility, and son preference: the case of the Roma in Serbia

We study the link between residential segregation and fertility for the socially excluded and marginalized Roma ethnic minority. Using original survey data we collected in Serbia, we investigate whether fertility differs between ethnically homogeneous and mixed neighborhoods. Our results show that Roma in less segregated areas tend to have significantly fewer children (around 0.8). Most of the difference arises from Roma in less segregated areas waiting substantially more after having a boy than their counterparts in more segregated areas. We exploit variation in the share of Serbian sounding first names to provide evidence that a mechanism at play is a shift in preferences towards lower fertility and sons rather than daughters induced by a higher exposure to the Serbian majority culture.

Final accepted version (with author's formatting): This article has been accepted for publication in a revised form in Journal of Demographic Economics https://doi.org/10.1017/dem.2020.8. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution or re-use. © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Université catholique de Louvain