Pogrebna, GannaOswald, AndrewHaig, David2022-12-072018-03Pogrebna, Ganna, Andrew Oswald, David Haig. "Female Babies and Risk-Aversion: Causal Evidence From Hospital Wards." Journal of Health Economics 58 (2018): 10-17. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.12.0060167-6296https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37373791Using ultrasound scan data from paediatric hospitals, and the exogenous ‘shock’ of learning the gender of an unborn baby, the paper documents the first causal evidence that offspring gender affects adult risk-aversion. On a standard Holt-Laury criterion, parents of daughters, whether unborn or recently born, become almost twice as risk-averse as parents of sons. The study demonstrates this in longitudinal and cross-sectional data, for fathers and mothers, for babies in the womb and new-born children, and in a West European nation and East European nation. These findings may eventually aid our understanding of risky health behaviors and gender inequalities.en-USPublic Health, Environmental and Occupational HealthHealth PolicyJournal Article2022-12-0710.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.12.006