The impact on Australian fertility of wanting one of each

This paper examines the extent to which the sex of first, second and subsequent births influences parents’ decisions to have another child. The key findings are a) the sex of the first born in Australia has no influence on the decision of mothers to have a second child b) that mothers with two children of the same sex are 25 per cent more likely to have a third child than are mothers with a boy and a girl, and c) mothers with three children of the same sex are more likely to have a fourth birth than mothers whose three children include both sexes. Copyright. Monash University and the author/s