Supply Shocks and Gender Bias in Child Health Investments: Evidence from the ICDS Programme in India

This paper examines whether a permanent increase in the supply of immunisations reduces or intensifies the gender bias in immunisation against female children in India. It also investigates the effect of duration of exposure to the supply shock on gender bias. The variation in the implementation of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme across both regions and time is exploited for the analysis. Estimations use data from the 2005-06 Measure DHS survey in India. We find that the increased supply of vaccinations due to the programme initially increases the gender inequality in immunisation but that this increase disappears over time. Our results indicate that the programme has saved approximately 1.72-1.84 million children, of which about 70% are boys.