Economic stress and the secondary sex ratio : Ireland, Iceland, Greece and Latvia
Introduction: Male live births occur slightly in excess of female live births at a ratio of approximately 0.515 (male/total births). Stress has been shown to reduce M/F, including stress engendered by contracting economies. This study was carried out in order to ascertain whether the economic depres...
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ftunivmalta:oai:www.um.edu.mt:123456789/25637 2023-05-15T16:47:03+02:00 Economic stress and the secondary sex ratio : Ireland, Iceland, Greece and Latvia Grech, Victor E. 2015 https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar//handle/123456789/25637 https://doi.org/10.9734/IJTDH/2015/13450 en eng Sciencedomain International Grech, V. E. (2015). Economic stress and the secondary sex ratio : Ireland, Iceland, Greece and Latvia. International Journal of Tropical Disease & Health, 5(4), 252-259. https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar//handle/123456789/25637 doi:10.9734/IJTDH/2015/13450 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess The copyright of this work belongs to the author(s)/publisher. The rights of this work are as defined by the appropriate Copyright Legislation or as modified by any successive legislation. Users may access this work and can make use of the information contained in accordance with the Copyright Legislation provided that the author must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the prior permission of the copyright holder. Childbirth -- Economic aspects Sex ratio -- Ireland Sex ratio -- Iceland Sex ratio -- Greece Sex ratio -- Latvia article 2015 ftunivmalta https://doi.org/10.9734/IJTDH/2015/13450 2021-10-16T17:55:04Z Introduction: Male live births occur slightly in excess of female live births at a ratio of approximately 0.515 (male/total births). Stress has been shown to reduce M/F, including stress engendered by contracting economies. This study was carried out in order to ascertain whether the economic depression caused by the Eurozone recession at the end of the previous decade influenced M/F in the European countries most heavily affected, namely Iceland, Ireland, Greece and Latvia. Methods: Annual data on male and female live births were obtained directly from the World Health Organisation except for Latvia which was obtained from Eurostat. Quarterly data for Ireland was obtained from the Irish Central Statistics Office. Results: There were no significant changes in M/F except in Ireland which showed a sharp and highly significant dip in 2007 due to a fall in M/F in the last quarter only (p<0.0001). Discussion: Darwinian evolution should encourage species to adapt to changing circumstances by altering the odds of having a child of a specific gender. Parents without stress and in good condition should produce sons since these are theoretically capable of producing more offspring, and vice-versa. The findings for Ireland support the contention that economic stress is also capable of depressing M/F. peer-reviewed Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland University of Malta: OAR@UM International Journal of TROPICAL DISEASE & Health 5 4 252 259 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
University of Malta: OAR@UM |
op_collection_id |
ftunivmalta |
language |
English |
topic |
Childbirth -- Economic aspects Sex ratio -- Ireland Sex ratio -- Iceland Sex ratio -- Greece Sex ratio -- Latvia |
spellingShingle |
Childbirth -- Economic aspects Sex ratio -- Ireland Sex ratio -- Iceland Sex ratio -- Greece Sex ratio -- Latvia Grech, Victor E. Economic stress and the secondary sex ratio : Ireland, Iceland, Greece and Latvia |
topic_facet |
Childbirth -- Economic aspects Sex ratio -- Ireland Sex ratio -- Iceland Sex ratio -- Greece Sex ratio -- Latvia |
description |
Introduction: Male live births occur slightly in excess of female live births at a ratio of approximately 0.515 (male/total births). Stress has been shown to reduce M/F, including stress engendered by contracting economies. This study was carried out in order to ascertain whether the economic depression caused by the Eurozone recession at the end of the previous decade influenced M/F in the European countries most heavily affected, namely Iceland, Ireland, Greece and Latvia. Methods: Annual data on male and female live births were obtained directly from the World Health Organisation except for Latvia which was obtained from Eurostat. Quarterly data for Ireland was obtained from the Irish Central Statistics Office. Results: There were no significant changes in M/F except in Ireland which showed a sharp and highly significant dip in 2007 due to a fall in M/F in the last quarter only (p<0.0001). Discussion: Darwinian evolution should encourage species to adapt to changing circumstances by altering the odds of having a child of a specific gender. Parents without stress and in good condition should produce sons since these are theoretically capable of producing more offspring, and vice-versa. The findings for Ireland support the contention that economic stress is also capable of depressing M/F. peer-reviewed |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Grech, Victor E. |
author_facet |
Grech, Victor E. |
author_sort |
Grech, Victor E. |
title |
Economic stress and the secondary sex ratio : Ireland, Iceland, Greece and Latvia |
title_short |
Economic stress and the secondary sex ratio : Ireland, Iceland, Greece and Latvia |
title_full |
Economic stress and the secondary sex ratio : Ireland, Iceland, Greece and Latvia |
title_fullStr |
Economic stress and the secondary sex ratio : Ireland, Iceland, Greece and Latvia |
title_full_unstemmed |
Economic stress and the secondary sex ratio : Ireland, Iceland, Greece and Latvia |
title_sort |
economic stress and the secondary sex ratio : ireland, iceland, greece and latvia |
publisher |
Sciencedomain International |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar//handle/123456789/25637 https://doi.org/10.9734/IJTDH/2015/13450 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
Grech, V. E. (2015). Economic stress and the secondary sex ratio : Ireland, Iceland, Greece and Latvia. International Journal of Tropical Disease & Health, 5(4), 252-259. https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar//handle/123456789/25637 doi:10.9734/IJTDH/2015/13450 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess The copyright of this work belongs to the author(s)/publisher. The rights of this work are as defined by the appropriate Copyright Legislation or as modified by any successive legislation. Users may access this work and can make use of the information contained in accordance with the Copyright Legislation provided that the author must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the prior permission of the copyright holder. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.9734/IJTDH/2015/13450 |
container_title |
International Journal of TROPICAL DISEASE & Health |
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5 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
252 |
op_container_end_page |
259 |
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1766037149679878144 |