Guilmoto Christophe auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access This article adopts a comparative perspective to review the recent increase in the sex ratio at birth (SRB) across Asia. It first describes and compares the most recent birth statistics in Asia in order to identify commonalities in the gradual rise of SRBs observed from Armenia to South Korea. This comparison provides the basis for identifying specific transition patterns in the changes in SRBs. Their recent rise is then interpreted in a social and historical framework borrowed from fertility decline and based on three preconditions: access to sex-selection technology, preference for male births, and pressure from low fertility. On a broader plane, the process of growing imbalances in the sex composition of the population gives rise to a tragedy of the commons. This article indicates the factors that appear most likely to trigger a turnaround in this transitional demographic situation and to facilitate a return to biologically normal sex ratios in the future. specialized ASIE 108 35 3 519-549 2009 0098-7921 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/PAR00005745 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2009.00295.x 0098-7921 [F B010089882] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/PAR00005745 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2024-04/010089882.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2010-05-06 2024-04-25 PAR00005745 fre