题目：The effects of son preference on parental investment in children

时间：5月30日15:30-17:00

地点：中欧平台武东路校区114

演讲者：Tianxu Chen, Assistant Professor, University of Connecticut

摘要：Because of the son preference in the traditional Chinese culture, prenatal sex determination and sex-selective abortions are widely observed in China, especially during the “one child policy” period. In this paper, we use the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data, which provides information of mothers’ abortion history, to study the impact of son preference on parental time and money investment in children. Specifically, we apply difference in difference approach, to divide these “the only children” among 4 subgroups: which are sons from abortion families, girls from abortion families, sons from non-abortion families, and girls from non-abortion families. We hypothesize that abortion families with sons could have stronger son preference than non-abortion families with girls. We study how son preference could influence parents’ time and money investment in children. We find that families with and without son preference invest differently in their children. Families with son preference (abortion families with boys) invest more money in children, but spend less time with them than families without son preference (non-abortion families with girls). In addition, children from son preference families receive fewer years of schooling and spend more time doing housework. We argue that these findings can be explained by the different education backgrounds and social economics status of parents.