中国出生性别比偏高是多因素综合之结果

中国出生性别比的异常偏高是多因素综合作用的结果.理论上讲,生育率、家庭规模和性别偏好之间存在密切关系,在有性别偏好的国家或地区,性别偏好往往与小家庭规模相互迎合,即性别偏好的满足经常是通过多生育子女来实现,性别偏好对生育率下降有一定的抑制作用;反过来,当小家庭规模和低生育率成为时尚的时候,如果男孩偏好没有改变,出生性别比就开始发生扭曲,这种扭曲在人口层面上表现为人口性别比的升高;在家庭层面上表现为大家庭的性别比趋于正常,小家庭的性别比偏高。     

母以子贵:性别偏好与妇女的家庭地位-来自中国营养健康调查的证据

基于中国普遍存在的对男孩的性别偏好,本文采用所生育小孩的性别作为妇女家庭地位和议价能力的度量指标,研究该指标对家庭内部资源分配及后果的影响。中国健康营养调查数据中有关家庭耐用品消费决策的信息表明,第一胎性别对妇女在家庭中的地位有重要作用。本文发现,当妇女的家庭地位随着生育男孩而提高后,家庭中食物支出份额会增加,该妇女营养摄入增加,而她的身体健康状况会变好。     

流动人口生育意愿、性别偏好及其决定因素——来自全国四个主要城市化地区12城市大样本调查的证据

基于课题组2009年进行的全国四个主要城市化地区12个大中小城市流动人口调查的微观数据,考察了流动人口的生育意愿和性别偏好,特别是研究了影响流动人口生育意愿的决定因素。流动人口同城市人口在生育数量偏好上已经不存在明显差距,但性别偏好观念上仍有显著差异;较农村人口,流动人口生育数量偏好明显要小,男孩偏好也要弱。流动人口的年龄、性别、婚姻状况、受教育程度、健康状况、工作类型和居住类型对生育意愿有显著影响。     

关于调整生育政策可行性的思考 ——以经济发展对生育影响的角度为基础

随着我国生育率的持续下降,生育政策是否有立刻调整的必要性。生育政策在控制人口方面究竟起到了多大的作用,经济发展对人口增长率的持续降低贡献了多少力量,生育意愿与生育水平的差异、以及人口惯性的存在是否对生育政策调整有所启示?本文结合国内外经济发展和出生率的数据,探索经济发展与出生率之间是否存在显著的关系,以及存在怎样的关系,怎样对其进行解释;并从我国现行的人口政策与经济发展水平出发,结合生育意愿和生育行为的差异,并运用人口惯性理论,对生育政策提出自己的见解。     

未来我国人口生育率面临下降压力

人口生育行为作为复杂的经济、社会现象,除受生育政策影响外,经济发展水平的提高、妇女受教育的改善以及婴幼儿死亡率下降和人口预期寿命提升等都会在不同程度上降低人们的生育意愿.未来,随着经济社会发展水平的提高,我国人口总和生育率仍面临较大的下降压力.为此,我国需进一步完善人口生育政策,降低育儿成本,以扭转生育率持续偏低的现状,确保人口与经济社会实现可持续发展.     

国内外人口性别结构研究综述

人口性别结构指一个国家或地区两性人口数量的比例关系,会受到育龄妇女生育率、出生婴儿性别比、男女分别的死亡率以及人口迁移等的影响.人口性别结构从某种程度上会对结婚率和妇女生育率造成影响,进而影响人口出生率和人口再生产速度.     

我国人口出生率的影响因素及其发展趋势

受生育政策调整影响,1949年以来我国人口出生率表现出明显的阶段性变化特征。2000年和2010年人口普查数据显示,我国不同年龄育龄妇女生育率呈正态分布,但分布曲线趋于扁平化。回归分析结果表明,经济因素对居民生育观念和出生率具有重要影响,经济发展水平、社会保障程度、养育成本越高,人口出生率越低。根据育龄妇女生育率演变特征推导出的生育率等式,在生育政策不变情况下,2010年以后我国城市、镇、乡村育龄妇女生育率曲线将日渐扁平化,育龄妇女生育率的算术平均值将不断下降。     

基于主观生育率决定模型看城市化对生育率的影响

近年来我国的人口生育率极低，关于人口政策的争议颇多。究竟目前生育率的下降完全归功于计划生育政策，还是人口生育率下降的自然机制已经形成？本文基于主观生育率的决定模型，探讨在没有生育政策和避孕措施缺乏等外部因素的影响，主观生育率将发生怎样的变化。本文在主观生育率决定模型的基础上分析城市化对生育的成本-效用的影响。     

房价上涨与生育率的长期下降：基于香港的实证研究

本文将房价指数纳入新家庭经济学标准生育率方程中,运用Johansen检验与ECM模型对香港1971—2005年生育率、房价指数、女性劳动参与率、女性与男性实际工资年度序列展开协整分析,研究房价上涨对生育率的长期影响。研究结果表明：（1）生育率在长期中服从单位根过程,社会经济因素对家庭生育行为产生累积效应;（2）房价指数平均上涨1％,总和生育率将显著下降0.45％,该结论在一系列敏感性分析中保持稳健。我们的研究从实证上为新家庭经济学提供了来自新兴工业化地区的证据,这些证据与结论对中国在经济增长、城市化过程中人口政策的长期调整和住房价格的调控具有重要的参考意义。     

房价上涨与生育率的长期下降:基于香港的实证研究

本文将房价指数纳入新家庭经济学标准生育率方程中,运用Johansen检验与ECM模型对香港1971—2005年生育率、房价指数、女性劳动参与率、女性与男性实际工资年度序列展开协整分析,研究房价上涨对生育率的长期影响。研究结果表明:(1)生育率在长期中服从单位根过程,社会经济因素对家庭生育行为产生累积效应;(2)房价指数平均上涨1%,总和生育率将显著下降0.45%,该结论在一系列敏感性分析中保持稳健。我们的研究从实证上为新家庭经济学提供了来自新兴工业化地区的证据,这些证据与结论对中国在经济增长、城市化过程中人口政策的长期调整和住房价格的调控具有重要的参考意义。     

Gender gap,capital accumulation and the demographic transition

This paper focuses on explaining the demographic transition and some of the broad patterns that are associated with it. We present an endogenous growth model that incorporates altruism and son preference within the family as well as gender wage gap and gender wage discrimination in the labour market. We show that with the accumulation of physical capital and human capital, the output share of mental labour increases and the gender wage gap narrows. In the early stages of economic development, gender discrimination is becoming prevalent and the substitution effect of capital accumulation, which raises the cost of child rearing, is dominated by the income effect, so the growth rate of population increases with income. When the degree of gender wage discrimination starts to decline, the increased cost of child rearing induces families to invest more in the human capital of children and the growth rate of the population falls. The quantitative analysis shows that gender wage discrimination is indeed an important contributor to the demographic transition.     

Cultural Norms and Son Preference in Intrahousehold Food Distribution: A Case Study of Two Asian Rural Economies

Based on the cost and content of individual calorie intake, I find evidence of son preference in food distribution in rural Bangladesh but not in the rural Philippines, which is consistent with the contrasting cultural norms of these two agrarian societies. Unlike in the Philippines, few females in Bangladesh, a male‐dominated patriarchal society with the strong presence of dowry and purdah systems, seem to participate in the labor market. Gender differences in wage rates appear to be prominent in Bangladesh as well, and the transfer at marriage from a bride's family seems to exceed that from a groom's family. In Bangladesh, the village wage rate of adult females is positively associated with a girl's allocation from the animal food group, while village wage rates of adult males are negatively associated. However, no such association is observed in the Philippines, which is characterized by egalitarian values between the sexes. In recent marriages in Bangladesh, a village's average value of transfers from grooms' families is also positively associated with a girl's allocation. While higher birth order children fare worse than lower birth order children in both economies, in Bangladesh a higher birth order girl does worse than a higher birth order boy, whereas this is not the case in the Philippines. The son preference does not seem to be associated with scarcity, as it is prominent in non‐poor Bangladeshi households but not in poor ones; the preference does not appear in either category in the Philippines. A Bangladeshi village's access to television, which I use as a proxy for liberal values, is positively associated with girls' calorie allocations.     

Evolution of the Public–Private Sector Wage Differential during Transition in Estonia

This article estimates the public–private sector wage differential in Estonia over the transition period. Quantile regression is used with a dataset from Estonian Labour Force Surveys from 1989 to 2004 for this purpose. The results of the analysis indicate that the public–private sector wage differential was negative during early transition but has decreased subsequently. It also shows that employees with low potential wages tend to gain more or lose less from working in the public sector than workers with high potential wages. The public–private sector wage differential is negatively related to the number of public employees and tends to be counter-cyclical. Political cycles have no effect on the public–private sector wage differential in Estonia.     

Increasing dispersion of skills and rising earnings inequality

In recent decades many countries have simultaneously liberalized their trading regimes and expanded their education systems. The theoretical effect of these regime shifts on the wage differential between skilled and unskilled workers is ambiguous. On the one hand, openness to trade causes demand shifts in the labor market which may widen or narrow the differential. This result depends on whether the unskilled wage is depressed, as in the case of importing countries, or raised, as in the case of exporting countries. On the other hand, an increased supply of more educated workers reduces their wages and narrows the skill wage gap. In this study of the labor market of Hong Kong, we document that recent changes in response to the trade liberalization of Mainland China and expanded access to education have increased the earnings differential between skilled and unskilled workers. Using detailed census data, we argue that the main reason for this outcome is the widened dispersion of skills across the earnings distribution, resulting from demand and supply shifts in the labor market caused by trade openness and expanded access to higher education.     

Gender pay differentials during the transition in Poland*

This paper assesses the relative economic welfare of women during the transition in Poland. After providing an account of gender differences in several labour market outcomes we analyse the male‐female wage differential over the period 1993–97. We find that there is almost no change in the wage gap, that most of the explained portion of the wage gap may be attributed to industrial and occupational segregation, and that a substantial portion of the wage gap remains unexplained. We briefly discuss possible socio‐economic explanations for our findings.     

经济增长过程中工资分配的变动——基于中国经济数据的实证分析

工资分配是居民共享经济增长成果的具体体现.工资分配的变动与技术进步使用偏向有关,本文认为,技术进步偏向利用资本、节约劳动时,工资分配比重呈下降趋势;技术进步偏向利用劳动、节约资本时,工资分配的比重呈上升趋势.并通过实证分析指出,我国工资分配比重下降是技术进步偏向于使用资本、节约劳动造成的,进而揭示提高居民工资分配比重,必须推动我国技术进步的使用偏向由利用资本、节约劳动向使用劳动、节约资本的方向转变.     

No education,no good jobs? Evidence on the relationship between education and labor market segmentation

This paper assesses labor market segmentation across formal and informal salaried jobs and self-employment in three Latin American and three transition countries. It looks separately at the markets for skilled and unskilled labor, inquiring if segmentation is an exclusive feature of the latter. Longitudinal data are used to assess wage differentials and mobility patterns across jobs. To study mobility, the paper compares observed transitions with a new benchmark measure of mobility under no segmentation. It finds evidence of a formal wage premium relative to informal salaried jobs in the three Latin American countries, but not in transition economies. It also finds evidence of extensive mobility across these two types of jobs in all countries, particularly from informal salaried to formal jobs. These patterns are suggestive of a preference for formal over informal salaried jobs in all countries. In contrast, there is little mobility between self-employment and formal salaried jobs, suggesting the existence of barriers to this type of mobility or a strong assortative matching according to workers’ individual preferences. Lastly, for both wage differentials and mobility, there is no statistical difference across skill levels, indicating that the markets for skilled and unskilled labor are similarly affected by segmentation.     

Surplus men and scarce women: The impact of mating competition on the desire for sons in China*

We conducted this research to explore the possible factors shaping son preference, with a view to understanding the persistently high male/female sex ratio. Using data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) and the Population Census of China, we find a significant impact of regional sex ratio on people's preferences for the sex of their future children. Specifically, the extent of son preference decreases with the increase in the male/female sex imbalance in the local area. We also find that sex imbalance has a positive impact on a wide range of outcomes that capture the pressure on males to enter marriage markets, such as regional housing prices, the number of houses owned, and family economic status. This result is consistent with the view that greater sex imbalance exerts larger pressure on men in the marriage market, leading to changes in son preference. Omitted variable bias is addressed by using climate changes in the month preceding the fertilization period as an instrument for sex ratio. Instrumental sex ratio negatively impacts son preference, offering strong support for our hypothesis.     

The evolution of wages over the lifecycle: insights from intergenerational connections

This article uses intergenerational information to improve our understanding of lifecycle wage dynamics. I present a simple statistical model that relates the wages of workers at different points in their lifecycle to the earnings of their parents. I decompose cross-sectional variance of wages into a permanent component related to parental background, a permanent component unrelated to parental background, and a transitory component. Data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) suggests that intergenerational relationships are stronger when measured later in the lifecycle of the son. This implies that the permanent parent-related component is increasingly important for wage determination as workers grow older. This is not consistent with wage evolution through persistent random shocks. Rather, it is consistent with human capital models and learning models of wage evolution.