性别偏好与人口转型

人口转型是工业化发展过程中普遍发生的重要经济和社会现象。本文从性别偏好对生育决策的影响这个角度解释了为什么当经济发展到一定程度后,人口生育率会显著下降。本文通过动态一般均衡模型说明了资本积累和技术进步会缩小男女劳动力在生产效率上的差异,从而使男女工资的不平等减少。而性别偏好程度又取决于男女劳动回报的差异,因此经济发展会降低性别偏好的程度,提高女孩对于家庭效用的贡献,这将影响到家庭的生育决策。数值模拟的结果表明,性别偏好程度的下降对人口转型具有重要的影响,当性别偏好程度显著降低时,人口生育率会下降。

Son Preference and Demographic Transition

Demographic transition is one of the most important economic and social phenomena in the course of industrialization in many countries.We explain demographic transition by examining the role of son preference in household fertility decision.With a dynamic general equilibrium model,we show that capital accumulation and technological progress narrow the productivity gap between male and female labor,which in turn narrow their wage differential.Since son preference is determined by the wage differential betwee...