Sons, Daughters, and Parental Behaviour

The prevalence of son preference and its implications for familybehaviour in developing countries have received a great dealof scholarly attention, but child-gender bias is believed tobe empirically unimportant in wealthy, non-traditional societies.Studies by sociologists and psychologists during the past 30years, however, have documented consistent discrepancies betweenthe behaviour of parents of sons and parents of daughters—boystend to increase marital stability and marital satisfactionrelative to girls, and fathers spend more time with, and aremore involved with, sons than daughters. In recent years, economistshave begun to contribute to the child-gender literature, re-examiningthe effects of sons and daughters on family structure and parentalinvolvement with larger samples and greater concern for possiblesources of selection bias. Other economic outcomes, such asmarket work and earnings, have also been studied, and some investigatorshave exploited the randomness of child gender as a source ofexogenous variation in parental behaviour. In general, recentresults suggest that child gender does affect family stabilityand the time allocation of parents, but it is not clear whetherthese responses reflect parental preferences for boys ratherthan girls or differences in the constraints parents face. Footnotes ¹ E-mail address: lundberg{at}u.washington.edu     

Is the eldest son different? The residential choice of siblings in Japan

In this paper, we analyze the determinants of the living arrangements (coresidence behavior) of elderly parents and their children (whether elderly parents live with their children, and if so, with which child) in Japan using micro-data from a household survey. Our results provide support for all four explanations of coresidence behavior but especially for the life cycle and dynasty models (both of which assume selfishly motivated parents) and social norms and traditions: the fact that parents who were self-employed before retirement are more likely to live with their children, the fact that parents are less likely to live with sons who adopt their wife's surname, and the fact that parents are more likely to live with daughters whose husbands adopt their surname constitute evidence in favor of the dynasty model. The fact that parents who were (relatively wealthy) executives before retirement and parents who are homeowners are more likely to live with their children and the fact that parents are more likely to live with less educated children constitute evidence in favor of the selfish life cycle model (or the altruism model). And the fact that parental attitudes toward their children affect their coresidence behavior, the fact that parents are more likely to live with their eldest child if their eldest child is a son, and the fact that parents are most likely to live with their eldest son even if he is not the eldest child constitute evidence in favor of social norms and traditions.     

No longer left-behind: The impact of return migrant parents on children's performance

Using data from a rural household survey in China in 2009, we examine the impact of parental migration on children's educational outcomes. Consistent with the findings of a large empirical literature, we find that parental migration has a significantly negative impact on left-behind children's educational outcomes as measured by test scores in Chinese and math. But unlike much of the existing studies on the subject, we focus on the remediation effect of return migrant parents on once left-behind children's performance. This empirical strategy allows us to avoid the endogeneity issue concerning the migration decision that may have contaminated previous studies. We find evidence that return migrant parents help alleviate the harms caused by parental migration, and the remediation effect is stronger for children attending middle schools, and stronger for daughters. We also find suggestive evidence that return migrant parents improve children's performance through increases in after-school study time and education-related expenditures, following the return of migrant parents.     

Family size,labor supply,and job prestige: Evidence from three decennial censuses in China

This study investigates the relationship between family size and parents’ labor market performance, measured by labor supply and occupational prestige scores, based on three census waves in 1990, 2000, and 2010. To address the endogeneity problem of family size, we use the indicator of twins at first birth as an instrumental variable. Our results suggest that in nuclear households, family size affects the labor market performance only of mothers, not of fathers, with the negative effects fading and gradually disappearing over time. More specifically, an increase in family size decreases female labor supply in the 1990 wave, leads to lower prestige scores among working mothers in the 2000 wave, and has no impact on labor supply or occupational prestige scores in the 2010 wave. Our subsample analysis indicates that the negative effects of family size are more severe for parents of households with all children under seven years old and for husbands or wives with lower education level than that of their partners. In addition, we find that the negative effects of family size on parental labor market outcomes are not observed in extended households, especially when no grandparents are aged 65 years or older.     

Asset or burden? Impact of children on parents’ retirement

If parents receive financial support in retirement from their children, having more children with higher earning power may expedite their retirement. On the other hand, retirement may be delayed if parents are burdened with educational expenses for children. We empirically investigate how the quantity and the education of children influence their parents’ retirement decisions. Due to the endogeneity of childrearing in the retirement decision, we employ the instrumental variable method with twin births and child deaths as instruments. We find that parents retire earlier when they have more children and better educated children and they receive a significant amount of transfers from children.     

璋瓦皆喜 喜意各表——生儿与育女的家庭养老差异研究

文章利用2013年中国健康与养老追踪调查（CHARLS）数据实证分析成年子女性别及教育对家庭养老影响的差异。研究结果表明：相对于男性而言,无论是居住距离还是是否同住方面,女儿更疏离于原生家庭,但是受教育水平提高有助于拉近其与原生家庭的地理距离;教育水平的增加显著降低了男性看望父母、与父母联系的频率,而随着教育水平的提高,女性相对于其兄弟会更多地看望父母、与父母联系;个体与父母经济距离方面并不存在显著的性别差异。文章认为提高女性的受教育水平,不仅有助于女性自身福利的提升,也有助于促进老年人福利的改善。     

The effect of coresidence on parental health in Japan

The empirical evidence of the effect of intergenerational coresidence by elderly parents and their adult children on parental health remains inconclusive. This study provides a new estimate of the coresidence effect by addressing non-random selection and heterogeneity in the treatment effect. Examination of Japanese data reveals: (i) an insignificant, negative average coresidence effect; (ii) a significant, negative coresidence effect on the treated; and (iii) that parents with unmet care needs and limited resources, typically widowed, disabled mothers, are most likely to suffer from a significant, negative coresidence effect. The results support the theory that coresidence may worsen elderly parents’ health because care burdens on their adult children create disincentives for the parents to invest in longevity. The significant heterogeneity in the coresidence effect suggests potential scope for a better-targeted long-term care program.     

The family circumstances of women migrating permanently or temporarily to Sundsvall in the nineteenth century

Abstract

The aim of this article is to identify the factors which lead some women to migrate to the town of Sundsvall in northern Sweden. Analysis of the life histories of a cohort of women bom between 1815 and 1819 in parishes close to Sundsvall revealed that even before the middle of the nineteenth century, Sundsvall was beginning to emerge as an important destination but that it was service, rather than marriage, that motivated migration.

It was also established that the social position of the woman's father was one of the important determinants of her migration, service and marriage histories. Daughters of farmers were more likely to marry than the daughters of non-farmers. They would also marry earlier. In respect of their record as a servant, daughters of farmers would enter service later, work for fewer employers and be less likely to re-enter the parental home having once left for a service post. Daughters of non- farmers were, however, more likely to move to Sundsvall implying that the weakness of the parental family economy may have fostered such migration.

Inter-acting with social position was the place of the woman within the sibling set. Daughters who were the first or second born children of farmers, for example, were less likely to become servants but more likely to spend part of their adulthood in the town of Sundsvall. However, the departure of daughters from the parental household rarely resulted in a childless parental household. A number of (generallyyounger) siblings remained while many of the daughters, particularly of non-farmers, returned to their parents after a number of spells of service.     

Usury legislation,cash, and credit: the development of the female investor in the late Tudor and Stuart periods1

This article uses testamentary evidence from Lincoln diocesan court between the 1570s and the 1690s to examine links between inheritance, a rise in money‐lending amongst single women, and an increase in the proportion of women that never married. Two trends emerge: first, more fathers after the 1570s chose to bequeath cash to their daughters; second, they were more likely to restrict access to this portion by age rather than marriage. Assisted by a softening of attitudes towards interest‐bearing lending, these changes offered some single women a measure of financial independence that may have impacted on their marriage decisions.     

Birth order and intergenerational income mobility in Japan: Is the first-born child different?

This study examines how birth order affects intergenerational income mobility (IGM) in Japan, focusing on the difference in IGM between firstborn and later-born children. The elasticities of sons’ income with respect to fathers’ income are separately estimated for sons who are firstborn and sons who are later born by family size using a two-sample, two-stage least squares approach. For sons born in 1926–1981, this study finds that in families with four or more children, intergenerational income elasticity (IGE) for firstborn sons is substantially and significantly higher than that for later-born sons. However, no significant birth order effects are found in households with two or three children.     

Flying Ducks? Girls’ Schooling in Rural Vietnam

Using the Vietnam Living Standards Survey 1992–93, this paper has found significant gender differences in children's education – parents are less likely to keep girls in school. The method of Doiron and Riddell (1994) is applied to decompose the predicted probability gap of being in school between boys and girls. Their method takes into account the nonlinear nature of the probit model. The decomposition result suggests that most observed gender differences in the predicted probability gap may be driven by discrimination, which may be due to Confucian values. Girls are colloquially referred to as 'flying ducks' as they are regarded as a loss to the family upon marriage. Cultural values could shape the parents' perception of the rate of the children's income transfer to the parents. If the cultural norms dictate that sons provide old–age security to the parents, while daughters marry and provide no support to the parents, parents may not be willing to invest as much in girls' education relative to boys. Promotion of gender equality and reduction of the reliance on sons in providing old–age security to parents are necessary to ensure that girls have equal opportunities to receive education.
JEL classification : I 2; J 16; J 71     

Parental socioeconomic status and children’s cognitive ability in China

It is widely recognized that intergenerational transmission is one of the primary causes of persistent social inequality. Using nationally representative data, the China Family Panel Studies, this paper is one of the first to comprehensively investigate parental SES and children’s cognitive outcomes in China and moves beyond existing work by accounting for the direct intergenerational transmission of cognitive ability and by examining various novel mechanisms. Our results show that parents’ education rather than income is positively associated with their children’s cognitive abilities. The analysis of mechanisms shows that educational disparity widens the gap in parental investment, as well as parental beliefs regarding education and expectations for their children. Nevertheless, we do not find differences in parenting productivity. In addition, we find that the impact is more prominent in rural areas where education resources are much more limited. Various tests have been performed to prove the robustness of our findings.     

Educational differences in parental time devoted to childcare in China

The intergenerational transmission of education in China has drawn extensive public and academic attention. This paper explores the differences in the amount of time Chinese parents spend on childcare stratified by education level and investigates the factors driving these differences. The analysis shows that more educated parents devote more time to childcare than less-educated parents. The educational differences in parental childcare time are particularly pronounced among working parents, parents with school-age children, and parents in the provinces where educational institutions are relatively scarce. Much of the extra childcare time is directed to educational care and travel with children. Compared to households in which the mother has less than a junior high school education, households with university-educated mothers spend 74 min more per day on childcare, with 58% of the extra time devoted to children's learning and education.     

Strategic interaction between inter vivos gifts and housing acquisition

This paper models the interdependence of parental inter vivos gifts and children’s home purchases when informal care affects decision making. We use data from Japanese households who purchased a detached house in an urban area to test this strategic interaction. Considering both censoring and endogeneity of inter vivos gifts, which are identified by information on formal care, our preferred results demonstrate that inter vivos gifts do not significantly increase the purchase price of housing. Theory suggests that this occurs when informal care tends to be a heavy burden for children. However, subsample analysis of young home buyers indicates that the empirical results are consistent with the literature: children who receive parental gifts tend to purchase a higher-priced dwelling. One potential explanation is that relatively young adult children are less likely to take charge of care obligations, and accordingly, parental gifts are only expected to relax their liquidity constraints. Subsample analysis appears to indicate that the underlying motivation of parental gifts is influenced by the timing of children’s home purchase decisions.     

Intergenerational mobility of earnings in South Korea

The purpose of this study is to estimate the extent of intergenerational mobility of earnings in the Republic of Korea (South Korea). The elasticity of children's earnings with respect to parent's earnings is estimated using household microdata. When the simulation extrapolation (SIMEX) method is applied along with the multiyear-average method, the elasticity is estimated to be 0.24 or less for sons approximately 30 years old. When the two-stage approach is applied, the elasticity is approximately 0.25 for sons and 0.35 for daughters in their 30s, and approximately 0.35 for sons and 0.4 for daughters from 25 to 54 years old. Nonparametric regression illustrates that sons from low-income families in the younger generation have more equal opportunities than in the older generation     

Land Inheritance and Schooling in Matrilineal Societies: Evidence from Sumatra

This paper explores statistically the implications of the shift from communal to individualized tenure on the distribution of land and schooling between sons and daughters in matrilineal societies, based on a Sumatra case study. The inheritance system is evolving from a strictly matrilineal system to a more egalitarian system in which sons and daughters inherit the type of land which is more intensive in their respective work effort. While gender bias is either non-existent or small in land inheritance, daughters tend to be disadvantaged with respect to schooling. The gender gap in schooling, however, appears to be closing for the generation of younger children.     

Human Capital and Hours Worked of Children in Cambodia: Empirical Evidence for Policy Implications*

This study uses data from the Cambodian Child Labor Survey 2001/02 (CCLS‐2001/02) to investigate the trade‐off between child labor and their human capital formation. It also investigates the determinants of child schooling and that of the income earned from child labor. This study finds that children's education is a significant determinant of their wage rate, which implicitly explains the logic behind the household's decision to allow a child to both work and study, and thus explains why parents keep investing in their children's education. We also find that non‐poor households and fathers’ and mothers’ education have statistically significant effects on child schooling. Finally, this study has found that if children's average working hours are below the threshold level of 22 h per week, then education is not affected. These research findings have policy implications for the human capital development of children, as well as for broader social policy in Cambodia.     

Demographic change and its impact on farmers' field production decisions

Following the general trend in demographic change, and enhanced by the large-scale and continuous rural-urban migration, the rural labor force remaining in farming is quickly reducing and aging. This is likely to have significant impact on the labor-intensive agriculture. However, the fast growing of machinery service has provided farmers an opportunity to out-source field work that demands heavy labor inputs. Therefore, the demographic change and development of machinery service may jointly influence farmers' production decision in terms of crop choice and inputs. Household data of Fixed Point Rural Survey (FPRS) are used to examine the potential change in farmers' decisions on crop mix and input uses. It is found out that, under current situations, aging may impact agriculture through changing crop mix, and the choice is largely determined by access to service of farm machine; which, in turn, is likely to be determined by topography.     

Children's marriage and parental subjective well-being: Evidence from China

The marriage of children is a milestone event in parenthood, while how parents' well-being evolves around the time children get married is limitedly understood. This paper examines the relationship between children's marriage and parents' subjective well-being. Using China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data, we find that parental subjective well-being is positively associated with children's marriage. An examination of the underlying mechanisms shows that, first, children's marriage can significantly enhance parents' sense of security in old-age care and their confidence in the future. Second, the older the unmarried children are, the more anxious the parents who hold stronger traditional ideology will be. Third, parents will increase their consumption expenditure after their children get married; and compared with daughters, sons' marriages have a stronger effect on parental well-being. These findings reveal that parental economic pressure due to China's biased sex ratio and marriage squeeze is relieved after their children's marriage.