经济学院2019年第三十九次学术讲座

——应用微观经济学讲座（三）

主讲嘉宾: 陈阗諝 助理教授

单 位：美国康涅狄格大学经济系

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

时 间：2019年6月13日（周四）上午10:00

地 点：经济学院402会议室

                                        经济学院

                                     2019年5月24日

嘉宾简介：陈阗諝博士，美国康耐狄格大学经济系助理教授。曾任上海财经大学经济系助理教授。她于2007年获中国人民大学学士学位，2009年获美国杜克大学硕士学位，2014年获美国波士顿大学经济学博士学位。主要利用应用微观经济学的方法进行健康和劳动等领域的实证研究。她的合作论文“Comparisons of Health Insurance Systems in Developed Countries” 发表在Encyclopedia of Health Economics。

论文摘要：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.