Marriage, gender, and premiums from cadre parents

Abstract

We investigate the impacts of the cadre status of biological parents on individuals' socioeconomic outcomes over time in China. We find that cadres' children experience an earnings/income premium during multiple periods, and that the magnitude of such premium increases in the early stage of children's career but decreases in the later stage of life. Moreover, sons, rather than daughters, of cadres can continuously enjoy premiums on socioeconomic outcomes after marriage. Our results suggest that cadres can improve their children's economic status by expanding their children's network and persistently enhancing children's education and cadre status, and that the superior economic status of cadres' children may partially stems from their hard work and high work efficiency. Our results infer that the gender difference in cadre parent premiums cannot be fully explained by the motherhood penalty and the gender difference in family membership could be an important source of gender inequality.