Abstract
Studies have found that the decline of the fertility rate, which reduces the number of siblings, is an important factor in narrowing the gender gap in education. However, given the number of children, sex composition of siblings also affects individual educational attainment. Few relevant studies on this issue are available in China. This study investigates the effects of sibling sex composition on intrahousehold resource allocation and individual educational attainment in the patriarchal cultural context of China. Under the influence of Chinese traditional culture and economic rationality, parents’ preference for sons leads to biased allocation of resources within the family, and the cost difference between raising boys and girls reinforces such a biased distribution. Analysis based on a nationally representative dataset confirms the hypothesis of this study. It finds that having brother(s) is detrimental to educational attainment and that the higher the proportion of girls in sibship, the more schooling one attains. This sibling sex composition effect is gender asymmetric and also heterogenous across birth cohorts.
Highlights
More than 60 years after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, along with a gradual increase of education level for all, the educational gender gap continues to narrow (Connelly and Zheng 2007; Hannum et al 2009a)
Referring to previous research (Butcher and Case 1994; Hauser and Kuo 1998; Kaestner 1997) and in particular compared to Li and Zhang (2008) study, we introduced measurements for sibling sex composition in a series of regression models: a dummy variable indicating whether respondents have brothers, a dummy variable indicating whether respondents have sisters, and the ratio of girls among siblings
The overall impact of sibling sex composition and the heterogeneity of the impact between the genders We examined the impact of sibling sex composition on educational attainment
Summary
More than 60 years after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, along with a gradual increase of education level for all, the educational gender gap continues to narrow (Connelly and Zheng 2007; Hannum et al 2009a). Many studies have explained the trend of educational gender inequality from the perspective of macroinstitutional structure or public policy (Wu 2012; Ye and Wu 2011). Recent studies have proposed a new perspective, exploring the impact of macro policies and institutions, especially population policies, on micro household decision-making and individual educational attainment (Zheng and Zhang 2013). Resource dilution theory states that, under the given family resource constraints, an increasing number of siblings induces more intense competition among siblings and the average resources allocated to each child will be reduced, which could adversely affect individual educational attainment (Blake 1981). China’s family planning policy reduced fertility, easing family budget constraints and thereby improving girls’ access to education (Lee 2011; Li et al 2008; Tsui and Rich 2002; Wu 2012; Ye and Wu 2011)
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