Abstract
We use several datasets to study whether son preference prevails in the human capital investment among Chinese rural-urban migrant households. We find that son preference exists among the rural migrants' households and that it caused lower probabilities relative to that of their boy counterparts that school age girls will migrate with their parents - a difference that is absent for children of preschool age. We also find that (1) boys are more likely to migrate following the reduction in the number of rural primary schools, (2) migrant households with multiple children tend to take their sons to migrate more than they take their daughters, and (3) the fact that parents of boy students spend more on their children's education can be largely explained by the extra costs of schooling for migrant households. Finally, we show that the parents of rural children have higher expectations for boys than they do for girls. Our results suggest that son preference is detrimental to the human capital investment in girls in contemporary China when institutional arrangements result in high costs of schooling for migrants.
Highlights
Households in many developing countries, such as China and India, prefer having sons rather than having daughters, leading to unfavorable consequences such as selective abortion, the ill-treatment of infant girls, an unbalanced sex ratio, and low human capital levels among females
After decades of unprecedented economic growth, does son preference still prevail in contemporary China? If so, what are the consequences in terms of human capital investment? We empirically investigate these questions by studying the educational opportunities of boys and girls among China’s rural-to-urban migrant households
Since migration is affected by selection effects, family structure, age effects, and the socioeconomic characteristics of the hukou location, we provide our empirical analysis of son preference in human capital investment for rural household migration
Summary
Households in many developing countries, such as China and India, prefer having sons rather than having daughters (i.e., son preference), leading to unfavorable consequences such as selective abortion, the ill-treatment of infant girls, an unbalanced sex ratio, and low human capital levels among females. China has a large and ever growing rural to urban migrant population, reaching 172 million in 2017 (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2018; NBS hereafter). A considerable number of children, estimated at approximately 60 million in 2013 (All China Women’s Federation, 2013), are left behind in rural areas by their migrant parent(s). An important feature of this group is that the male-to-female ratio reached 1.38 to 1—a ratio much more unbalanced than the national average (1.15 to 1) and that of children left behind (1.20 to 1), suggesting a prevalence of son preference among migrant households
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