Publication Type
Working Paper
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
9-2024
Abstract
We show that, conditional on family size, rural boys and girls are equally likely to migrate with parents in China. Nevertheless, daughters’ migration may still be compromised because they tend to have more siblings in societies with strong son preference, and larger families are more likely to leave all children behind. We find that a one unit increase in sibship size decreases the probability that a daughter migrates by 12.5 percentage points—with stronger effects when migration restrictions are more stringent—but has negligible effects on sons. The results suggest that gender-neutral migration constraints may generate gendered family size trade-offs.
Keywords
Child migration, family size trade-offs, son preference, parental investment
Discipline
Family, Life Course, and Society | Growth and Development | Income Distribution
Research Areas
Applied Microeconomics
First Page
1
Last Page
52
Embargo Period
5-30-2024
Citation
HO, Christine; WANG, Yutao; and ZUO, Sharon Xuejing.
Family size and child migration: Do daughters face greater trade-offs than sons?. (2024). 1-52.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/2750
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Included in
Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Growth and Development Commons, Income Distribution Commons