Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/279138 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 16440
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We explore the link between child gender and household financial decisions within a cultural environment that strongly favours having a son. Using data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), we find that the presence of a daughter is associated with a lower saving rate. This is consistent with the hypothesis that such families, facing a less competitive marriage market thanks to the relative under-supply of unmarried women, have lower incentives to raise their female heirs' marital prospects by accumulating bigger asset pools. The negative correlation becomes more pronounced as the daughter approaches marriageable age. This study expands existing research by examining the impact of child gender on financial decisions while controlling for unobserved time-invariant heterogeneity thanks to the panel nature of the CHFS.
Subjects: 
daughter
household savings
marriage market
JEL: 
D14
D10
J12
J16
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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