Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/35117 
Year of Publication: 
2007
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 3223
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper examines the influence of family human capital on offspring's economic status in post reform rural China by concentrating on the father-son relationship. We focus on two indicators of family background: family class origin (jiating chengfen) and occupational experience. The results of a family wealth function for 2002 suggest that, after controlling for other individual and family characteristics, both measures of family background have a significant influence on family wealth. First, parental experience of a nonagricultural family business before collectivization has a positive and statistically significant effect on current family wealth. Second, the offspring of landlord/rich peasant and middle peasant families are more likely to have higher family wealth than poor and lower-middle peasant families. We also find cohort and regional differences in the influence of family background. Our findings suggest that the strength and robustness of the Chinese rural family as a cultural institution preserves family human capital across radical institutional changes.
Subjects: 
Family human capital
family background
intergenerational correlation
distribution of wealth
JEL: 
D31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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