Working Paper: NBER ID: w16800
Authors: Shangjin Wei; Xiaobo Zhang
Abstract: China experiences an increasingly severe relative surplus of men in the pre-marital age cohort. The existing literature on its consequences focuses mostly on negative aspects such as crime. In this paper, we provide evidence that the imbalance may also stimulate economic growth by inducing more entrepreneurship and hard work. First, new domestic private firms - an important engine of growth - are more likely to emerge from regions with a higher sex ratio imbalance. Second, the likelihood for parents with a son to be entrepreneurs rises with the local sex ratio. Third, households with a son in regions with a more skewed sex ratio demonstrate a greater willingness to accept relatively dangerous or unpleasant jobs and supply more work days. In contrast, the labor supply pattern by households with a daughter is unrelated to the sex ratio. Finally, regional GDP tends to grow faster in provinces with a higher sex ratio. Since the sex ratio imbalance will become worse in the near future, this growth effect is likely to persist.
Keywords: Sex Ratio; Entrepreneurship; Economic Growth; China
JEL Codes: E2; F3; J1; J2; O1; O4
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| higher sex ratio (J16) | likelihood of parents with a son becoming entrepreneurs (L26) |
| higher sex ratio (J16) | greater willingness to accept dangerous or unpleasant jobs (J28) |
| higher sex ratio (J16) | increased labor supply (J20) |
| higher sex ratio imbalance (J16) | emergence of new domestic private firms (L26) |
| higher sex ratio imbalance (J16) | regional GDP growth (R11) |