IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/asieco/v92y2024ics1049007824000101.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender imbalance, wife’s bargain power and shrinking household size in Rural China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Yuan
  • Sun, Shiyi

Abstract

Household size in rural China has seen a shrinking trend in the past decades. This has been attributed to the one-child policy, low fertility rates, and population migration under rapid urbanization. This paper suggests that the gender imbalance in the marriage market has improved the bargaining power of wives, which has led them to divide up the family and live apart from their parents-in-law. This trend has improved the share of doubleton families and decreased the size of households in rural China. Employing nationally representative survey data, empirical evidence indicates that the gender imbalance has significant positive effects on the probability of married women living apart from parents-in-law. This effect is stronger in rural China than in urban China. This paper sheds light on the driving forces of shrinking household size in rural China and has important implications for future family policies such as supporting the elderly in rural China.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Yuan & Sun, Shiyi, 2024. "Gender imbalance, wife’s bargain power and shrinking household size in Rural China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:asieco:v:92:y:2024:i:c:s1049007824000101
    DOI: 10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101715
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1049007824000101
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101715?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rao, Vijayendra, 1993. "The Rising Price of Husbands: A Hedonic Analysis of Dowry Increases in Rural India," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(4), pages 666-677, August.
    2. Du, Julan & Wang, Yongqin & Zhang, Yan, 2015. "Sex imbalance, marital matching and intra-household bargaining: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 197-218.
    3. Michele Tertilt, 2005. "Polygyny, Fertility, and Savings," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(6), pages 1341-1370, December.
    4. Xing Li & M. W. Luke Chan & Byron G. Spencer & Wei Yang, 2016. "Does the marriage market sex ratio affect parental sex selection? Evidence from the Chinese census," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(4), pages 1063-1082, October.
    5. Shang-Jin Wei & Xiaobo Zhang, 2011. "The Competitive Saving Motive: Evidence from Rising Sex Ratios and Savings Rates in China," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 119(3), pages 511-564.
    6. Ting Chen & James Kai-sing Kung & Chicheng Ma, 2020. "Long Live Keju! The Persistent Effects of China’s Civil Examination System," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(631), pages 2030-2064.
    7. Duncan Thomas, 1990. "Intra-Household Resource Allocation: An Inferential Approach," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 25(4), pages 635-664.
    8. Ding, Weili & Zhang, Yuan, 2014. "When a son is born: The impact of fertility patterns on family finance in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 192-208.
    9. Iyigun, Murat & Walsh, Randall P., 2007. "Endogenous gender power, household labor supply and the demographic transition," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 138-155, January.
    10. Alberto Alesina & Paola Giuliano & Nathan Nunn, 2013. "On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(2), pages 469-530.
    11. Shang-Jin Wei & Xiaobo Zhang, 2011. "Sex Ratios, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Growth in the People's Republic of China," NBER Working Papers 16800, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Wei, Shang-Jin & Zhang, Xiaobo & Liu, Yin, 2017. "Home ownership as status competition: Some theory and evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 169-186.
    13. Maria Porter, 2016. "How do sex ratios in China influence marriage decisions and intra-household resource allocation?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 337-371, June.
    14. Pierre-Andre Chiappori & Bernard Fortin & Guy Lacroix, 2002. "Marriage Market, Divorce Legislation, and Household Labor Supply," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(1), pages 37-72, February.
    15. Philip H. Brown, 2009. "Dowry and Intrahousehold Bargaining: Evidence from China," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(1).
    16. Grossbard-Shechtman, Shoshana Amyra, 1984. "A Theory of Allocation of Time in Markets for Labour and Marriage," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 94(376), pages 863-882, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shoshana GROSSBARD, 2015. "Sex Ratios, Polygyny, and the Value of Women in Marriage - A Beckerian Approach," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(1), pages 13-25, March.
    2. Grossbard, Shoshana, 2016. "Marriage and Marriage Markets," IZA Discussion Papers 10312, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Yan Yuan & Zhao Rong & Lihe Xu, 2020. "Does Sex Imbalance Affect Family Businesses? Evidence from Rural China," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 4-18, March.
    4. Grossbard, Shoshana, 2023. "Spouses as Home Health Workers and Cooks: Insights for Applied Research," IZA Discussion Papers 16182, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Rufei Guo & Qian Wang & Junjian Yi & Junsen Zhang, 2022. "Housing prices and son preference: Evidence from China’s housing reform," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 421-446, July.
    6. Maria Porter, 2017. "Spousal Bargaining Over Care for Elderly Parents in China: Imbalances in Sex Ratios Influence the Allocation of Support," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(4), pages 514-529, April.
    7. Doepke, M. & Tertilt, M., 2016. "Families in Macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1789-1891, Elsevier.
    8. Annalisa Frigo & Èric Roca Fernández, 2022. "Roots of gender equality: the persistent effect of beguinages on attitudes toward women," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 91-148, March.
    9. Soo Hong Chew & Junjian Yi & Junsen Zhang & Songfa Zhong, 2018. "Risk Aversion and Son Preference: Experimental Evidence from Chinese Twin Parents," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(8), pages 3896-3910, August.
    10. Tan, Zhibo & Wei, Shang-Jin & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2021. "Deadly discrimination: Implications of “missing girls” for workplace safety," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    11. Josh Angrist, 2002. "How Do Sex Ratios Affect Marriage and Labor Markets? Evidence from America's Second Generation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(3), pages 997-1038.
    12. Zhang, Kezhong & He, Fan & Ma, Yuanyuan, 2021. "Sex ratios and mental health: Evidence from China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    13. Victoria Baranov & Ralph Haas & Pauline Grosjean, 2023. "Men. Male-biased sex ratios and masculinity norms: evidence from Australia’s colonial past," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 339-396, September.
    14. Dong, Xinwei, 2022. "Intrahousehold property ownership, women’s bargaining power, and family structure," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    15. De Haas, Ralph & Baranov, Victoria & Grosjean, Pauline, 2020. "Male-biased Sex Ratios and Masculinity Norms: Evidence from Australia's Colonial Past," CEPR Discussion Papers 14493, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Simon Chang & Rachel Connelly & Ping Ma, 2016. "What Will You Do If I Say ‘I Do’?: The Effect of the Sex Ratio on Time Use within Taiwanese Married Couples," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 35(4), pages 471-500, August.
    17. Lixing Li & Xiaoyu Wu & Yi Zhou, 2021. "Intra-household bargaining power, surname inheritance, and human capital accumulation," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 35-61, January.
    18. Kota Ogasawara & Mizuki Komura, 2022. "Consequences of war: Japan’s demographic transition and the marriage market," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(3), pages 1037-1069, July.
    19. Du, Qingyuan & Wei, Shang-Jin, 2013. "A theory of the competitive saving motive," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 275-289.
    20. Weiss, Yoram & Yi, Junjian & Zhang, Junsen, 2013. "Hypergamy, Cross-Boundary Marriages, and Family Behavior," IZA Discussion Papers 7293, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Household Size; Gender Imbalance; Household Division; Doubleton Family;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • R21 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Housing Demand

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:asieco:v:92:y:2024:i:c:s1049007824000101. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/asieco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.