IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/chieco/v64y2020ics1043951x20301413.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Lucky to have a sister: The effects of unmarried sister on brother outcomes in late imperial China

Author

Listed:
  • Ding, Feng
  • Du, Limin
  • Shi, Jinchuan

Abstract

This paper addresses the family free-rider problem by investigating the effects of unmarried sisters on brothers' outcomes based on historical population register data from the China Multi-Generational Panel Dataset-Liaoning (CMGPD-LN). The results show that the presence of an unmarried sister increases the probability of her brother to have another birth / obtain an official student title. An unmarried sister represents a family public good provider since she is a temporary member, and a self-interested brother has economic motivations to compete for and free ride on his sister's unpaid housework. This paper provides an economic explanation rooted in an individual motivation that may help us to further understand the impacts of family structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Ding, Feng & Du, Limin & Shi, Jinchuan, 2020. "Lucky to have a sister: The effects of unmarried sister on brother outcomes in late imperial China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:64:y:2020:i:c:s1043951x20301413
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2020.101544
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X20301413
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.chieco.2020.101544?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. Gary S. Becker, 1981. "A Treatise on the Family," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck81-1.
    2. Becker, Gary S & Tomes, Nigel, 1976. "Child Endowments and the Quantity and Quality of Children," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(4), pages 143-162, August.
    3. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2005. "The More the Merrier? The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Children's Education," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 669-700.
    4. Maristella Botticini & Aloysius Siow, 2003. "Why Dowries?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1385-1398, September.
    5. Gary S. Becker & H. Gregg Lewis, 1974. "Interaction between Quantity and Quality of Children," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of the Family: Marriage, Children, and Human Capital, pages 81-90, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Jonathan Morduch, 2000. "Sibling Rivalry in Africa," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 405-409, May.
    7. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, April.
    8. William L. Parish & Robert J. Willis, 1993. "Daughters, Education, and Family Budgets Taiwan Experiences," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 28(4), pages 863-898.
    9. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1980. "Testing the Quantity-Quality Fertility Model: The Use of Twins as a Natural Experiment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(1), pages 227-240, January.
    10. Avner Greif & Guido Tabellini, 2010. "Cultural and Institutional Bifurcation: China and Europe Compared," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 135-140, May.
    11. Tommy Bengtsson & Cameron Campbell & James Z. Lee, 2004. "Life Under Pressure: Mortality and Living Standards in Europe and Asia, 1700-1900," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262025515, April.
    12. Hongbin Li & Junsen Zhang, 2009. "Testing the External Effect of Household Behavior: The Case of the Demand for Children," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(4).
    13. Browning,Martin & Chiappori,Pierre-André & Weiss,Yoram, 2014. "Economics of the Family," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521795395.
    14. Rebecca Sear & David Coall, 2011. "How Much Does Family Matter? Cooperative Breeding and the Demographic Transition," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 37(Supplemen), pages 81-112, January.
    15. Das Gupta, Monica, 1999. "Lifeboat ethics versus corporate ethics - social and demographic implications of stem and joint families," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2127, The World Bank.
    16. Kristin F. Butcher & Anne Case, 1994. "The Effect of Sibling Sex Composition on Women's Education and Earnings," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(3), pages 531-563.
    17. Xiaoyan Lei & Yan Shen & James P. Smith & Guangsu Zhou, 2017. "Sibling gender composition’s effect on education: evidence from China," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 30(2), pages 569-590, April.
    18. Das Gupta, Monica, 1999. "Lifeboat versus corporate ethic: social and demographic implications of stem and joint families," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 173-184, July.
    19. Sear, Rebecca & Steele, Fiona & McGregor, Ian A. & Mace, Ruth, 2002. "The effects of kin on child mortality in rural Gambia," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 247, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Siwan Anderson, 2007. "The Economics of Dowry and Brideprice," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(4), pages 151-174, Fall.
    21. Gary S. Becker, 1960. "An Economic Analysis of Fertility," NBER Chapters, in: Demographic and Economic Change in Developed Countries, pages 209-240, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Cheung, Steven N S, 1972. "Enforcement of Property Rights in Children, and the Marriage Contract," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 82(326), pages 641-657, June.
    23. Rebecca Sear & Fiona Steele & Ian McGregor & Ruth Mace, 2002. "The effects of kin on child mortality in rural gambia," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 39(1), pages 43-63, February.
    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. Solomon Tesfu & Shiferaw Gurmu, 2013. "Mother’s Gender Preferences and Child Schooling in Ethiopia," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 41(3), pages 265-277, September.
    2. Shuang Chen, 2020. "Parental Investment After the Birth of a Sibling: The Effect of Family Size in Low-Fertility China," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(6), pages 2085-2111, December.
    3. Emla Fitzsimons & Bansi Malde, 2014. "Empirically probing the quantity–quality model," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(1), pages 33-68, January.
    4. Li, Bingjing & Zhang, Hongliang, 2017. "Does population control lead to better child quality? Evidence from China’s one-child policy enforcement," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 246-260.
    5. Shen, Guangjun & Zou, Jingxian & Liu, Xiaoguang, 2017. "Economies of scale, resource dilution and education choice in developing countries: Evidence from Chinese households," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 138-153.
    6. Kang, Lili & Peng, Fei, 2012. "Siblings, public facilities and education returns in China," MPRA Paper 38922, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Zhong, Hai, 2014. "The effect of sibling size on children's health: a regression discontinuity design approach based on China's one-child policy," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 156-165.
    8. Tim Riswick & Ying-Hui Hsieh, 2020. "Between rivalry and support: The impact of sibling composition on infant and child mortality in Taiwan, 1906‒1945," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 42(21), pages 615-656.
    9. Xiaoyu Wu & Lixing Li, 2012. "Family size and maternal health: evidence from the One-Child policy in China," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(4), pages 1341-1364, October.
    10. Sascha Becker & Francesco Cinnirella & Ludger Woessmann, 2010. "The trade-off between fertility and education: evidence from before the demographic transition," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 177-204, September.
    11. de Haan, Monique, 2010. "Birth order, family size and educational attainment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 576-588, August.
    12. Nguyen, Cuong & Pham, Nguyet & Westbrook, Daniel, 2007. "Do Sibship Size and Birth Order Matter to Child Education?Evidence from Vietnam," MPRA Paper 107150, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Kelly Jones, 2014. "Growing Up Together: Cohort Composition and Child Investment," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(1), pages 229-255, February.
    14. Meltem Dayioğlu & Murat G. Kirdar & Aysit Tansel, 2009. "Impact of Sibship Size, Birth Order and Sex Composition on School Enrolment in Urban Turkey," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 71(3), pages 399-426, June.
    15. Moshe HAZAN & Hosny ZOABI, 2015. "Sons or Daughters? Sex Preferences and the Reversal of the Gender Educational Gap," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(2), pages 179-201, June.
    16. Zhou, Ying & Jia, Nan & Yang, Tianchi, 2021. "The quantity–quality trade-off related to investment in healthy human capital: New evidence from the implementation of the “selective two-child policy” in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    17. Alison Booth & Hiau Kee, 2009. "Birth order matters: the effect of family size and birth order on educational attainment," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(2), pages 367-397, April.
    18. Peter, Noemi & Lundborg, Petter & Mikkelsen, Sara & Webbink, Dinand, 2018. "The effect of a sibling’s gender on earnings and family formation," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 61-78.
    19. Helena Holmlund & Helmut Rainer & Thomas Siedler, 2009. "Meet the Parents?: The Causal Effect of Family Size on the Geographic Distance between Adult Children and Older Parents," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 923, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    20. Oded Galor, 2012. "The demographic transition: causes and consequences," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 6(1), pages 1-28, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unmarried sister; Brother; Fertility outcome; Free-rider problem; Co-residential family;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • N35 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Asia including Middle East
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General

    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:chieco:v:64:y:2020:i:c:s1043951x20301413. 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/chieco .

    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.