Gender of children and risky health behaviors: Evidence from China

Risky health behaviors impose great public healthcare costs across the world. Existing work examines potential factors for such behaviors including education, income, and prices, yet is still far away from a full explanation. We examine how such behaviors are shaped by the gender of one’s children, using nationally representative Chinese data. We find that parenting daughters is associated with a 2–5.6 percentage point lower probability of smoking, heavy drinking, obesity, poor diet, and healthcare avoidance. Cross-sectional analysis accounts for unobserved regional heterogeneity and alleviates concerns arising from fertility decisions. Longitudinal analysis uses a difference-in-differences approach to compare behaviors within the same household before and after having children. Evidence suggests that the effect arises through a shift in parental risk preference. The findings point to the importance of child gender and more generally, intergenerational interactions, opening a window to understand inside motives for favorable health behavior practices.