The Effect of China\u27s One-Child Policy on Male and Female Immigrant Earnings: Does it Pay to be an Only Child?

China\u27s one-child policy is one of the most controversial population control measures implemented in modem society. While most literature focuses on the effects this policy has had on China\u27s population size and economic growth, very little research has been dedicated to analyzing how this policy has affected wage differentials between Chinese men and women. Research suggests that the one-child policy redirected more educational resources towards Chinese daughters than in the past. Human capital theory hypothesizes that equalization in educational attainment corresponds to an equalizing in relative earnings. This paper uses data from the American Community Survey to test the hypothesis that the one-child policy advanced the relative earnings of Chinese immigrant women in the United States. A difference-indifferences methodology is used to answer two questions: first, to what extent is the one-child policy\u27s effect on educational attainment for Chinese women reflected in the immigrant population? Second, if the one-child policy had a positive effect on the level of educational attainment for Chinese immigrant women, is this reflected in their wage-earning profile, relative to their Chinese male immigrant counterparts? The findings of this research suggest that Chinese immigrant women born after the one-child policy attain higher levels of education than those born before. The impacts of these findings are not presently reflected in the wage-earning profiles of Chinese female immigrants because of their young age. However, this provides an opportunity for future research on the positive effects of education on earnings once women born under the one-child policy have engaged in work for a more substantial amount of time

The Effect of China’s One-Child Policy on Male and Female Immigrant Earnings:Does it Pay to be an Only Child?

China\u27s one-child policy is one of the most controversial population control measures implemented in modern society. While most research focuses on the effects this policy has had on China\u27s population size and economic growth, very little research has been dedicated to analyzing how this policy has affected wage differentials between men and women. The purpose of this paper is to use a unique sample of male and female Chinese immigrants to determine whether the one-child policy has advanced the relative earnings of Chinese immigrant women in the United States. Research suggests that the one-child policy redirected more educational resources towards Chinese daughters than in the past. Human capital theory hypothesizes that equalization in educational attainment will correspond to an equalizing in relative earnings. To test this hypothesis, this paper uses the American Community Survey and a difference-in-differences methodology to compare the relative earnings of female Chinese immigrants in the U.S. to their male counterparts. This paper finds that, relative to Chinese male immigrants, Chinese female immigrants born under the one-child policy perform better in the labor market than their older, non-single child family female counterparts. An extended treatment of this topic was awarded University Honors and may be found in the Department of Economics Honors Projects collection

The Effect of China’s One-Child Policy on Male and Female Chinese Immigrant Earnings: Does it Pay to Be an Only Child?

Oral presentation abstract

Age-dependent resistance to murine retrovirus-induced spongiform neurodegeneration results from central nervous system-specific restriction of virus replication.

The murine retrovirus CasBrE causes a noninflammatory spongiform degeneration of the central nervous system (CNS). Mice inoculated as neonates develop viremia and are susceptible to disease. However, mice inoculated at 10 days of age do not develop viremia and are totally resistant to the neurologic disease. We recently described a highly neurovirulent chimeric virus, FrCasE (J. L. Portis, S. Czub, C. F. Garon, and F. J. McAtee, J. Virol. 64:1648-1656, 1990), which contains the env gene of CasBrE. Mice inoculated at 10 days of age with this virus developed a viremia comparable to that in neonatally inoculated mice but, surprisingly, were still completely resistant to the neurodegenerative disease. A comparison of the tissue distribution of virus replication for mice inoculated at 1 or 10 days of age was determined by Southern blot analysis for the quantification of viral DNA and by infectious-center assay for the quantification of virus-producing cells. The levels of virus replication in the spleens were comparable in the two groups. In contrast, virus replication in the CNS of the resistant 10-day-old mice was markedly restricted (100- to 1,000-fold). Intracerebral inoculation did not overcome this restriction. A similar pattern of CNS-specific restriction of virus replication and resistance to disease was observed in athymic NIH Swiss nude mice inoculated at 10 days of age, suggesting that T-cell immunity was not involved. From our results, we conclude that the age-dependent resistance to disease is a consequence of the restriction of virus replication within the CNS due to the developmental state of the organ