McAtee, Stephanie

Seeborg, Faculty Advisor, Michael

Digital Commons @ Illinois Wesleyan University

Illinois Wesleyan UniversityDigital Commons @ IWUJohn Wesley Powell Student ResearchConference 2016, 27th Annual JWP ConferenceApr 16th, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PMThe Effect of China’s One-Child Policy on Maleand Female Chinese Immigrant Earnings: Does itPay to Be an Only Child?Stephanie McAteeIllinois Wesleyan UniversityMichael Seeborg, Faculty AdvisorIllinois Wesleyan UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/jwprcPart of the Economics Commons, and the Education CommonsThis Event is brought to you for free and open access by The Ames Library, the Andrew W. Mellon Center for Curricular and FacultyDevelopment, the Office of the Provost and the Office of the President. It has been accepted for inclusion in Digital Commons @ IWU bythe faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@iwu.edu.©Copyright is owned by the author of this document.Stephanie McAtee and Michael Seeborg, Faculty Advisor, "The Effect of China’s One-Child Policy on Male and FemaleChinese Immigrant Earnings: Does it Pay to Be an Only Child?" (April 16, 2016). John Wesley Powell Student ResearchConference. Paper 1.http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/jwprc/2016/oralpres2/1THE JOHN WESLEY POWELL STUDENT RESEARCH CONFERENCE – APRIL 2016      Oral Presentation  O2.1   THE EFFECT OF CHINA’S ONE-CHILD POLICY ON MALE AND FEMALE CHINESE IMMIGRANT EARNINGS: DOES IT PAY TO  BE AN ONLY CHILD?   Stephanie McAtee and Michael Seeborg* Economics Department, Illinois Wesleyan University    China’s 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’s 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 will correspond to an equalizing in relative earnings. This paper uses a unique sample of male and female Chinese immigrants from the American Community Survey to test the hypothesis that the one-child policy has advanced the relative earnings of Chinese immigrant women in the United States. A difference-in-differences methodology is used to answer two questions: first, to what extent is the one-child policy’s positive effect on educational attainment for Chinese women reflected in the immigrant population? Second, if the one-child policy benefited 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 due to downward biases in wages for those still in school. However, these findings have the potential to positively impact wages of Chinese immigrant women born under the one-child policy as they leave educational institutions and enter the workforce in the near future.           THE JOHN WESLEY POWELL STUDENT RESEARCH CONFERENCE – APRIL 2016           

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

http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3361&context=jwprc

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

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