Little Emperors in the Workplace: Labor Market Consequences of China's One-Child Policy
27 Pages Posted: 5 Mar 2020 Last revised: 20 Apr 2023
Date Written: February 9, 2020
Abstract
What is the impact of China's One-Child Policy on the labor market outcomes of the only children that it engendered? This paper quantifies the wage income gap between only children and their peers (i.e. those with siblings), and uncovers the channels that underlie it. While only children receive higher wage income on average, we find that this only-child premium disappears completely once their superior schooling attainment and family background are accounted for. Moreover, we learn that the OCP resulted in a negative only-child effect on wage income, after conditioning on pre-determined characteristics; this may be due to only children lacking socio-emotional attributes that are valued in the labor market. Our results deliver important insights for China as only children continue to dominate its labor force at a rapid pace.
Keywords: One-Child Policy, wage gap, personality traits, social attributes
JEL Classification: J13, J18, J24, J31
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