 Gender of children and risky health behaviors: Evidence from ChinaWenchao Li Economic Modelling, 2023, vol. 119, issue C Abstract: 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. Keywords: Risky health behavior; Gender difference; Risk preference (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:119:y:2023:i:c:s026499932200390x DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2022.106153 Access Statistics for this article Economic Modelling is currently edited by S. Hall and P. Pauly More articles in Economic Modelling from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.