Does Daughter Deficit Promote Parental Substance Use? Longitudinal Evidence on Smoking from Rural China

Xi Chen

No 10860, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: China and some other Asian countries have experienced skewed sex ratios, triggering intense competition and pressure in the marriage market. Meanwhile, China has more smokers than any other country, with half of men smoke while few women smoke. Men are the major income earners in most Chinese families and thus bear much of the financial burden in preparation for children's marriage. This paper investigates how a demographic factor – a large number of surplus men in the marriage market in China – affects their fathers' smoking behavior. We utilize two household longitudinal surveys as well as a random subsample of the China Population Census to examine fathers' smoking in response to skewed sex ratios. Strikingly, fathers smoke more for families with a son living in communities with higher sex ratios. In contrast, those with a daughter do not demonstrate this pattern. Coping with the marriage market pressure is a more plausible pathway linking the observed skewed sex ratios among children and intense smoking among fathers. Considering worsening sex ratios and highly competitive marriage market in the coming decade as well as lasting health impacts due to smoking, policies suppressing unbalanced sex ratios could lead to welfare gains.

Keywords: paternal smoking; sex ratios; marriage market; stress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 I19 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2017-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-hea, nep-sea and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - paper 1 (results on smoking) published as 'Do skewed sex ratios among children promote parental smoking? Longitudinal evidence from rural China' in: Journal of Substance Abuse , 2018, 23 (4), 366-370; paper 2 (results on alcohol abuse) published as 'Does daughter deficit promote paternal substance use? Evidence from China' in: Journal of Hospital Management and Health Policy , 2018, 2:47

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