Exposure to the one-child policy and fertility among chinese immigrants to the US

Siyuan Lin (), Laura Argys and Susan Averett
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Siyuan Lin: Lehigh University
Laura Argys: University of Colorado Denver
Susan Averett: IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Review of Economics of the Household, 2025, vol. 23, issue 3, No 5, 969-1002

Abstract: Abstract This paper examines the impact of growing up under China’s One-Child Policy (OCP) on the subsequent fertility of Chinese women. Specifically, we ask if Chinese women exposed to a small-family culture change their own fertility decisions when they migrate to a country with no fertility restrictions. Using data from the American Community Survey (2010–2020) to measure family size, we compare the childbearing decisions of Chinese-born women growing up before and during the OCP who migrated to the US to each other and to women who migrated from other Asian countries/regions from the same birth cohorts. Our findings indicate that Chinese women between the ages of 35-45 exposed to the OCP for a longer duration have significantly fewer children compared to similar women who were not exposed to the OCP. These findings are robust to several specification checks including controlling for an estimate of a woman’s natal family size, assimilation represented by time spent in the US, women’s education, and as expected, are strongest for currently-married women.

JEL-codes: F22 I15 J13 N35 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s11150-025-09782-5

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