Birth Order and Son Preference to Determine the Children of Shandong Province So Tall

Zhu Xiaoxu, Fan Kecai, He Hai and Zhang Ziyu

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Abstract: More children in Shandong Province are stunted than any other province in China. Data on more than 122,000 children show a dramatic increase in height advantage with birth order in Shandong relative to the average of other provinces. We suggest that the steep birth order gradient in Shandong is due to a preference for the eldest child, which influences parental fertility decisions and resource allocation to children. We show that within Shandong province, the gradient is steeper for regions and cultures with a high preference for the eldest child. As predicted, this gradient also varies with the sex of the sibling. By back-calculating, the steeper birth order gradient in Shandong Province explains more than half of the average height gap between Shandong Province and the rest of China.

Date: 2022-11, Revised 2022-11
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