How Does the Beauty of Wives Affect Post-Marriage Family Outcomes? Helen's Face in Chinese Households

Junsen Zhang (), Shulan Fei and Yanbing Wen
Additional contact information
Junsen Zhang: Zhejiang University
Shulan Fei: Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics
Yanbing Wen: Jiaxing University

No 16157, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Research on the economics of beauty has persistently emphasized beauty premiums in the labor market but ignored its influence within existing marriages. We examine the physical appearance of the wives and its influence on several post-marriage family outcomes using a conceptual framework that is widely applicable. Based on two data sets from China, we find beautiful women have at least 0.43 fewer children than average- or plain-looking women when controlling for other factors. The negative effect remains robust controlling for wages and the possible endogeneity of beauty. In terms of mechanisms, the negative impact seems to operate by altering bargaining power within the family and the opportunity cost of having children, but not through the quantity-quality interaction of children. For other outcomes, wives' good looks reduce the probability of their taking care of or tutoring their children and increase the probability of parents or in-laws caring for children or performing household chores in urban areas.

Keywords: intergenerational care; number of children; household bargaining power; beauty; opportunity cost (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J10 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2023-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-lab and nep-mfd
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2023, 212, 122-137

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp16157.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16157

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().