Son Biased Investments and Old Age Support
Ho, Christine | March 2017
Abstract
Son biased investments are common in many Asian countries where sons are customarily responsible for providing old age support to parents. Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, I find that parents invested nearly twice more in sons than in daughters in terms of college education spending and marriage gifts value. Conversely, parents received relatively higher marginal returns to investment from daughters than from sons in terms of living proximity, monetary and in-kind transfers, and help with instrumental activities of daily living. Family fixed effects models as well as an instrumental variable strategy are employed to control for the potential endogeneity of parental investments in children. The results indicate that daughters may be reciprocating parental monetary investments in their education and marriage by increasing old age support. The findings suggest that daughters may be a viable source of support to parents and that encouraging parental investments in them may lead to an increase in family provided old age support.
Citation
Ho, Christine. 2017. Son Biased Investments and Old Age Support. © Asian Development Bank Institute. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/7616.Keywords
Comparative Analysis
Social Research
Sex Discrimination
Employment Discrimination
Women's Rights
Equal Opportunity
Equal Pay
Feminism
Men's Role
Women's Role
Development Economics
Economic Analysis
Economic Impact
Socioeconomic Development
Socioeconomic Indicators
Gender
Gender Bias
Gender Differences
Gender Discrimination
Gender Equality
Gender Gaps
Gender Inequality
Gender Issues
Gender Relations
Gender Roles
Econometric analysis
Economic implications
Economies in transition
Economic integration
Growth potential
Gross national product
Economic discrimination
Socioeconomic surveys
Gender-based analysis
Sex differences
Job bias
Equal employment opportunity
Fair employment practice
Job discrimination
Affirmative action programs
Sex dicrimination against women
Pay equity
Sexism
Equal rights amendment
Emancipation of women
Equal rights
Women's movements
Feminist economics
Labor economics
Women in economic development
Women in development
Wage survey
Cost and standard of living
Human capital
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