IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ehbiol/v29y2018icp102-114.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hybrid marriages and phenotypic heterosis in offspring: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhu, Chen
  • Zhang, Xiaohui
  • Zhao, Qiran
  • Chen, Qihui

Abstract

In genetics, heterosis refers to the phenomenon that cross-breeding within species leads to offspring that are genetically fitter than their parents and exhibit improved phenotypic characteristics. Based on the theory of heterosis and existing genetic evidence, offspring of “hybrid” marriages (spouses originating from different states/provinces/countries/areas), though relatively rare due to physical boundaries, may exhibit greater genetic fitness in terms of intelligence, height, or physical attractiveness (the “distance-performance” hypothesis). This study explores whether heterosis is a contributing factor to offspring’s educational attainment in China by applying a high-dimensional fixed effects (HDFE) modelling framework to the unique 0.1% micro-sample of the 2000 Chinese Population Census data. Concerning potential endogeneity of hybrid marriages, we conduct a series of robustness checks. Reassuringly, the estimated heterosis effect remains significantly positive across various measurements, after controlling for parental educational attainments/height, environmental influences, and over a thousand region and region-by-year fixed effects. The effects in male and higher-educated offspring are found to be stronger. Results are replicated when analyzing body height using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey. Although endogeneity of “hybrid marriages” may not be completely ruled out, the current study sheds light on the potentially beneficial effects of interprovincial migration on population-level human capital accumulation, and we hope that this paper can intrigue future studies that further address endogeneity. The implied heterosis effect could, therefore, be profound for Homo sapiens as a species from an evolutionary point of view. An additional important implication is that the overall genetic influences of parents on offspring’s performance may be further decomposed into a conventional heredity effect and a heterosis effect that has been neglected previously.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhu, Chen & Zhang, Xiaohui & Zhao, Qiran & Chen, Qihui, 2018. "Hybrid marriages and phenotypic heterosis in offspring: Evidence from China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 102-114.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:29:y:2018:i:c:p:102-114
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2018.02.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X17300825
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ehb.2018.02.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Erik Plug & Wim Vijverberg, 2003. "Schooling, Family Background, and Adoption: Is It Nature or Is It Nurture?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(3), pages 611-641, June.
    2. Connelly, Rachel & Zheng, Zhenzhen, 2003. "Determinants of school enrollment and completion of 10 to 18 year olds in China," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 379-388, August.
    3. Ngok, Kinglun, 2008. "The Changes of Chinese Labor Policy and Labor Legislation in the Context of Market Transition," International Labor and Working-Class History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 73(1), pages 45-64, April.
    4. Hongbin Li & Junsen Zhang & Yi Zhu, 2008. "The quantity-Quality trade-Off of children In a developing country: Identification using chinese twins," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 45(1), pages 223-243, February.
    5. Paulo Guimarães & Pedro Portugal, 2010. "A simple feasible procedure to fit models with high-dimensional fixed effects," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 10(4), pages 628-649, December.
    6. Liu, Xiaoou & Zhu, Chen, 2014. "Will knowing diabetes affect labor income? Evidence from a natural experiment," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 124(1), pages 74-78.
    7. Ineke Maas & Richard Zijdeman, 2010. "Beyond the local marriage market," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 23(33), pages 933-962.
    8. David Card, 1993. "Using Geographic Variation in College Proximity to Estimate the Return to Schooling," Working Papers 696, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    9. Morris, Stephen, 2006. "Body mass index and occupational attainment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 347-364, March.
    10. Zai Liang, 2001. "The Age of Migration in China," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 27(3), pages 499-524, September.
    11. repec:fth:prinin:317 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Currie, Janet & Cole, Nancy, 1993. "Welfare and Child Health: The Link between AFDC Participation and Birth Weight," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(4), pages 971-985, September.
    13. David Card, 1993. "Using Geographic Variation in College Proximity to Estimate the Return to Schooling," NBER Working Papers 4483, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Baten, Jorg & Murray, John E., 2000. "Heights of Men and Women in 19th-Century Bavaria: Economic, Nutritional, and Disease Influences," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 351-369, October.
    15. Baten, Joerg, 2009. "Protein supply and nutritional status in nineteenth century Bavaria, Prussia and France," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 165-180, July.
    16. Knight, John & Li, Shi, 1996. "Educational Attainment and the Rural--Urban Divide in China," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 58(1), pages 83-117, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Qin, Yu & Ruan, Jianqing & Wang, Ling & Yan, Jubo, 2022. "Genetic distance and intra-national variation in preferences and behaviours," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    2. Wenyan Xu & Qiran Zhao & Shenggen Fan & Chen Zhu, 2023. "Effects of direct grain subsidies on food consumption of rural residents in China," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(S1), pages 1382-1398, December.
    3. Wang, Ling & Ruan, Jianqing, 2023. "Conflict or harmony? The impact of family cultural diversity on children's educational attainment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Raoul van Maarseveen, 2020. "The urban rural-education gap: do cities indeed make us smarter?," CPB Discussion Paper 412.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    2. Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2000. "Long-term consequences of an innovative redundancy-retraining project: The Austrian Steel Foundation," Economics working papers 2000-29, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    3. Thomas J. Kane & Cecilia Elena Rouse & Douglas Staiger, 1999. "Estimating Returns to Schooling When Schooling is Misreported," NBER Working Papers 7235, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Francesco Andreoli & Arnaud Lefranc, 2013. "Equalization of opportunity: Definitions and implementable conditions," Working Papers 310, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    5. Koepke, Nikola & Floris, Joël & Pfister, Christian & Rühli, Frank J. & Staub, Kaspar, 2018. "Ladies first: Female and male adult height in Switzerland, 1770–1930," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 76-87.
    6. Robin Boadway & Nicolas Marceau & Maurice Marchand, 1996. "Issues in decentralizing the provision of education," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 3(3), pages 311-327, July.
    7. Ge, Suqin, 2013. "Estimating the returns to schooling: Implications from a dynamic discrete choice model," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 92-105.
    8. Nie, Allen & Chandak, Yash & Suzara, Miroslav & Ali, Malika & Woodrow, Juliette & Peng, Matt & Sahami, Mehran & Brunskill, Emma & Piech, Chris, 2024. "The GPT Surprise: Offering Large Language Model Chat in a Massive Coding Class Reduced Engagement but Increased Adopters Exam Performances," OSF Preprints qy8zd, Center for Open Science.
    9. Susana Iranzo & Giovanni Peri, 2009. "Schooling Externalities, Technology, and Productivity: Theory and Evidence from U.S. States," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(2), pages 420-431, May.
    10. Gagliardi, Luisa & Moretti, Enrico & Serafinelli, Michel, 2023. "The World's Rust Belts: The Heterogeneous Effects of Deindustrialization on 1,993 Cities in Six Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 16648, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Kerstin Ostermann & Johann Eppelsheimer & Nina Gläser & Peter Haller & Martina Oertel, 2022. "Geodata in labor market research: trends, potentials and perspectives," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 56(1), pages 1-17, December.
    12. Ngawang Dendup, 2021. "Returns to Grid Electricity on Firewood Consumption and Mechanism," Working Papers 2109, Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics.
    13. van Elk, Roel & van der Steeg, Marc & Webbink, Dinand, 2011. "Does the timing of tracking affect higher education completion?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 1009-1021, October.
    14. Boerner, Lars & Severgnini, Battista, 2015. "Time for growth," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64495, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Olivier Bargain & Jinan Zeidan, 2017. "Stature, Skills and Adult Life Outcomes: Evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(6), pages 873-890, June.
    16. Constantine, J.M., 1994. "Measuring the Effect of Attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities on Future Wages of Black Students," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-30, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    17. Carillo, Maria Rosaria & Papagni, Erasmo & Sapio, Alessandro, 2013. "Do collaborations enhance the high-quality output of scientific institutions? Evidence from the Italian Research Assessment Exercise," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 25-36.
    18. Rauh, Christopher, 2017. "Voting, education, and the Great Gatsby Curve," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 1-14.
    19. George Abuchi Agwu & Oussama Ben Atta, 2021. "University proximity at teenage years and educational attainment," Working Papers hal-03492963, HAL.
    20. Paolo Buonanno & Matteo M. Galizzi, 2009. "Advocatus, et non latro? Testing the supplier-induced demand hypothesis for Italian courts of justice," Working Papers 0914, University of Brescia, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Heterosis; Hybrid marriage; Genetic distance; Educational attainment; Height;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I00 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General - - - General
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:29:y:2018:i:c:p:102-114. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622964 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.