IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/injoed/v123y2026ics0738059326001082.html

Parental educational investment in China: Evidence of a pro-daughter phenomenon

Author

Listed:
  • Yao, Mengzhu
  • Qiao, Fangbin

Abstract

Son preference remains prevalent in many developing nations, particularly in terms of parental educational investment. Utilizing nationally representative Chinese data and cross-sectional differences across family types, this study finds no statistically significant evidence of pro-son phenomenon in parental educational expenditure. This pattern holds even among families more likely to employ gender-selective fertility strategies. Additionally, the research documents pro-daughter phenomenon in parental educational investment among single-child households, high-income families, and urban residents. To the best of our knowledge, this phenomenon has not been previously documented in the literature, suggesting a fundamental shift in gender-based disparities in parental resource allocation between sons and daughters.

Suggested Citation

  • Yao, Mengzhu & Qiao, Fangbin, 2026. "Parental educational investment in China: Evidence of a pro-daughter phenomenon," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:injoed:v:123:y:2026:i:c:s0738059326001082
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2026.103598
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059326001082
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2026.103598?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

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:injoed:v:123:y:2026:i:c:s0738059326001082. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-educational-development .

    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.