IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cdf/wpaper/2024-4.html

The Intergenerational Effect of Parental Health Shocks on Adult Children Fertility Decisions in China

Author

Listed:
  • Qi, Shouwei

    (School of Public Finance and Taxation, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law)

  • Li, Xiang

    (School of Public Finance and Taxation, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law)

  • Matthews, Kent

    (Cardiff Business School)

Abstract

We investigate the intergenerational effect of parental health shocks on the fertility choices of adult children in China. By using a comprehensive longitudinal dataset of Chinese households, severe and unexpected health shocks to parents have been identified. To address sample imbalance issues in survey data and endogeneity concerns characteristic of traditional health shock studies, we employ two matching methodologies: Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM) and Propensity Score Matching (PSM). Our findings indicate that parental health shocks significantly postpone the reproductive age of adult children and reduce their likelihood of having more children than they originally planned. We also find persistent differences in fertility decisions for the first, second and third child among adult children. The economic constraints inferred from this study have notable implications on the reduced fertility behavior of adult children, thereby affecting their entire reproductive life cycle.

Suggested Citation

  • Qi, Shouwei & Li, Xiang & Matthews, Kent, 2024. "The Intergenerational Effect of Parental Health Shocks on Adult Children Fertility Decisions in China," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2023/4, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdf:wpaper:2024/4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://carbsecon.com/wp/E2024_4.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Liu, Kai, 2016. "Insuring against health shocks: Health insurance and household choices," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 16-32.
    2. Jinhu Li & Nidhiya Menon, 2022. "Echo Effects of Health Shocks: The Intergenerational Consequences of Prenatal and Early-Life Malnutrition during the Great Leap Forward Famine in China," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(3), pages 454-481, March.
    3. Gary S. Becker & Robert J. Barro, 1988. "A Reformulation of the Economic Theory of Fertility," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 103(1), pages 1-25.
    4. Iacus, Stefano & King, Gary & Porro, Giuseppe, 2009. "cem: Software for Coarsened Exact Matching," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 30(i09).
    5. Matthew Blackwell & Stefano Iacus & Gary King & Giuseppe Porro, 2009. "cem: Coarsened exact matching in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 9(4), pages 524-546, December.
    6. Naidu, Dharmendra & Ranjeeni, Kumari, 2021. "Effect of coronavirus fear on the performance of Australian stock returns: Evidence from an event study," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    7. Barro, Robert J, 1974. "Are Government Bonds Net Wealth?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(6), pages 1095-1117, Nov.-Dec..
    8. Heyden, Kim J. & Heyden, Thomas, 2021. "Market reactions to the arrival and containment of COVID-19: An event study," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    9. Daniel Ayalew Ali & Klaus Deininger & Niels Kemper, 2022. "Pronatal Property Rights over Land and Fertility Outcomes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Ethiopia," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(5), pages 951-967, May.
    10. Islam, Asadul & Maitra, Pushkar, 2012. "Health shocks and consumption smoothing in rural households: Does microcredit have a role to play?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 232-243.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Yidi Liu & Xin Li & Zhiqiang (Eric) Zheng, 2024. "Consequences of China’s 2018 Online Lending Regulation and the Promise of PolicyTech," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(3), pages 1235-1256, September.
    2. Lucas A. Mariani & Jose Renato Haas Ornelas & Bernardo Ricca, 2023. "Banks’ Physical Footprint and Financial Technology Adoption," Working Papers Series 576, Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department.
    3. Misty L Heggeness & Donna K Ginther & Maria I Larenas & Frances D Carter-Johnson, 2023. "Advancing biomedical science through investments in elite training," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(2), pages 1-23, February.
    4. Wang, Bo & Yu, Yunjun & Yang, Ziying & Zhang, Xiaomei, 2021. "Microfinance institutions and Peer-to-Peer lending: What does microfinance competition bring?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    5. Cerqua, Augusto & Urwin, Peter & Thomson, Dave & Bibby, David, 2020. "Evaluation of education and training impacts for the unemployed: Challenges of new data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    6. Tank, Pramendra Singh & Sharma, Dibyendu & Jain, Divyanshu, 2024. "No substitute for strong institutions: Impact of accelerators on new venture performance," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 22(C).
    7. Rajnish Mehra & Facundo Piguillem & Edward C. Prescott, 2011. "Costly financial intermediation in neoclassical growth theory," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 2(1), pages 1-36, March.
    8. Suham Cahyono & Iman Harymawan & Khairul Anuar Kamarudin, 2023. "The impacts of tenure diversity on boardroom and corporate carbon emission performance: Exploring from the moderating role of corporate innovation," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2507-2535, September.
    9. Roozbeh Hosseini & Larry E. Jones & Ali Shourideh, 2009. "Risk sharing, inequality, and fertility," Working Papers 674, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    10. Merino, José & Borja, Victor Hugo & Lopez, Oliva & Ochoa, José Alfredo & Clark, Eduardo & Petersen, Lila & Caballero, Saul, 2021. "Ivermectin and the odds of hospitalization due to COVID-19: evidence from a quasi-experimental analysis based on a public intervention in Mexico City," SocArXiv r93g4, Center for Open Science.
    11. Jing Wang & Gen Li & Kai-Lung Hui, 2022. "Monetary Incentives and Knowledge Spillover: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3549-3572, May.
    12. Wheeler, P. Barrett, 2019. "Loan loss accounting and procyclical bank lending: The role of direct regulatory actions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 463-495.
    13. Leduc, Elisabeth & Tojerow, Ilan, 2020. "Subsidizing Domestic Services as a Tool to Fight Unemployment: Effectiveness and Hidden Costs," IZA Discussion Papers 13544, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Patricio Aroca & Juan Gabriel Brida & Juan Sebastián Pereyra & Serena Volo, 2014. "Tourism statistics: correcting data inadequacy using coarsened exact matching," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS22, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.
    15. Buettner, Thiess & Madzharova, Boryana, 2019. "Subsidies for Energy Efficient Appliances: Program Design and Consumer Response," VfS Annual Conference 2019 (Leipzig): 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall - Democracy and Market Economy 203646, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    16. Guignet, Dennis & Jenkins, Robin R. & Belke, James & Mason, Henry, 2023. "The property value impacts of industrial chemical accidents," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    17. Philipp vom Berge & Achim Schmillen, 2023. "Effects of mass layoffs on local employment—evidence from geo-referenced data," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(3), pages 509-539.
    18. Qiu, Yueming (Lucy) & Wang, Yi David & Xing, Bo, 2021. "Grid impact of non-residential distributed solar energy and reduced air emissions: Empirical evidence from individual-consumer-level smart meter data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    19. Matteo Aquilina & Giulio Cornelli & Marina Sanchez del Villar, 2024. "Regulation, information asymmetries and the funding of new ventures," BIS Working Papers 1162, Bank for International Settlements.
    20. Manera, Maria & Quatraro, Francesco & Spinazzola, Matteo & Tomas-Porres, Josep, 2025. "Price shocks, exposure to critical raw materials and innovation," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 202507, University of Turin.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cdf:wpaper:2024/4. 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: Yongdeng Xu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ecscfuk.html .

    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.