Great Famine, Differential Fertility, and Income Inequality: Evidence from China

40 Pages Posted: 17 Jan 2022 Last revised: 4 Mar 2024

See all articles by Xuebo Wang

Xuebo Wang

Shanghai University of Finance and Economics - School of Economics

Junsen Zhang

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) - Department of Economics

Chenxiao Shou

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: January 16, 2022

Abstract

With China’s Great Famine (1959–1961) as an exogenous shock to the country’s post-Famine fertility structure and rural–urban population composition, we empirically identify the causal effect of differential fertility across income classes on the income inequality of the next generation. We find that a higher rural population share induces a higher Gini coefficient for these cohorts several decades later. Further mechanism analysis shows that a higher rural population share induces a lower probability of rural youths gaining admission to college and senior high school, that is, a higher rural fertility reduces social mobility.

Keywords: Differential fertility, income inequality, Great Famine, population composition, social mobility

Suggested Citation

Wang, Xuebo and Zhang, Junsen and Shou, Chenxiao, Great Famine, Differential Fertility, and Income Inequality: Evidence from China (January 16, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4010096 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4010096

Xuebo Wang (Contact Author)

Shanghai University of Finance and Economics - School of Economics ( email )

777 Guoding Road
Shanghai, 200433
China

Junsen Zhang

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) - Department of Economics ( email )

Shatin, N.T.
Hong Kong

Chenxiao Shou

affiliation not provided to SSRN

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