Quarter of Birth, Gender Inequality, and Economic Development

102 Pages Posted: 14 May 2024

See all articles by Xuezheng Qin

Xuezheng Qin

Peking University

Junjian Yi

Peking University

Haochen Zhang

Zhejiang University

Date Written: May 12, 2024

Abstract

This paper discovers that people born in the fourth quarter tend to have better lifecycle outcomes for 1930-1990 cohorts in China, and this birth quarter effect (BQE) is larger for females than males. To explain this finding, we hypothesize that seasonality in agricultural production, combined with son preference, leads to a gender gap in BQEs on child neonatal investment, and subsequently, on lifecycle outcomes. Exploiting seasonal agricultural production patterns and spatial variations in crop structures across provinces in China, we find individuals born in seasons with more abundant household resources for neonatal investment tend to have better lifecycle outcomes. In addition, we leverage weather shocks as a natural experiment for agricultural production and find that higher agricultural output in the previous year reduces the gender gap in BQEs in a given year of birth. Exploring China's economic reform in 1979 as a quasi-experiment, we further find that the effect of previous-year agricultural output is mitigated by economic development. Finally, we find a gender gap in BQEs on child neonatal investment, which is proxied by infant breastfeeding. Our findings demonstrate that economic development lessens the effect of poverty on gender inequality.

Keywords: Birth quarter effect; economic development; gender inequality; neonatal investment; son preference

JEL Classification: I25, J16, O15

Suggested Citation

Qin, Xuezheng and Yi, Junjian and Zhang, Haochen, Quarter of Birth, Gender Inequality, and Economic Development (May 12, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4825758 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4825758

Xuezheng Qin

Peking University ( email )

No. 38 Xueyuan Road
Haidian District
Beijing, 100871
China

Junjian Yi

Peking University ( email )

National School of Development
Peking University
Beijing, Beijing 100871
China

HOME PAGE: http://https://en.nsd.pku.edu.cn/faculty/fulltime/y/520194.htm

Haochen Zhang (Contact Author)

Zhejiang University ( email )

38 Zheda Road
Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058
China

HOME PAGE: http://https://haochenzhang.weebly.com/

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