Abstract
The one-child policy since 1979 aimed at controlling excessive population growth in China caused the sex ratio imbalance at birth, which has attracted the attention in academic research. Based on the China Population Census data in 1990, 2000, and 2010, this paper firstly takes ethnic groups as the research object and analyzes the cultural and economic causes of sex ratio imbalance. The results show that the higher the residential concentration, the lower the sex ratio at birth. Those ethnic groups with surnames have higher sex ratios. Whether an ethnic group has its own language does not affect the sex ratio. In addition, the sex ratio has an inverse U-shaped relationship with the urbanization rate, indicating that the sex ratio increases first and then decreases with the development of urbanization. Besides, the higher the education level of females compared to males as well as the higher the unmarried rate of males compared to females indicate the lower the sex ratio. Finally, after controlling for cultural and socio-economic characteristics, there is no difference in the sex ratio between the Han nationality and other ethnic minorities, indicating that using the ethnic minority population share as an instrumental variable for sex ratio needs to be carefully considered.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Economic, Social, and Cultural Context
KEYWORDS
Sex ratio imbalance, Ethnic groups, Ethnic culture
