【主讲】Meng Xue (George Mason University)
【主题】Textiles and the Historical Emergence of Gender Equality in China
【时间】2014年12月9日 (周二) 15：30-17：00
【地点】上海财经大学经济学院楼801室
【语言】中文
【摘要】This paper seeks to better understand the historical determinants of son preference among Han Chinese. I test the hypothesis that historical textile production led to a decline in son preference. I exploit exogenous variation in historical textile production at the county level to casually identify the effect of textiles on son preference, following a technology shock in late 13th Century. I find that historical textile production is positively correlated with female labor participation, and negatively correlated with sex ratio imbalances and sex-specific parental investment. My results are robust to various robustness checks, micro-level analyses, and an instrumental variable estimation. I identify cultural transmission as a possible channel of the persistence effect of historical textile production on today's son preference and gender norms.
