【主讲】Xiaobo Zhang (国际食品政策研究所（IFPRI）)
【时间】2011年6月30日 (周四) 15：30-17：00
【地点】上海财经大学经济学院楼801室
【语言】英文
【摘要】Chinese growth in recent decades is a miracle not only because its rate of growth is higher than most countries in the world but also because the growth takes place in a political setting that is not always known to be favorable to economic development. We argue that a key pro-growth element in the Chinese story is a rising sex ratio imbalance (relative surplus of men in the pre-marital age cohort). The skewed sex ratio is an unintended byproduct of the spread of ultrasound machines and a coercive population control policy. Since family wealth is an important status variable in the marriage market, the sex ratio imbalance has created a powerful additional incentive for wealth creation. We provide evidence that the imbalance promotes entrepreneurship and hard work. First, new domestic private firms – an important engine of growth – are more likely to emerge from regions with a higher sex ratio imbalance. Second, the likelihood for parents with a son to be entrepreneurs rises with the local sex ratio. Third, households with a son in regions with a more skewed sex ratio demonstrate a greater willingness to accept relatively dangerous or unpleasant jobs and supply more work days. In contrast, the labor supply pattern by households with a daughter is unrelated to the sex ratio. Finally, regional GDP tends to grow faster in provinces with a higher sex ratio. We estimate that the skewed sex ratio contributes about 20% to the overall growth rate in recent years. Since the sex ratio imbalance will become worse in the near future, this growth effect is likely to persist.
【个人简历】http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/Zhang_Xiaobo_CV%202011.pdf
