Impact of One-Child Policy on Interethnic Marriage in China

• In Event: 494 - Regular Session. Interracial Marriage/Assortive Mating

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of the One-Child Policy (OCP) on China’s increasing inter-ethnic marriage in the past four decades. In certain regions, the OCP only applies to Han-Han (the dominant ethnicity in China) couples. Therefore, we hypothesize that it motivates Han people in these regions to marry minority people and so they can have more children. Using temporal and regional variations in the policy enforcement, this paper provides evidence for this hypothesis and estimates that one fourth of the increase in inter-ethnic marriage is caused by the OCP policy. It also finds the mixed couples under more restrictive OCP tend to be those with lower education, who have higher demand for children ex ante and bear more children ex post. Furthermore, the results show that the Han people involved in the policy-induced intermarriage are more likely to have poorer living conditions and lower-skilled occupations, but the involved minorities end up in better situations.

Authors

• Yi Zhou, University of California-Berkeley

• Wei Huang, Harvard University