The Effect of the Second Child on the Anthropometric Outcomes and Nutrition Intake of the First Child: Evidence from the Relaxation of the One-Child Policy in Rural China
-
Cheng Chen
,
Shin-Yi Chou
Abstract
This paper attempts to isolate the actual effect of the second child on the anthropometric outcomes and nutrition intake of the first child in rural China, using an exogenous increase in child quantity due to the relaxation of the One-Child Policy (OCP). We utilize both temporal and geographic variation in the OCP, as families are less likely to have the second child if the OCP in their community is strictly enforced after the birth of their first child. Based on a sample of children aged 6–17 from the 1991–2009 China Health and Nutrition Survey, we find that an increase in the number of children significantly decreases the weight and height of first-born girls, but not first-born boys. The worse anthropometric outcomes could be due to the change in the dietary pattern—compared with the only children, first-born girls in two-child families tend to intake less high-fat and high-protein food (e. g. meats, poultry, and milk).
Acknowledgements
This research uses data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS). We thank the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety, China Center for Disease Control and Prevention; the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; the National Institutes of Health (NIH; R01-HD30880, DK056350, and R01-HD38700); and the Fogarty International Center, NIH, for financial support for the CHNS data collection and analysis files since 1989. We thank those parties, the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, and the Ministry of Health for support for CHNS 2009. We thank two anonymous reviewers, the editor, Mariapia Mendola, and participants at the Lehigh University Economics Department seminar for their helpful comments and suggestions. All errors are our own.
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A Appendix
The number of newborns from 1929 to 2014 in China.
Source. National Bureau of Statistics of China.
The changes in China’s demography over time.
Source. The World Bank (www.worldbank.org).
Different versions of food composition table.
| Our classification | 1981 Version | 1991 Version | 2002 Version | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (1) | Cereal | Cereal | Cereal | Cereal |
| (2) | Dried bean | Dried bean | Dried bean | Dried bean |
| (3) | Vegetables | Fresh bean | Fresh bean | Potato and starch |
| Roots | Roots | Vegetables | ||
| Stem, leaves, and flowers | Stem, leaves, and flowers | |||
| Melons | Melons | |||
| Solanaceous vegetables | Solanaceous vegetables | |||
| Starch | ||||
| (4) | Bacteria and algae | Bacteria and algae | Bacteria and algae | Bacteria and algae |
| (5) | Fruit, nuts, and seeds | Fruit and dried fruit | Fruit and dried fruit | Fruit |
| Nuts | Nuts | Nuts and seeds | ||
| (6) | Meats | Meats | Meats | Meats |
| (7) | Poultry | Poultry | Poultry | Poultry |
| (8) | Milk | Milk | Milk | Milk |
| Milk substitute | ||||
| (9) | Eggs | Eggs | Eggs | Eggs |
| (10) | Fish and seafood | Fish | Fish | Fish, shrimps, crabs, and mollusks |
| Mollusks | Mollusks | |||
| Shrimps and crabs | Shrimps and crabs | |||
| (11) | Others | Pickles | Pickles | Food for infants |
| Condiment and others | Food for infants | Savory snack foods and biscuits | ||
| Grease | Fast food | |||
| Savory snack foods and biscuits | Drinks | |||
| Tea and drinks | Alcoholic drinks | |||
| Alcoholic drinks | candies | |||
| Candies | Grease | |||
| Condiment | Condiment | |||
| Medicinal food | Medicinal food | |||
| Others |
First-stage results for the main specification.
| Dependent variable: sibling | ||
|---|---|---|
| Girl | Boy | |
| Policy | 0.233*** | 0.084** |
| (0.038) | (0.043) | |
| Child’s age | 0.090** | 0.102*** |
| (0.041) | (0.037) | |
| Child’s age squared | –0.002 | –0.003** |
| (0.002) | (0.002) | |
| Log of household income | –0.006 | 0.005 |
| (0.019) | (0.015) | |
| Mother’s age at first birth | –0.016*** | 0.003 |
| (0.005) | (0.005) | |
| Mother’s BMI | 0.002 | –0.001 |
| (0.005) | (0.005) | |
| Mother’s year of schooling | –0.010** | –0.011*** |
| (0.005) | (0.004) | |
| Province fixed effect | Yes | Yes |
| Wave fixed effect | Yes | Yes |
| Community characteristics | Yes | Yes |
| Observations | 764 | 857 |
Note. Standard errors, reported in parentheses, are adjusted for clustering by 9 province cells. ***p < 0.01; **p < 0.05; *p < 0.1.
The effects of community characteristics on the relaxtion of the OCP.
| Dependent variable: the relaxation of the OCP | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) | (8) | (9) | (10) | (11) | (12) | |
| Population density | –0.03 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| (0.02) | ||||||||||||
| Economic activity | – | –0.03 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| (0.02) | ||||||||||||
| Traditional markets | – | – | 0.01 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| (0.02) | ||||||||||||
| Modern markets | – | – | – | 0.00 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| (0.01) | ||||||||||||
| Transportation infrastructure | – | – | – | – | –0.02 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| (0.01) | ||||||||||||
| Sanitation | – | – | – | – | – | –0.03 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| (0.02) | ||||||||||||
| Communications | – | – | – | – | – | – | –0.02 | – | – | – | – | – |
| (0.03) | ||||||||||||
| Housing | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | –0.03 | – | – | – | – |
| (0.02) | ||||||||||||
| Education | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | –0.09 | – | – | – |
| (0.04) | ||||||||||||
| Diversity | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | –0.07* | – | – |
| (0.03) | ||||||||||||
| Health infrastructure | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | –0.02 | – |
| (-0.01) | ||||||||||||
| Social services | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | –0.05* |
| (0.02) | ||||||||||||
| Observations | 149 | 149 | 149 | 149 | 149 | 149 | 149 | 149 | 149 | 149 | 149 | 149 |
Note. Data are aggregated into the community level. Standard errors, reported in parentheses, are adjusted for clustering by 9 provinces. All regressions include province fixed effects and wave fixed effects. ***p < 0.01; **p < 0.05; *p < 0.1.
Summary statistics of first-born girls in two-child families.
| Entire sample | Above-quota births | Middle class and above | With mother finishing high school | With a younger brother | With a younger sister | Migration family | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) | |
| Panel A: Weight and height | |||||||
| Standardized weight | –0.723 | –0.828 | –0.562 | –0.681 | –0.690 | –0.668 | –0.547 |
| Standardized height | –0.539 | –0.725 | –0.352 | –0.459 | –0.554 | –0.482 | –0.585 |
| Panel B: Percentage of nutrition intake (%) | |||||||
| Fat | 14.067 | 14.195 | 15.355 | 15.321 | 14.248 | 13.463 | 15.648 |
| Protein | 13.808 | 14.316 | 14.293 | 14.647 | 13.812 | 13.740 | 12.534 |
| Carbohydrate | 72.125 | 71.489 | 70.352 | 70.032 | 71.940 | 72.797 | 71.818 |
| Panel C: Percentage of food intake (%) | |||||||
| Cereal | 44.107 | 42.277 | 42.362 | 41.652 | 44.457 | 43.154 | 43.465 |
| Dried bean | 4.564 | 4.788 | 4.720 | 5.223 | 4.496 | 4.748 | 3.078 |
| Vegetables | 35.059 | 35.112 | 33.913 | 32.670 | 35.131 | 34.864 | 42.106 |
| Bacteria and algae | 0.304 | 0.322 | 0.299 | 0.414 | 0.289 | 0.344 | 0.152 |
| Fruit, nuts, and seeds | 2.797 | 2.387 | 3.338 | 3.300 | 2.343 | 4.031 | 0.729 |
| Meats | 5.376 | 7.054 | 5.904 | 6.878 | 5.409 | 5.286 | 3.753 |
| Poultry | 0.722 | 1.034 | 0.849 | 0.841 | 0.670 | 0.809 | 0.691 |
| Milk | 0.215 | 0.193 | 0.283 | 0.463 | 0.163 | 0.357 | 0.000 |
| Eggs | 2.481 | 2.306 | 3.379 | 2.956 | 2.430 | 2.621 | 2.268 |
| Fish and seafood | 1.888 | 1.997 | 1.967 | 2.480 | 1.973 | 1.657 | 2.483 |
| Others | 2.487 | 2.523 | 2.986 | 3.124 | 2.618 | 2.128 | 1.273 |
| Observations | 374 | 116 | 176 | 182 | 283 | 102 | 16 |
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Research-articles
- Minimum Wages and Nascent Entrepreneurship in the US
- Social Status Perception and Individual Social Capital: Evidence from the US
- Endogenous Equity Shares in Cournot Competition: Welfare Analysis and Policy
- Personal or Partisan Incumbency Advantage? Evidence from an Electoral Reform at the Local Level in Italy
- Knowledge Obsolescence and Women’s Occupational Sorting: New Evidence from Citation Data
- The Effect of the Second Child on the Anthropometric Outcomes and Nutrition Intake of the First Child: Evidence from the Relaxation of the One-Child Policy in Rural China
- The Challenge of Organizing Elderly Care Programmes: Optimal Policy Design under Complete and Asymmetric Information
- Too Much Stick for the Carrot? Job Search Requirements and Search Behaviour of Unemployment Benefit Claimants
- Assessing Higher Education Policy in Brazil: A Mixed Oligopoly Approach
- Inheritance Taxation in a Model with Intergenerational Time Transfers
- Habits Do Not Die Easily: The Economics of Table Soccer
- Effects of Alcohol Taxation on Prices: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Pass-Through Rates
- Letter
- The Role of Optimism and Pessimism in the Substitution Between Primary and Secondary Health Prevention Efforts
- Executive Compensation and Labor Expenses
- A Note on Productive and Dynamic Inefficiencies of Intermediate Regulatory Sanctions
