经济学院中国经济改革与发展论坛系列讲座

讲座题目：Why do Parents AbortGirls? Patrilocality and Its Historical Origins    

主讲人： AvrahamEbenstein    

讲座时间：2015年3月23日14:00-16:00    

讲座地点：学术会堂603    

主讲人简介：    

AviEbenstein received his Ph.D. in economics from University of California,Berkeley in 2007. His fields of interest include environmental economics,health economics, and economic demography. Dr. Ebenstein's past researchexamined the impact of fertility control policy in China on the sex ratio, andinvestigated policies that might address the "missing girls"phenomenon in Asia. He also explored linkages between declining fertility andincreasing female labor supply in Taiwan and the United States in a comparativestudy. His current research examines the health impacts of environmentaldeterioration and the design of effective environmental policy, with a focus ondeveloping countries.    

Avi’swork has appeared in many decent journals incuding PNAS, Review of Economics andStatistics, Economic Journal, Journal of Human Resource, Demography, PopulationStudies, Population and Development Review, etc.    

论文摘要：    

Recent scholarship has documented an alarming increase in the sex ratio at birth in parts of East Asia, South Asia and the South Caucuses. In this paper, I argue that parents in these regions engage in sex selection because of patrilocal norms that dictate elderly coresidence between parents and sons. Sex ratios and coresidence rates are positively correlated when looking across countries, within countries across districts, and within districts across ethnic groups. The paper then examines the roots of patrilocality using the Ethnographic Atlas (Murdock 1965). I find that ethnic groups in areas with land conducive to intensive agriculture have stronger patrilocal norms, higher coresidence rates, and higher sex ratios at birth. The paper concludes with an examination of the expansion to old age support in South Korea. Consistent with the paper’s argument, I find that the program was associated with a normalization in the sex ratio at birth.   

欢迎各位老师、同学前来参加！    

经济学院      

2015年3月20日