| In China’s long agricultural era,the high economic value of men established a patriarchal social system.The establishment of patriarchy has led to women becoming male appendages for a long time.In the traditional Chinese society,the social network of the family revolves around men.As the heirs of the family,the son inherits the ancestral hall and family assets,and bears the responsibility of supporting the old and dying the parents.After the daughter is married,she joins the husband’s family,and the production income is included in the husband’s family,without giving the parents the resources of supporting the old.The difference in return on investment between raising a son and raising a daughter intensifies the desire of people of childbearing age to have a boy,especially the imbalance of gender structure since family planning,which leads tens of millions of men into marriage dilemma.China has a long tradition of men providing marriage houses.Under the background of Unbalanced Gender Structure,owning houses can greatly improve men’s competitiveness in marriage market.However,since the housing market-oriented reform,the housing price has skyrocketed,which has increased the economic pressure on men to buy houses and the pressure on men to marry.So,will high housing prices weaken the willingness of people of childbearing age to have boys? If so,what is the path through which high housing prices affect fertility preferences of people of childbearing age? Based on the review of domestic and foreign theories and Research on fertility preference of childbearing age population,this paper uses the micro individual data of CGSS 2012 — 2013 to empirically investigate the effect of housing price on fertility preference of Chinese childbearing age population,and empirically test the mechanism of housing price on fertility preference of Chinese childbearing age population.The basic conclusions are as follows:(1)The housing price has a significant inhibitory effect on the boy preference of the childbearing age group.The higher the average housing price is,the weaker the willingness of the childbearing age group to have a boy is.(2)There are significant individual and regional differences in the inhibition effect of house price on boys’ preference of childbearing age group.The inhibition effect of house price on boys’ preference of childbearing age group is stronger in the samples with higher education background,urban household registration,higher income and those living in coastal cities.However,the inhibition effect of house price on boys’ preference has nothing to do with the degree of "boys over girls" in the region.(3)From the perspective of the mechanism of housing price on fertility preference,the rise of housing price affects the fertility preference of people of childbearing age through two ways: increasing the pressure of male marriage and weakening the function of childcare and anti-aging. |
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