Yue Qian

Long-term health and socioeconomic consequences of early-life exposure to the 1959–1961 Chinese Famine

This research investigates long-term consequences of early-life malnutrition by examining effects of the 1959-1961 Chinese Famine. Taking into account temporal and geographic variations in famine severity, we construct a difference-in-differences estimator to identify effects of early-life exposure to famine on perceived health and socioeconomic outcomes in midlife. Using a sample of 1716 adults born in 1955-1966 in rural China from a nationally representative survey-the 2005 Chinese General Social Survey-we find that the famine had adverse effects on mid-life health for males born into families where at least one parent was a Communist Party member and females regardless of parental party membership. Being born during the famine had no effects on years of education or income for either gender. Quantile regressions suggest intense mortality selection among males who had no party-affiliated parents. Our study highlights the importance of timing and contexts of life experiences in shaping health.

Assortative Mating by Education and Hukou in Shanghai

Abstract Hukou locality (local vs. nonlocal) is an important source of social inequality in urban China. Residents with Shanghai hukou, for example, have better access to social benefits, jobs, schools, and other opportunities in Shanghai. In this paper, using data from the 2013 Fudan Yangtze River Delta Social Transformation Survey, we evaluate how hukou locality intersects with educational attainment to shape assortative marriage patterns among individuals born in the 1980s and living in Shanghai. We find that highly-educated hukou residents and non-hukou migrants are more likely than their less-educated counterparts to marry hukou residents. In addition, hukou intermarriage seldom occurs when hukou residents marry non-hukou migrants with less education than themselves. The results suggest that Shanghai hukou is a valuable attribute in the Shanghai marriage market and shapes marriage market conditions and individual marital choices.

Man Up, Man Down: Race–Ethnicity and the Hierarchy of Men in Female-Dominated Work

Scholars have largely overlooked the significance of race and socioeconomic status in determining which men traverse gender boundaries into female-dominated, typically devalued, work. Examining the gender composition of the jobs that racial minority men occupy provides critical insights into mechanisms of broader racial disparities in the labor market—in addition to stalled occupational desegregation trends between men and women. Using nationally representative data from the three-year American Community Survey (2010–2012), we examine racial/ethnic and educational differences in which men occupy gender-typed jobs. We find that racial minority men are more likely than white men to occupy female-dominated jobs at all levels of education—except highly educated Asian/Pacific Islander men—and that these patterns are more pronounced at lower levels of education. These findings have implications for broader occupational inequality patterns among men as well as between men and women.

Women’s Fertility Autonomy in Urban China: The Role of Couple Dynamics Under the Universal Two-Child Policy

Abstract Under China’s universal two-child policy, decisions about whether to have a second birth become more dynamic, flexible, and subject to negotiation between the spouses; moreover, how women can maintain their fertility autonomy has far-reaching implications for gender equality. Using valuable, new data from the 2016 Survey of the Fertility Decision-Making Processes in Chinese Families, we examine the relationship between couple dynamics and women’s fertility autonomy in urban China. If women want no more than one child and already have one, intending to have a second birth indicates low fertility autonomy. Couple dynamics are measured by conjugal power structure and spousal pressure on fertility. We find that only if women have less marital power than their husbands, greater fertility pressure from husbands is associated with a higher likelihood that women intend to have a second birth. In addition, when investigating the determinants of couple dynamics, we find that women’s marital power depends on their relative resources, whereas fertility pressure from husbands persists regardless. The findings suggest that in post-reform urban China, growing gender inequalities in labor markets likely reduce women’s marital power, which in turn negatively affects their fertility autonomy. We urge greater research and policy attention to gender equality issues in the era of the universal two-child policy.

Parental Status and Subjective Well-Being Among Currently Married Individuals in China

Using data from the 2006 Chinese General Social Survey (N = 2,515), we examine the relationship between parental status and subjective well-being among Chinese adults who are in their first marriages. After accounting for background characteristics, parents and childless individuals do not report significantly different feelings of well-being. When parental status is disaggregated according to family structure, parents of adult children only report higher levels of subjective well-being than both parents of minor children and the childless. The number of daughters is positively associated with feelings of well-being. Furthermore, the effects of coresiding with adult children appear to depend on whether one has minor children in the household. Coresident adult children are positively associated with well-being when minor children are also present but are negatively associated with well-being when minor children are not present.

Native-immigrant occupational segregation and worker health in the United States, 2004–2014

Immigrant workers are a growing share of the U.S. labor force and are overrepresented in certain occupations. This much is well documented, yet few studies have examined the consequences of this division of labor between foreign-born and native-born workers. This research focuses on one of the consequences of occupational segregation-worker health. We merge data from the 2004-2014 National Health Interview Surveys with occupational-level data from the Occupational Information Network 20.1 database and the American Community Surveys to examine the relationship between occupational segregation and health. First, logistic regression models show that working in an occupation with a higher share of immigrants is associated with higher odds of poor physical and psychological health. This relationship is more pronounced among native-born workers than among foreign-born workers. Second, we propose two explanations for the association between occupational segregation and health: (1) workers with less human capital are typically sorted into culturally devalued occupations with a higher concentration of immigrants, and (2) occupations with a higher percentage of immigrants generally have relatively poor work environments. We find sorting variables play a major role, whereas the smaller contribution of occupational environments to the segregation-health link is partly because of the heterogeneous (i.e., both positive and negative) indirect effects of different exposure measures. With the sustained high levels of immigration to the United States, the implications of integrated or segregated experiences in the labor market and their impact on workers are important avenues for health policies and future research.

Educational Assortative Mating and Female Breadwinning Trajectories: A Group-Based Trajectory Analysis

Abstract nThe gender-gap reversal in education could have far-reaching consequences for marriage and family lives in the United States. This study seeks to address the following question: As women increasingly marry men with less education than they have themselves, is the traditional male breadwinner model in marriage challenged? n nThis study takes a life course approach to examine how educational assortative mating shapes trajectories of change in female breadwinning status over the course of marriage. It uses group-based trajectory models to analyze data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. n nThe results reveal substantial movement by wives in and out of the primary breadwinner role across marital years and great heterogeneity in female breadwinning trajectories across couples. In addition, educational assortative mating plays a role in shaping female breadwinning trajectories: Compared with wives married to men whose educational levels equal or exceed their own, wives married to men with less education than themselves are more likely to have a continuously high probability of being primary earners and are also more likely to gradually or rapidly transition into primary earners if initially they are not. n nThis study examines couples’ breadwinning arrangements over an extended period of time and identifies qualitatively distinct patterns of change in female breadwinning that are not readily identifiable using ad hoc, ex ante classification rules. The findings suggest that future research on the economics of marriage and couple relations in families would benefit from a life course approach to conceptualizing couples’ dynamic divisions of breadwinning.