Title :Hukou or Son? Access to Urban Citizenship and Sex Selection of Migrants in China
Abstract: China’s hukou reform in 2014 provided migrants with the opportunity to obtain urban hukou, but it also prompted them to weigh the trade-off between securing hukou and having a son. Leveraging the data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey from 2011 to 2017, we find that the 2014 hukou reform in China resulted in an average increase of 8.43% in the probability that a migrant’s second child is male. Moreover, the reform’s effect on sex selection is particularly salient among migrants from provinces with a two-child policy and among those with long-term settlement intentions. These findings highlight the unintended demographic consequences of institutional reforms and underscore the persistent influence of son preference in shaping fertility behavior.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/737867
