Housing Wealth, Fertility, and Child Quality

Abstract

We use changes in wealth due to house price changes to test the effect of wealth on fertility and child quality in the context of Chinese fertility policies. We find, even in those situations where the one-child policy is not in effect, that wealth increases do not lead to increased fertility in urban areas, and have only a minuscule effect in the rural areas. However, a rise in housing wealth leads to increased expenditure on the education of children for households in both rural and urban areas (although different types of expenditure) and increased height of children in rural areas. Following Becker (1960), increased wealth shifts the tradeoff between child quality and quantity in favor of the former.