Gender and Education

A large body of research has examined the relationship between family size and child well-being in developing countries, but most of this literature has focused on the consequences of high fertility. The impact of family size in a low-fertility developing country context remains unknown, even though more developing countries are expected to reach below-replacement fertility levels. Set in China between 2010 and 2016, this study examines whether an increase in family size reduces parental investment received by the firstborn child. Findings from this study provide the first glimpse into how children fare as China transitions to a universal two-child policy regime but have wider implications beyond the Chinese context.

Chen, Shuang. "Parental Investment After the Birth of a Sibling: The Effect of Family Size in Low-Fertility China." Demography 57, no. 6 (2020): 2085-2111.

Despite pervasive evidence of more educated women having lower fertility, it remains unclear whether education reduces women’s fertility. This study presents new evidence of the causal effect of women’s education on fertility from China, where fertility has remained below the replacement level since the early 1990s. Using data from China General Social Survey (2010–2012), findings show that each year of women’s education induced by the higher education expansion increases the number of children ever born by 10%. Two mechanisms drive the positive effect of education: first, education does not cause an increase in the mean age at first marriage; second, among ever-married women, education increases their demand for children. Findings from this study have important implications for China and other low-fertility developing countries.

Interview with LSE Research for the World

Chen, Shuang. "The Positive Effect of Women's Education on Fertility in Low-Fertility China." European Journal of Population, 38 (2022): 125-161.

Lucinda Platt has a long-standing interest in educational and occupational aspirations of school-children. She is currently working on a project on the relationship between gendered educational outcomes and occupational aspirations using the Millennium Cohort Study. An early version of this work is published in working paper form [Platt, L. and Parsons, S. 2017. Is the future female? Educational and occupational aspirations of teenage boys and girls in the UK. Centre for Longitudinal Studies Working paper 2017/17. London: CLS, UCL.]

Almudena Sevilla’s expertise lies in understanding the role of stereotypes, having written reviews on the topic. In a forthcoming article Almudena reviews the theoretical and empirical literature about the important role of gender stereotypes in explaining gender gaps in mathematics. The review looks at a growing economics literature interested in uncovering how fixed ideas about what individuals are and should be like because of their gender limit girls’ choices, and cautions about the use of interventions attempting to compensate girls and women ex post by changing their preferences, expectations, and choice sets. She is currently working on a new line of research based on the malleable nature of gender roles and gender stereotypes, which can provide the foundations for effective evidence-based policies for sustainable change. [Sevilla, A., Nollenberger, N, and Rodriguez-Planas, N (2016) The Math Gender Gap: The Role of Culture, The American Economic Review Vol. 106, No. 5]