One-Child Policy and the Rise of Man-Made Twins

Wei Huang (), Xiaoyan Lei () and Yaohui Zhao ()
Additional contact information
Xiaoyan Lei: Peking University
Yaohui Zhao: Peking University

No 8394, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper investigates how people respond to the distorted incentives of One-Child Policy by examining its impact on twin births in China. The analysis using population census data shows that the One-Child Policy accounts for more than one-third of the increase in twin births since the 1970s. Further investigation finds that the One-Child Policy is associated with a larger birth gap of twins with prior births and greater height difference between twins. These findings suggest that the increase in twin births can partly be explained by parents registering single children as twins in order to avoid the policy violation punishment.

Keywords: China; one-child policy; twins (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J08 J11 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2014-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published - published in: Review of Economics and Statistics, 2016, 93 (3), 467 -476

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Related works:
Journal Article: One-Child Policy and the Rise of Man-Made Twins (2016)
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