Has the One-Child Policy Improved Adolescents’ Education Access and Progress in Reform-Era China?

Juhua Yang, People's University of China

One of the purposes of China’s one-child policy is to improve child wellbeing. However, past studies overwhelmingly focus on policy effects on fertility, and thus, whether the policy has achieved this goal remains unclear. This paper exploits the relationship between the one-child policy and educational access and progress among adolescent children in the 1990s, using CHNS data (1993-2000). Drawing on local variations in policy strength and sibship composition, I find a consistent, strong advantage of single children in school enrollment and grade completion relative to those with an older brother or 2+ siblings among children beyond compulsory education, regardless of residence and child gender. The quality of children decreases with quantity, particularly with the presence of an older brother. The results provide evidence to support the idea that restricting family size and promoting sibling equality will necessarily help increase adolescents’ educational wellbeing in developing settings.