Time: 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM, Friday, March 15

Venue: IB 1011

Speaker:

Dr. Sijie Hu

Assistant Professor in the School of Economics

Renmin University of China

Host:

Peiyuan Li

Assistant Professor of Political Economy

Duke Kunshan University

Speaker’s bio: Sijie Hu is an assistant professor in the School of Economics at Renmin University of China. She received her Ph.D in Economic History from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research interests lie in Chinese economic history, historical demography, social mobility, and inequality over the long run. Her papers have been published on Journal of Population Economics, Cliometrica, and Asia-Pacific Economic History Review.  

Abstract: In unified growth models, a key to achieving sustained economic growth is the evolving nexus between population dynamics and technological change. This paper uses the genealogical records of 36,456 males to investigate the nexus—the intergenerational transmission of reproduction and human capital—within six Chinese lineages from 1350 to 1920. By examining the relationship between reproduction and long-run reproductive success, the empirical results reveal that the optimal level of reproduction exceeded the sample median. This finding suggests that greater reproduction in each generation was conducive to long-run reproductive success. In exploring the mechanisms through which reproduction affected long run reproductive success, I investigate the relationship between child quantity and quality. The results indicate an absence of quantity-quality trade-off of children in the six lineages. This paper concludes that, in Ming–Qing (1368–1911) China, opting for larger families conferred definite advantages upon high-status men, enabling them to produce a greater number of high-quality male descendants across successive generations.