Do more children lead to greater blessings? Birth quantity and household economic risk in China

Abstract

Does the number of births in a family decrease a household's economic risk? We find that in a distribution of households by children's age stages, the economic risk of households in the middle (16–22 years) and late stages (23–38 years) appears to be more significantly affected by the dual nature of children as consumable goods and investment assets than does the risk of households in the early stage (0–15 years). Furthermore, we find that this pattern persists even when we consider China's one-child policy. Our findings also reveal that households with higher parental education levels and education investment expenditures in the middle stage exhibit greater resilience against economic risks in the late stage.