China’s One Child Policy and International Trade: The Effect of Distorted Sex Ratios on Comparative Advantage - TDPE

Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs

Trade, Development, and Trade Economy present:

Andrey Stoyanov, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, York University

China’s One Child Policy and International Trade: The Effect of Distorted Sex Ratios on Comparative Advantage

(Coauthored with Ke Gu)

Since the one-child policy (OCP) was introduced in China in 1979, many more boys than girls have been born, changing the relative female labor supply. This paper studies the effect of changes in gender composition of the labor force in China on international trade. Using trade data on 241 Chinese cities and 44 manufacturing industries, the authors find that cities with higher female population share specialize in industries which use female labor intensively. They also find evidence that spatial variation in OCP enforcement altered comparative advantage. 
 
Andrey Stoyanov is Associate Professor of Economics at York University in Canada. His research interests are in international trade. His work has been published in top journals such as the Journal of International Economics, American Economic Journal, European Economic Review and the Canadian Journal of Economics. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of British Columbia.

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