Restrictive fertility policy and elderly suicides: evidence from China

Li, Manfei und Sunde, Uwe (2025): Restrictive fertility policy and elderly suicides: evidence from China. In: Journal of Demographic Economics, Vol. 91: pp. 166-190

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical investigation of the hypothesis that exposure to the restrictive fertility policies of the Chinese “Later, Longer, Fewer” campaign in the 1970s contributes to the dynamics and patterns of elderly suicides in China in the period 2004–2017. We apply an identification strategy that exploits variation in exposure to this policy across birth cohorts that is based on the different timing of the implementation of the fertility policies across Chinese provinces. The results show that cohorts with a greater exposure to the restrictive fertility policy in the 1970s exhibit higher suicide rates during old ages.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Economics > Chairs > Chair for Population Economics
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology; 300 Social sciences > 320 Political science; 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
• ISSN: 2054-0892
• Annotation: Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2023
• Language: English
• DFG: Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - 280092119