近日，北京大学市场经济研究中心主任秦雪征教授的合作论文《Housing and Boys as Competing Household Assets: Evidence from China》荣获“第七届中国金融学术与政策论坛优秀论文奖”。

该研究基于中国家庭追踪调查（CFPS）数据，系统分析了住房资产变化对家庭生育性别选择的影响，提出住房财富与“养儿防老”观念之间存在替代关系。研究发现，住房资产增值显著降低了家庭对男孩的传统需求，从而推动女性新生儿比例上升，为理解我国城镇地区出生性别比下降提供了新的经验证据。

Abstract：Housing is one of the most important household assets and has been shown to influence a wide range of economic decisions. We document a substitution effect between housing wealth and the perceived value of sons as another form of asset for households in developing countries. Using data from the China Family Panel Survey, we find that a 10% increase in homeowners’ housing assets raises the number of newborn daughters within the next two years by 0.00116–0.00121, corresponding to a 7.3%–7.9% increase relative to the mean, while the number of newborn sons remains unaffected. The results of the mechanism analysis indicate that homeowners who reap substantial returns from the housing market reduce their demand for sons, who were traditionally regarded as investments for parents’ old-age support. As a consequence, the once-widespread practice of sex-selective abortion of female fetuses in China has declined significantly, resulting in an increased number of female births. These results provide a novel explanation for the sharp decline in the sex ratio at birth in urban China during this period and highlight how asset markets can shape demographic outcomes.