Advancement to Candidacy Presentation: “The Persistent Grip of Origin Culture on Immigrants”, Wenbei Zhang, University of California, Santa Barbara

Speaker

Wenbei Zhang, University of California, Santa Barbara

Biography

Wenbei Zhang is a Ph.D. student in Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Prior to attending UC Santa Barbara, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Public Finance from Zhejiang University (2019), and a Master of Science in Agricultural & Resource Economics from the University of Alberta (2021). She also hold a Master of Arts in Economics from UC Santa Barbara (2023).

Her research interests lie in applied microeconomics and energy economics. Her current projects examine cultural persistence among immigrants and the effects of urban zoning reforms on housing markets. She is also interested in time-series price analysis.

Title

“Homeland Echoes: The Persistent Grip of Origin Culture on Immigrants”

Abstract

Do origin-country policy changes echo in the behavior of immigrants who live under a different legal regime? We study Chinese immigrants in the United States around China's staged relaxations of birth limits between 2011 and 2016, culminating in the universal Two-Child Policy. Using complete U.S. Vital Statistics for 2004--2019 and difference-in-differences models, we compare births to Mainland Chinese mothers with births to immigrants from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, and we contrast first-generation and U.S.-born Chinese women. Births to first-generation Mainland Chinese mothers rise sharply in the reform windows, with pronounced increases at second-order births, earlier timing at first-order births, and shorter birth intervals. U.S.-born Chinese Americans also respond, but more modestly and mainly at first-order births and in places with larger Chinese communities. Our results provide a concrete example of how a salient, nonbinding policy shift at origin can alter the behavior of migrants living under a different legal regime, in this case the fertility intention and timing. These findings imply that evaluations of major origin-country reforms in settings with large diasporas should account for behavioral responses among migrants abroad, not only domestic outcomes.

JEL Codes: J13, J15, J61, O15, Z13

Event Details

Wenbei will be presenting her Advancement to Candidacy paper, “The Persistent Grip of Origin Culture on
Immigrants”. To access the Advancement paper, you must have an active UCSB NetID and password.

PLEASE DO NOT CIRCULATE, PRELIMINARY WORK