Hanbo Wu

Publications

Wu, Hanbo. Forthcoming. "Does Exposure to Armed Conflict Affect Women's Attitudes Toward Intimate Partner Violence? Evidence from Vietnam." Journal of Population Economics 38(4).

This study combines individual-level survey data and province-level data on wartime bombing to assess the long-term impact of the Vietnam War on Vietnamese women’s attitudes toward intimate partner violence (IPV). To establish a causal link, I use a province’s distance to the arbitrarily drawn border between North Vietnam and South Vietnam as an instrument for bombing intensity in that province. I find that women living in heavily bombed provinces are more likely to accept IPV. The instrumental variable estimates are greater in magnitude compared to the ordinary least squares estimates across various specifications. Exposure to bombing does not seem to make women more tolerant of IPV through education or marital matching. Instead, some suggestive evidence indicates that the normalization of and desensitization to violence in the domestic sphere as well as war trauma likely play an important role in explaining the effect of conflict exposure on justification of IPV.

Wu, Hanbo, and Luca Maria Pesando. 2025. "Demographic Convergence in Marriage Timing: Intersecting Gender and Educational Expansion." Demographic Research 52(14):415–444.

Considering the massive educational expansion and dramatic changes in marriage timing the world is undergoing, this study explores whether the timing of marriage has become increasingly similar across countries amid educational expansion at different levels. We combine time-series data from 1950 to 2015 covering 144 countries and explore whether convergence in marriage indicators has occurred over educational attainment by testing for β-convergence. We find that age at marriage has strongly converged over measures of educational attainment, with far stronger convergence among women. We also uncover two types of educational gradients: (1) convergence is stronger the higher the level of education (tertiary > secondary > primary); (2) within each level, completion of education contributes more to convergence in SMAM relative to just attendance.

Wu, Hanbo, and Luca Maria Pesando. 2024. "Educational Boundaries Explain Strength and Variation in Global Fertility Convergence." Scientific Reports 14:27323.

This paper shows that the level and timing of fertility are converging strongly over different measures of educational attainment using 65 years of data from 146 countries. Global convergence patterns are primarily driven by high-income societies, while sub-Saharan Africa is the world region that is converging most slowly, if not converging at all. Most importantly, levels of education matter heavily for explaining strength and variation in global fertility convergence, with two intersecting educational gradients suggesting: (i) stronger convergence over tertiary education followed, in turn, by secondary and primary; (ii) stronger convergence over education completed relative to education attended. Our findings provide important insights for addressing key challenges in global development and demography, and for informing policymakers as they evaluate the suitability of specific educational policies aimed at further narrowing inequalities between societies—such as supporting higher education as well as the successful completion of targeted educational cycles.

Wu, Hanbo. 2022. "The Effect of Maternal Education on Child Mortality in Bangladesh." Population and Development Review 48(2):475–503.

This paper examines the effect of maternal education on child mortality in Bangladesh by exploiting quasi-experimental variations in the duration of exposure to a school stipend project for identification. Results from the instrumental variable estimation indicate that an additional year of maternal schooling reduces both under-five and infant mortality by about 20 percent. The findings are statistically significant and robust to a number of model specifications, including survival models controlling for right censoring of child mortality. Analysis of potential mechanisms suggests that maternal education reduces child mortality through greater wealth and literacy, positive assortative mating, lower fertility, delayed marriage and childbearing, greater health-related knowledge, better health-seeking behaviors, and female empowerment, but not through female employment.

Wu, Hanbo. 2021. "Maternal Stress and Sex Ratio at Birth in Sweden over Two and a Half Centuries: A Retest of the Trivers–Willard Hypothesis." Human Reproduction 36(10):2782–2792.

This study retests the Trivers–Willard hypothesis, which argues for a negative correlation between maternal stress and sex ratio at birth (SRB), with 243 years of time series data from Sweden. I find no supportive evidence for the hypothesis because the associations of SRB with most of the covariates used as proxies for maternal stress are not statistically significant, and in many cases the level of maternal stress is indeed positively correlated with SRB.

Working Papers

Wu, Hanbo, and Luca Maria Pesando. "No Evidence that Anti-Domestic Violence Laws Reduce Violent Child Discipline in sub-Saharan Africa." Under Review.
[Draft - Last Updated: February 12, 2025]

Albeit rarely recognized as such in existing legislation, violent child discipline is a clear form of domestic violence (DV), with long-lasting implications for children’s health and wellbeing. This study investigates whether anti-DV laws introduced gradually in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) since the mid-2000s had any effect in curbing violent caregiving practices. We do so by merging household survey data from 27 SSA countries with time-series information on anti-DV law implementation from World Bank’s reports. We compare African caregivers’ childrearing practices and attitudes toward harsh parenting in countries with and without anti-DV laws, before and after law implementation. We also test the effectiveness of the laws and conduct heterogeneity analyses by caregiver, household, and child characteristics, alongside country-level indicators of development and inequality. We document a robust increase in violent child discipline following law implementation—mainly driven by emotional punishment—as well as a significantly higher endorsement of harsh parenting practices. Results are weaker, i.e., the consequences of the laws are less negative, in countries characterized by higher income inequality, where laws have more of a “protective” effect. Findings underscore the unintended consequences of legislation implemented without a clear aim of protecting children.

Wu, Hanbo. "How Does Complex Policy Context Reshape Socioeconomic Inequality? The Case of Education Reforms in Vietnam." Under Review.
[Draft - Last Updated: September 8, 2025]

At the turn of the 1990s, the Vietnamese government launched two education reforms: a secondary school tuition fee system that increased the costs of education and a compulsory primary schooling law that reduced barriers to education. I examine how this complex policy context reshapes socioeconomic inequality in Vietnam, with a focus on individuals who were exposed to both shocks. I find that tuition fee reform widened the educational gap between advantaged and disadvantaged areas, while compulsory schooling law narrowed it. For those exposed to both reforms, the beneficial effect of the latter outweighed the adverse effect of the former, resulting in an overall improvement in educational attainment. This favorable joint effect was especially pronounced among disadvantaged groups, such as rural residents, women, and ethnic minorities. Moreover, I show that two reforms together enhanced intergenerational educational persistence, but their effects on labor market outcomes are less consistent.

Work in Progress

"Gender Revolution amid Gender Inequality? Uncovering the Multidimensional Complexity of Gender Ideology in Contemporary India."

"Educational Expansion, Easy Credentials, and Educational Assortative Mating: Evidence from Bangladesh's Exit Exam Reform."

"The (Unintended) Consequences of Changing Legality of Polygyny in Africa: A Case Study of Benin, Kenya, and Nigeria." (with Ewa Batyra, Luca Maria Pesando, and Orsola Torrisi)

"American Civil War and Intermarriage between Native-Born and Foreign-Born." (with Jiaxin Shi)

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