Research

Persistent gender differences in earnings remain one of the most striking features of modern labor markets. I examine whether mixing boys and girls in school can reduce gender inequality later in life. This paper exploits the gradual end of sex segregation in French elementary schools between 1958 and 1975. Combining newly digitized historical data on schools with administrative earnings records, I estimate the effect of growing up in a coeducational environment on adult earnings. Exposure to coeducation significantly narrows the gender wage gap by about 17%. The effect operates mainly through occupational sorting, with women entering higher-paying and more male-dominated jobs. The results identify early exposure to the opposite gender in school as a key formative environment shaping long-run gender inequality.

We examine how the 2015 relaxation of China’s one-child policy affected marriage outcomes. Before the reform, some groups were already permitted to have two children. In China, where the sex ratio is heavily skewed toward men, being exempt from the one-child constraint may have been a desirable characteristic for marriage, increasing men's marriage odds. Using detailed policy data on exemptions and individual data from 2010-2018, we find that after the relaxation, men previously allowed a second child are less likely to marry compared to those not allowed. There is no effect for women. The results suggest that differential fertility constraints distorted who got married by advantaging certain men when there was a demand for a second child and strong marriage competition. Furthermore, suggestive evidence shows that the relaxation increased matching by education when exemptions were moderately widespread, indicating that fertility constraints also shaped who married whom.