Shang-Jin Wei | Competitive Human Capital Investment: Evidence from Housing Prices and Educational Expenditures
Shang-Jin Wei | Competitive Human Capital Investment: Evidence from Housing Prices and Educational Expenditures
Friday, February 20, 202612:00 PM - 1:20 PM (Pacific)
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall
SCCEI Seminar Series (Winter 2026)
Friday, February 20, 2026 | 12:00 pm -1:20 pm Pacific Time
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall, 616 Jane Stanford Way
Competitive Human Capital Investment: Evidence from Housing Prices and Educational Expenditures
The hypothesis of competitive human capital investment posits that one important motivation for parents to invest in their children’s education is to help them to develop an advantage in their future dating and marriage market. If ownership of certain housing conveys a right to access to high-quality educational resources, a “good-school” premium is embedded in the prices of such home ownership. The size of the premium may reflect the degree of local marriage market competition. We investigate such an effect using housing prices and the location of top schools in 33 Chinese cities. We find robust evidence that the local sex ratio of the youth cohort is a strong predictor for the size of the local “good school” premium. We also find that the households from cities with a higher sex ratio are more willing to spend on children’s education, especially for sons.
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About the Speaker
Professor Shang-Jin Wei is the N.T. Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy at Columbia University, with joint appointments in the Graduate School of Business and the School of International and Public Affairs. A leading expert on international finance, trade, and macroeconomics, his research focuses on globalization and the Chinese economy. His work has been published in top journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, and the Journal of Finance.
From 2014 to 2016, Professor Wei served as Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank, where he led economic research and policy support for regional cooperation initiatives. He previously held positions at the International Monetary Fund, Harvard University, the Brookings Institution, and the World Bank. He is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Sun Yefang Prize, the Zhang Peifang Prize, and the Gregory Chow Award. He received his Ph.D. in Economics and M.S. in Finance from the University of California, Berkeley.