Are Chinese kids born in the Year of the Dragon really superior?

.

Follow             bakadesuyo on Twitter

Why do seemingly irrational superstitions persist? We analyze the widely held belief among Asians that children born in the Year of the Dragon are superior. We use pooled cross section data from the U.S. Current Population Survey to show that Asian immigrants to the United States born in the 1976 year of the Dragon are more educated than comparable immigrants from non-Dragon years. In contrast, no such educational effect is noticeable for Dragon-year children in the general U.S. population. We also provide evidence that Asian mothers of Dragon year babies are more educated, richer, and slightly older than Asian mothers of non-Dragon year children. This suggests that belief in the greater superiority of Dragon-year children is self-fulfilling since the demographic characteristics associated with parents who are more willing and able to adjust their birthing strategies to have Dragon children are also correlated with greater investment in their human capital.

Source: “Does Fortune Favor Dragons?” from Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

Follow me on Twitter here or get updates via email here.

Digests of posts:

Things you didn’t know about sex

How to quickly and easily improve your life

Things you didn’t know about sports

Things you didn’t know about happiness

Things you didn’t know about lies, liars and detecting lies

Things you didn’t know about negotiation, persuasion and influence

Things you didn’t know about marriage and relationships

Share

Subscribe to the newsletter