Impact of Parents' Characteristics in Current China on Individual Subjective Well-being: An Ordered Probit Regression Analysis

Abstract

Using China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data, this paper studies the determinants of individual subjective well-being (SWB) in China, emphasizing particularly the role of parents' characteristics. First, by ordered probit regression, we find that individual SWB is negatively correlated with their parents' identity as peasants. The conclusion holds when the full sample is divided into sub-samples. Second, the regression result shows that the parents as village cadres have significant effects on their children's SWB. Unlike the parents' identity as peasants, the fathers' political identity as village cadres is positively correlated with their children's SWB, while the mothers as village cadres exert more negative effects on individual SWB. With the full sample separated into different groups, the causes are explored and the regression results offer the explanation for parents' opposite effects.