Does parental migration impede the development of the cooperative preferences in their left-behind children? Evidence from a large-scale field experiment in China

In human capital theory, noncognitive abilities play an essential role in individual and societal success. Parents' migration for work purposes may inhibit the development of children's noncognitive abilities, but its influence on children's cooperation preferences remains unclear. Using three one-shot public goods games, we examine the impacts of parental migration on the development of children's cooperation preferences and whether introducing punishment mechanisms could partly exacerbate or offset the effects. We conducted a large-scale field experiment with more than 1600 rural students aged 6–16. Our main findings are as follows. First, the cooperation level of non-left-behind children increases significantly with age, while being left behind may affect this stable development track. Specifically, we find that paternal migration significantly decreases children's cooperation levels, while maternal or both parents' migration does not. Second, punishment mechanisms can significantly promote children's cooperation levels and offset the negative effect of paternal migration. Exogenous punishments work across ages, while endogenous punishments work only among middle school students. However, as the extent to which children were left-behind deepens, the offsetting effects of the punishment mechanisms gradually weaken.