There is wide variation in the degree of gender gap in test scores around the world, suggesting the strong influence of institutions, culture and inequality. We present comparative evidence on the gender gap in educational achievement in China, Japan, and the USA, with an emphasis on the gender-specific effect of parental income and education, and the child’s own preferences for study subjects. We used three major national representative longitudinal surveys with rich information about cognitive outcome measures of respondent children as well as educational investment and parental socio-economic status that allow us to analyze their inter-relationship. We found that low household income tends to have more adverse effects on language test scores for boys than for girls in the USA, as is consistent with previous studies. However, it does not have an impact on gender gap in test scores in China and tends to affect girls more adversely than boys in Japan.

Using data from the Japanese Panel Survey of Consumers (JPSC) for the period 1994–2007, I examine the effect of childbirth on fathers’ wage rates and labor supply in Japan. I also compare the effects of fatherhood between different cohorts by dividing the JPSC sample into two birth-year cohorts (those born in or before 1960 and those born after 1960). The results show that the birth of children significantly increases hourly wage rates by 2.3% and annual work by 69 hours. Comparing these results to those of studies based in the United States and Germany shows that while the effect of childbirth on the Japanese male labor supply is large, it is relatively small on wage rates. The study also shows that childbirth has different impacts on labor market outcomes for the two cohorts. In the early cohort, the birth of children significantly increases wage rates, but has no significant effect on the labor supply. On the contrary, for the later cohort, the birth of children does not increase wage rates and there is a significant increase in the labor supply. Finally, I examine how the gender difference of children impacts labor market outcomes. Although its impact is not so large, the birth of sons has a larger effect than the birth of daughters.