中国家庭儿童养育成本及其政策意涵

The Cost of Raising Children in China and Its Policy Implications

要确定国家和社会如何集体分担儿童养育的责任,首先就要确定儿童成本的定义以及如何测量儿童成本。总的来说,儿童成本涉及金钱、时间和工作三种不同的资源,包括直接经济成本、家庭层面的间接成本(时间成本、家庭收入差距/母职收入惩罚)以及集体层面潜在的间接成本。对于儿童直接成本和间接成本的测量有不同的方法,它们各有其优劣之处。笔者利用2014年中国家庭发展追踪研究数据,估算了0-17岁儿童所需的直接经济成本为19.10万元,城市儿童需要27.32万元,农村儿童需要14.34万元,收入越低的家庭儿童成本占家庭支出的比重越大。对第三期中国妇女社会地位调查数据进行分析发现,儿童会增加父母操持家务的时间,在控制其他变量的情况下,每增加一个未成年子女,母亲面临的收入惩罚为12.8%。在此基础上,进一步提出了相关政策建议。

To determine the cost of raising a child and how to measure this cost is important in determining how to share the responsibility of childcare between the state and society. This paper reviews prevailing definitions and approaches to the measurement of child costs. The cost of raising a child is defined as not only the cash outlay＂marginal＂costs（ direct costs） but also the time（ indirect costs） that parents spend when they add a child to their household. The gap in family income/motherhood pay gap,measured by the pay gap between mothers and nonmothers,is also defined as the indirect cost of raising a child. Based on the data of Chinese Family Survey in 2014,it is estimated that the direct economic cost of raising a child from 0 to 17 years old is 191 thousands Yuan,273. 2 thousands Yuan for urban children,and 143. 4 thousands Yuan for rural children. The lower the family income is,the higher the percentage of cost of raising a child is. The author uses data from 3 rd National Survey on Chinese Women＇s Social Status to examine the wage penalty for motherhood. Results show a wage penalty of 12. 8 percent per child while controlling other variables. Finally,the author discusses policy recommendations related to the cost of raising children.