性别工资差距、资本积累与人口转变

Gender Gap,Capital Accumulation and Demographic Transition

本文通过在内生人口增长模型中引入性别工资差距随资本积累的演化过程,为解释人口转变提出了新的机制。经济发展初期,性别歧视程度较高,资本积累提高女性生育成本的效应较小,人口随收入上升加速增长;当资本积累最终导致性别歧视程度降低时,女性生育成本提高将促使家庭更多的投资人力资本,生育率持续下降。如果生产中物质资本份额和体力劳动比重越高,或者家庭存在性别偏好,那么人口转变的持续时间越长,程度越低。

This paper focuses on explaining the demographic transition. We show that with the capital accumu- lation, the output share of mental labor increases and the wage gender gap narrows. In the early stages of eco- nomic development, gender discrimination is more prevalent and the substitution effect of capital accumulation is dominated by the income effect, so that the growth rate of the population increases with income. When the degree of wage gender discrimination starts to decline, the increased cost of child rearing induces families to in- vest more in human capital and the growth rate of the population falls.