女性劳动参与对生育行为的影响——基于亚洲女性的经验研究

The Impact of Female Labor Participation on Childbearing Behavior:An Empirical Study Based on Asian Women

近年来,亚洲一些国家如韩国、日本、新加坡等在经过长时期的人口管制政策后都鼓励生育,生育率却没有回升,这与各国鼓励女性劳动参与有一定关系。女性走出家庭、实现就业对于提高人口红利、增加家庭收入具有积极作用,而这是以减少生育数量,生育率下降等潜在后果为代价的,长期来看将会导致劳动年龄人口占比进一步下降。使用WDI数据研究亚洲女性劳动参与对生育行为的影响,在控制了各国固定效应、消除内生性后,实证结果显示,亚洲女性劳动参与对生育具有明显的负向影响,会显著减少生育数量。要减缓“老龄化”与“少子化”的现象,政府应当关注并减轻女性劳动参与对生育行为的负面影响:在尊重个人意愿的基础上促使女性正确认知生育行为;鼓励男性或长辈花更多的时间照顾孩子,保证女性拥有更多工作时间;宣扬科学的人口观念,普及专业化的平价托幼服务。

In recent years,some countries in Asia such as South Korea,Japan,and Singapore have encouraged lertility alter a prolonged period ol population control policies,but the lertility rate has not rebounded.This has a certain relationship with the encouragement ol female labor participation by all countries.Women,s stepping out ol their families and achieving employment have a positive effect on increasing the demographic dividend and increasing family income.However,this is at the cost of the potential consequences of reducing the number of births and declining fertility,which in the long run will lead to a further decline in the proportion ol the working-age population.This paper uses WDI data to study the impact of Asian women's labor participation on fertility behavior.After controlling for fixed effects in countries and eliminating endogeneity,the empirical results show that Asian women's labor participation has a significant negative impact on fertility and will significantly reduce fertility.To slow down the phenomenon of“aging”and“low birthrate”,the government should pay attention to and reduce the negative impact of female labor participation on fertility behaviors:on the basis of respecting individual wishes,encourage women to correctly recognize reproductive behavior;encourage men or elders to spend more time to take care of children,ensure that women have more hours to work;promote the scientific concept of population,launch a supporting labor market,and popularize professional and affordable childcare services.