Unintended Consequences of Lockdowns:Evidence from Domestic Helpers in Urban China

This paper addresses the reactions of domestic helpers to the Wuhan(Hubei Province)lockdown that began on January 23,2020.We use a novel dataset containing the information of over 40,000 Chinese domestic helpers registered on a leading professional website from November 2019 to June 2020.The results indicate a declining pattern of short-term labor supply of domestic helpers across 11 major Chinese cities,which shows an increase in the expected monthly wage of domestic helpers in these cities.More importantly,using a difference-in-difference(DID)model,this paper provides some evidence on the existence of labor market discrimination against domestic helpers bom in Hubei Province due to employers’fear of infection.