中国女性劳动供给为何降低:来自流动人口的证据

Why Has the Women's Labor Supply in China Declined?New Evidence from the Migrants

本文总结了中国女性劳动参与率和参与强度下降的典型事实,并从"延嗣惩罚"和性别失衡的视角进行了解释。以流动人口为例,本文研究发现母亲在孩子出生当年工作参与率降低约60%,后随孩子年龄增长逐渐恢复到正常水平,孩子对该指标的负向影响在2011-2017年逐渐增加,孩子出生当年该指标受到的负向影响在7年间增加了15%。同时,母亲在孩子出生后的工作强度会显著降低,且存在性别差异:若为女孩,强度会在女孩2岁时恢复正常水平;若为男孩,强度降低程度更大,一直到男孩17岁左右才恢复正常水平,但在男孩上小学后会提升15%-22%。延嗣惩罚在不同所有制、就业类型和城乡户口中存在明显的异质性。本文从新的角度解释了中国女性劳动供给降低的原因,对提升女性劳动供给质量和效率、完善生育相关政策和缓解性别失衡具有重要的启示意义。

Why female's labor participation rate(LPR)and hours of work(HW)in China have been declining since the mid-1990s?This paper tries to answer the question from the perspective of"child penalty"and the imbalance of the gender ratio of children.Based on the CMDS data between 2011 and 2017,we find that mother's LPR decreases by approximately 60%in the year of child's birth.As child's age increases,mother's LPR gradually returns to normal.The negative impact of child's birth on mother's LPR gets stronger year by year from 2011 to 2017.Specifically,mother's LPR in the year of child's birth decreases by 15%.In contrast,father's LPR has no response to child's birth.In addition,mother's HW decreases significantly after child's birth.We further show that mother's HW responds to girl's and boy's birth differently.If the child is a girl,mother's HW would return to a normal level when the girl reaches 2 years old.If the child is a boy,mother's HW would deviate from the normal level unless the boy's age reaches 17 years old.However,mother's HW would increase by 15%-22%after the child's primary school attendance.The"child penalty"effects display an obvious heterogeneity regarding employer'ownership,employee's employment type,and hukou status.This paper provides new explanation to the decline of female's labor supply in China and sheds light on how to improve female's employment quality,promote the implementation of maternity leave policies,and reduce the gender imbalance.