学前教育扩张对女性就业的促进效应分析——兼析学前教育政策的生育包容性

Analysis of Promoting Effect of Preschool Education Expansion on Female Employment:Also on the Fertility Inclusiveness of Preschool Education Policy

生育支持政策体系构建的关键是缓解女性的“工作—家庭冲突”,学前教育公共服务则是降低女性生育机会成本的重要政策工具。基于2010年实施的学前教育“三年行动”计划,使用CHNS 2006—2015数据和双重差分模型,从政策包容性视角评估了该计划对3—5岁儿童母亲劳动供给的影响及可能机制,以探究当前社会背景下学前教育制度支持家庭生育的政策内涵。研究发现,学前教育“三年行动”计划使城镇地区有3—5岁孩子的女性劳动参与率增加约25%,周平均工作时长增加约8个小时。异质性分析表明,学前教育“三年行动”计划的就业促进效应对有多孩的女性更加明显。在影响机制上,该政策显著减少了女性家务劳动的时间投入,增加了儿童对幼儿园照护的选择,却未明显降低对父母和祖辈的照护需求。这说明政策虽然促进了女性就业,但对家庭在儿童照护需求上的支持力度较弱。可能原因在于,一方面,学前教育公共服务资源的增加放松了女性的时间约束;另一方面,面对入园时间很难与父母工作时间协调、儿童接送及课后看护等问题,家庭仍需要投入大量时间。当前我国学前教育制度的目标是“儿童发展”,“支持女性就业”的目标被忽视;单一目标导向下的学前教育服务,体现出儿童照护功能的制度设计严重缺乏。未来,在多孩生育政策环境下,需要从公共政策对家庭生育的包容性视角,审视当前的学前教育公共服务制度,以更好地满足家庭儿童照护需要,支持女性发展,构建友好型生育支持体系。

The key to the construction of a fertility support policy system is to alleviate women’s“work-family”conflict,while public services for preschool education are an important policy tool to reduce the opportunity cost of women’s fertility.Based on the“Three-Year Action”plan for preschool education implemented in 2010,using CHNS data from 2006 to 2015 and difference-in-differences model,the impact of the“Three-Year Action”plan on the labor supply of mothers of children aged 3 to 5 years from the perspective of policy inclusiveness and possible mechanism have been evaluated,which can explore the policy connotation of preschool education system to support family fertility in the current social context.The study found that the“Three-Year Action”plan for preschool education has increased the labor participation of women with children aged 3 to 5 in urban areas by about 25%and the average working time per week has increased by about 8 hours.Heterogeneity analysis shows that the employment promotion effect of the“Three-Year Action”plan is more pronounced for women with multiple children.In terms of the impact mechanism,the policy has significantly reduced the time input of women’s housework and increased the choice of kindergarten care for children,but has not significantly reduced the need for care of parents and grandparents.This shows that although the policy has promoted female employment,the support for families’needs for child care is weak.The possible reason is that,on the one hand,the increase of public service resources for preschool education has loosened the time constraints of women.On the other hand,families still need to invest a lot of time in kindergarten when it is difficult to coordinate with parents’working hours,children’s pick-up and after-school care and other issues.At present,the goal of China’s preschool education system is“children’s development”,while the goal of“supporting women’s employment”has been neglected.Under the guidance of single target system,the system design of children’s care is seriously lacking.In the future,under the environment of multi-child birth policy,it is necessary to review the current public service system of preschool education from the inclusive perspective of public policies or systems on family birth,so as to better meet the needs of family child care,support female development,and build a friendly birth support system.