“无名英雄”:隔代照料对农村育龄女性非农就业的影响

Unsung Heroes:How Will Intergenerational Care Affect Off-farm Employment of Rural Women of Childbearing Age

本文基于2014年、2016年和2018年中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)数据,采用包括工具变量法在内的多种内生性处理方法,实证研究隔代照料与农村育龄女性非农就业的因果效应。研究发现:提供隔代照料总体上有助于农村育龄女性非农劳动参与率提升28.2%、平均每周非农劳动时间延长14.52个小时。异质性分析发现,隔代照料对年龄在30~39岁、初中学历的农村育龄女性的影响效应最大;较“离土型”农村育龄女性而言,隔代照料对“离乡型”农村育龄女性非农就业的积极作用更大;隔代照料对农村育龄女性非农就业的影响效应随儿童年龄的增长显著降低,对有0~2岁学龄前儿童的农村育龄女性非农就业的正向影响最显著;隔代照料对东部地区的农村育龄女性非农就业的影响效应最大,西部次之。据此,本文提出鼓励家庭支持体系构建和婴幼儿托育服务发展并行、依据不同女性群体特点完善女性就业保护制度以减轻农村女性幼儿照料负担的政策建议。

Based on the datasets of China Family Panel Studies(CFPS)in 2014,2016,and 2018,this paper adopts various methods including the instrumental variable method,to empirically study the causal relationship between intergenerational care and off-farm employment of rural women of childbearing age.Empirical results show that providing intergenerational care can generally help rural women of childbearing age increase off-farm labor participation rate by 28.2%,and prolong average weekly off-farm labor hours by 14.52 hours.Heterogeneity analysis shows that the effect of intergenerational care on women of childbearing age in rural areas has an inverted"U"shape with different age and education levels,and it has the largest and most significant effect on women of childbearing age between 30 and 39 years old and educational level of junior high school.Compared with women of child-bearing age who do local off-farm work,intergenerational care has a greater positive effect on those who migrate outside.The size of the effect will decrease with the increase of children's age,and it has the most significant positive impact on women of child-bearing age who have preschool children under 3 years old.Intergenerational care has the largest and most significant impact on women off-farm employment of childbearing age in the eastern region,followed by the western region and the central region.Based on the findings,this paper puts forward policy suggestions to encourage the construction of family support system and the development of infant and childcare services,and to improve the female employment protection system according to the characteristics of different female groups,so as to reduce the burden of rural female childcare.