Unlocking Local Opportunity: How Government Procurement Affects Rural Women's Labor Participation in China

Wei Zou, Xiang Li and Liming Zheng

Review of Development Economics, 2026, vol. 30, issue 4, 2848-2887

Abstract: This paper examines whether government procurement can function as a demand‐side, place‐based policy that expands employment opportunities for rural women in China. We develop a stylized Roy‐Borjas migration framework with gender‐specific mobility costs and link geocoded procurement contracts awarded in 2015–2017 to a rural household panel. Our empirical strategy compares villages located near procurement‐winning suppliers with comparable villages without nearby suppliers, using Difference‐in‐Differences estimates with Coarsened Exact Matching weights. The results indicate that procurement exposure is associated with a reduction in married women's annual off‐village work and a corresponding increase in local non‐farm employment, while effects for husbands are smaller and less stable across specifications. These patterns are consistent with a reallocation of women's work from migration to proximate non‐farm activity rather than a withdrawal from market work. Suggestive channel evidence points to accompanying changes in local employment, infrastructure, and female representation. This paper shows how spatially proximate public demand may mitigate gendered mobility constraints and contributes to debates on procurement, place‐based development, and women's labor supply in rural economies.

Date: 2026
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