Husbands' wages and married women's labor supply in urban China

Mengbing Zhu, Chunbing Xing and Yi Li

China Economic Review, 2023, vol. 82, issue C

Abstract: In this study, we examine the impact of husbands' wages on married women's labor force participation (extensive margin) and hours worked (intensive margin) in urban China from 1995 to 2018. We emphasize that changes in a husband's wages alter each spouse's relative contribution to the household, thus highlighting the important role of gender identity norms in the association between husbands' wages and married women's labor supply. We find that a 1% increase in husbands' wages is associated with a 0.018 percentage point decrease in married women's labor force participation and a decrease of 1.45 h worked annually. When gender identity norms are controlled, these numbers increase to 0.024 and 1.94, respectively. Additionally, we observe significant heterogeneous effects for wives of different ages and education levels and with varying numbers of children. The negative association between husbands' wages and women's hours worked has become stronger over time.

Keywords: Husbands' wages; Female labor force participation; Hours worked; Gender identity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 D31 J16 J21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Husbands' Wages and Married Women's Labor Supply in Urban China (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:chieco:v:82:y:2023:i:c:s1043951x23001542

DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2023.102069

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