Economic Reform and Changing Patterns of Labor Force Participation in Urban and Rural China

Margaret Maurer-Fazio, James Hughes and Dandan Zhang ()

No wp787, William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series from William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Abstract: In this project, we employ data from the Chinese population censuses of 1982, 1990, and 2000 to examine reform-era changes in the patterns of male and female labor force participation and in the distribution of men’s and women’s occupational attainment. Very marked patterns of change in labor force participation emerge when we disaggregate the data by age cohort, marital status, sex, and rural/urban location. Women have decreased their labor force participation more than men, and urban women much more than rural women. Single young people in urban areas have decreased their labor force participation to stay in school to a much greater extent than single young people in rural areas. The urban elderly have decreased their rates of labor force participation while the rural elderly have increased theirs. We also find evidence of the feminization of agriculture.

Keywords: China; labor force participation; economic reform; occupational attainment; population censuses (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J0 J16 J21 J62 O15 O53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: pages
Date: 2005-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-dev, nep-sea and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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