Unemployment,Nonstandard Employment,and Fertility: Insights From Japan’s “Lost 20 Years”

In this study, we examine relationships of unemployment and nonstandard employment with fertility. We focus on Japan, a country characterized by a prolonged economic downturn, significant increases in both unemployment and nonstandard employment, a strong link between marriage and childbearing, and pronounced gender differences in economic roles and opportunities. Analyses of retrospective employment, marriage, and fertility data for the period 1990–2006 indicate that changing employment circumstances for men are associated with lower levels of marriage, while changes in women’s employment are associated with higher levels of marital fertility. The latter association outweighs the former, and results of counterfactual standardization analyses indicate that Japan’s total fertility rate would have been 10 % to 20 % lower than the observed rate after 1995 if aggregate- and individual-level employment conditions had remained unchanged from the 1980s. We discuss the implications of these results in light of ongoing policy efforts to promote family formation and research on temporal and regional variation in men’s and women’s roles within the family.     

家庭因素对性别工资差异的影响——基于CFPS数据的实证分析

随着职业性别隔离现象不断减少、男女受教育水平和教育收益率的逐步收敛,人力资本、职业和行业分布已经无法解释我国性别工资差异不断扩大的趋势。从家庭出发,考察婚姻、家务劳动分工和子女这些典型的家庭特征因素对性别工资差异的影响,运用2016年CFPS数据,在解决内生性问题的条件下,研究结果表明:婚姻通过增加女性家务劳动时间和子女间接影响女性工资,家务劳动时间和母亲身份对女性工资率具有显著的惩罚效应,女性平均每周承担家务劳动17小时,这导致其周工资率减少34%,子女降低母亲8.5%的周工资率;相对于未婚女性,已婚女性每周多做7小时家务,这降低了她们14%的周工资率。男性则存在婚姻溢价效应。Oaxaca分解也显示,家庭特征,尤其是家务劳动时间,是性别歧视之外导致性别工资差距的主要原因。本文按收入阶层的异质性分析表明,家庭特征可能引起低收入阶层更大的性别工资差异。本文的分析还显示,家务劳动对男性和女性具有门槛效应,且阈值位于10.5小时左右。     

3岁以下随迁子女照料对流动女性就业参与的影响研究

本文把3岁以下随迁子女照料分为家庭照料和社会化托育服务,利用2016年全国流动人口动态监测调查数据,综合运用Probit模型、工具变量法以及交互效应检验,考察3岁以下随迁子女照料对流动女性就业参与的影响。研究结果表明,在纠正内生性偏误后,与母亲作为主要照料人相比,其他家庭照料主体参与照料对流动女性就业参与具有显著的正向作用。其中,父亲参与的照料能够使流动女性的就业概率提升约30%,而祖辈照料则使流动女性就业概率提升约58%。另外,选择社会化托育服务对流动女性就业参与也具有显著的正向作用。进一步的交互检验表明,母亲照料1-2岁和2-3岁随迁子女会使得其就业概率更低,分别是照料0-1岁随迁子女的9.4%和7.7%。     

Gender and Job Satisfaction in Urban China: The Role of Individual,Family, and Job Characteristics

This study examines gender differences in job satisfaction in urban Chinese, whether individual achieved status, family and household characteristics, and job characteristics explain these differences, and whether these factors are associated with men’s and women’s job satisfaction differently using a national representative sample of 1,641 men and 1,375 women from the 2006 Chinese General Social Survey. Urban Chinese women are less satisfied with their jobs than urban Chinese men. This gender difference is largely explained by women’s underrepresentation in the Chinese Communist Party and their inferior jobs. Family and household characteristics have stronger impact on women’s job satisfaction than on men’s, but achieved status and job characteristics have similar associations with job satisfaction for men and women. These findings suggest that persistent gender inequality is detrimental to women’s well-being at the workplace.     

Women’s Job Quality Across Family Life Stages: An Analysis of Female Employees Across 27 European Countries

There is little empirical evidence on how working conditions affect women’s employment and fertility choices, despite a number of studies on the impact of individual-level and institutional factors. The article addresses this gap by examining how family life stages are related to particular aspects of job quality among employed women in 27 European countries. The central argument of the analysis is that high-quality jobs are conducive to both transitions to motherhood and employment after childbirth as women select into these roles. Accordingly, mothers of young children, if employed, are expected to have relatively better quality jobs. Four dimensions of job quality are considered: job security, career progression, working time and intrinsic job quality. The results indicate that mothers with young children are more likely to hold high-quality jobs than women at other life stages with respect to working time quality and job security, but with some variation across countries for job security. The findings highlight the importance of high-quality jobs for women’s fertility decisions and labour market attachment after childbirth, with implications for European employment policy.     

促进还是抑制:疾病负担对农村妇女非农就业的影响研究

本文利用2017年湖北省的微观调查数据,实证分析疾病负担对农村妇女非农就业的影响。研究发现:疾病经济负担显著促进农村妇女从事非农就业,而疾病照料负担显著抑制农村妇女从事非农就业,这种影响力度随着治愈时间增加而消减。进一步异质性分析表明,不同家庭成员患病对农村妇女非农就业的影响机制不同,老人患大病所产生的照料负担会驱使农村妇女增加非农就业,且儿童患大病所产生的经济负担也会迫使农村妇女减少非农就业。基于此,本文从农村疾病防治、集体照料和灵活工作制三个方面提出相关政策建议。     

Time for Children: Trends in the Employment Patterns of Parents, 1967–2009

Using data from the 1967–2009 years of the March Current Population Surveys (CPS), we examine two important resources for children’s well-being: time and money. We document trends in parental employment, from the perspective of children, and show what underlies these trends. We find that increases in family work hours mainly reflect movements into jobs by parents—particularly mothers, who in prior decades would have remained at home. This increase in market work has raised incomes for children in the typical two-parent family but not for those in lone-parent households. Time use data from 1975 and 2003–2008 reveal that working parents spend less time engaged in primary childcare than their counterparts without jobs but more than employed peers in previous cohorts. Analysis of 2004 work schedule data suggests that non-daytime work provides an alternative method of coordinating employment schedules for some dual-earner families.     

多子一定多福吗：子女数量与母亲健康

本文基于CHARLS 2013年全国追踪调查数据分析了已婚子女对母亲健康的影响。为了克服子女数量所带来的内生性,本文基于计划生育政策在民族和城乡之间的差别进行因果识别。研究结果表明,对于子女都已成家的母亲来说,子女数量的增加会显著降低偏瘦和低血压的概率,提高高血压的概率,总体上不会显著提高身体健康的概率。但是对于60岁以上的老龄女性而言,子女数量的增加会显著降低偏瘦、低血压和肥胖的概率,提高高血压的概率,并且在总体上会显著提高身体健康的概率。     

A dynamic analysis of women’s employment exits

This research examines women’s rates of leaving a job to become nonemployed (unemployed or out of the labor force) using a stochastic, continuous-time model. The data consist of employment histories of white women constructed from the National Longitudinal Survey of Young Women (1968-1973). The results demonstrate the importance of examining the underlying processes in women’s employment. Several differences are found between the determinants of employment exits and what might be expected from the cross-sectional and panel literature on female labor force participation. The findings also provide evidence of the interdependence of fertility and employment, with young children increasing rates of employment exits and with high wages on ajob decreasing rates ofleaving a job because of a pregnancy. Finally, involuntary employment terminations are examined, and their transition rates are found to decrease with job wages and job tenure and to increase when a woman has children.     

From Motherhood Premium to Motherhood Penalty? Heterogeneous Effects of Motherhood Stages on Women’s Economic Outcomes in Urban China

Chinese women have reached a high level of labor force participation before China’s deepening economic reform starting from the early 1990s, while women’s deteriorating position in the labor market has been documented in recent literature. However, few studies connect the relationship between the presence of children at different ages and women’s labor market outcomes. Capitalizing on longitudinal data, this study uses a person-fixed-effects model to investigate the relationship between motherhood stages and women’s economic outcomes in urban China. It takes into consideration the impact of children at various ages, as well as the impact of growth in local economies. We find that very young children inhibit mothers’ employment, but the presence of school-aged children is positively correlated with mothers’ income. Our analysis further suggests that, with the development of local economies, the negative association of very young children and women’s labor activity is exacerbated, while the positive relationship between school-aged children and mothers’ income is weakened. Our findings also contribute to the literature on labor market institutions, gender-role ideologies, and the impact on women’s economic outcomes as they balance work with childrearing obligations.     

<Emphasis Type="Bold">Women’s Progress for Men’s Gain? Gender-Specific Changes in the Return to Education as Measured by Family Standard of Living, 1990 to 2009–2011</Emphasis>

This study investigates gender-specific changes in the total financial return to education among persons of prime working ages (35–44 years) using U.S. Census data from 1990 and 2000, and the 2009–2011 American Community Survey. We define the total financial return to education as the family standard of living as measured by family income adjusted for family size. Our results indicate that women experienced significant progress in educational attainment and labor market outcomes over this time period. Ironically, married women’s progress in education and personal earnings has led to greater improvement in the family standard of living for married men than for women themselves. Gender-specific changes in assortative mating are mostly responsible for this paradoxical trend. Because the number of highly educated women exceeds the number of highly educated men in the marriage market, the likelihood of educational marrying up has substantially increased for men over time while women’s likelihood has decreased. Sensitivity analyses show that the greater improvement in the family standard of living for men than for women is not limited to prime working-age persons but is also evident in the general population. Consequently, women’s return to education through marriage declined while men’s financial gain through marriage increased considerably.     

Children and Careers: How Family Size Affects Parents’ Labor Market Outcomes in the Long Run

We estimate the effect of family size on various measures of labor market outcomes over the whole career until retirement, using instrumental variables estimation in data from Norwegian administrative registers. Parents’ number of children is instrumented with the sex mix of their first two children. We find that having additional children causes sizable reductions in labor supply for women, which fade as children mature and even turn positive for women without a college degree. Among women with a college degree, there is evidence of persistent and even increasing career penalties of family size. Having additional children reduces these women’s probability of being employed by higher-paying firms, their earnings rank within the employing firm, and their probability of being the top earner at the workplace. Some of the career effects persist long after labor supply is restored. We find no effect of family size on any of men’s labor market outcomes in either the short or long run.     

流动人口生育保险参与及其性别差异研究

本文利用南开大学“2013年流动人口管理和服务对策研究问卷调查”数据对流动人口生育保险参与性别差异及影响因素进行深入分析,发现流动人口生育保险参与率较低,而且存在显著的性别差异,女性好于男性流动人口。而影响流动人口生育保险参与的因素也存在明显差异,受教育程度、劳动合同、合同协商、工会、企业性质等是影响女性流动人口生育保险参与的显著因素。在此基础上,提出了进一步促进流动人口生育保险参与的对策思考。     

U.S. women at work

Women made up 43% of the U.S. labor force in 1980, up from 29% in 1950, and 52% of all women 16 and over were working or looking for work compared to 34% in 1950. The surge in women's employment is linked to more delayed marriage, divorce, and separation, women's increased education, lower fertility, rapid growth in clerical and service jobs, inflation, and changing attitudes toward "woman's place." Employment has risen fastest among married women, especially married mothers of children under 6, 45% of whom are now in the labor force. Some 44% of employed women now work fulltime the year round, but still average only $6 for every $10 earned by men working that amount. This is partly because most women remain segregated in low paying "women's jobs" with few chances for advancement. Among fulltime workers, women college graduates earn less than male high school dropouts. Working wives were still spending 6 times more time on housework than married men in 1975 and working mothers of preschool children are also hampered by a severe lack of daycare facilities. Children of working women, however, appear to develop normally. Equal employment opportunity and affirmative action measures have improved the climate for working women but not as much as for minorities. The federal income tax and social security systems still discriminate against 2 income families. Woman's position in the U.S. labor force should eventually improve with the inroads women are making in some male-dominated occupations and gains in job experience and seniority among younger women who now tend to stay in the labor force through the years of childbearing and early childrearing, unlike women in the 1950s and 1960s.     

The links between women’s employment and children at home: Variations in low- and middle-income countries by world region

As fertility declines in low- and middle-income countries, the time women devote to childbearing and rearing may also be reduced. This shift has been described as one of the positive consequences of the demographic transition, as it opens opportunities for women to pursue educational and employment opportunities that were previously constrained by the demands of bearing and raising children. We estimate the numbers of children residing at home (with their mother) for women in 58 countries in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. We then examine the association between women’s employment and having children at home. Finally, we assess trends over recent decades in the relationship between employment and childbearing, and differences in this relationship by mother’s occupation. We find a negative association between women’s employment and having children at home; this association varies substantially by world region, age of child, and mother’s occupation.     

Women are key players in the economies of East and Southeast Asia

In 1996, the East-West Center's Program on Population investigated the links between population change and economic growth in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia. This document discusses the findings pertaining to women's changing marriage and childbearing patterns, education attainment, and labor force participation as well as changes in family life. In eastern and southeastern Asia, women are delaying marriage and having fewer children as a result of their overwhelming acceptance of modern contraception. Concurrently, women's secondary school enrollment has increased dramatically since 1960, and women have accounted for steadily increasing proportions of total labor force growth. Economic development has led to fewer women employed in agriculture and more in clerical positions. Women continue to be marginalized in low-paying manufacturing jobs and to lose these jobs more frequently than do men. Women's labor force participation continues to be dependent upon their child care responsibilities, but women are beginning to combine both activities with the help of live-in grandparents. Women have made an important contribution to economic growth in Asia. Policies should address job discrimination against married women, wage discrimination, the problems faced by young women who leave home for employment in the manufacturing and service sectors, and the lack of child care facilities.     

Work-family conflict in comparative perspective: The role of social policies

This study focuses on the role of social policies in mitigating work-family incompatibilities in 27 countries. We ask whether work-family conflict is reduced in countries that provide family-friendly policies and flexible employment arrangements, and whether women and men are similarly affected by such policies. The study, based on the ISSP 2002, demonstrates considerable variation among countries in the perceived work-family conflict. In all but two countries, women report higher levels of conflict than men. At the individual level, working hours, the presence of children and work characteristics affect the perception of conflict. At the macro level, childcare availability and to a certain extent maternity leave reduce women's and men's sense of conflict. Additionally, the availability of childcare facilities alleviates the adverse effect of children on work-family balance for mothers while flexible job arrangements intensify this effect.     

The Effect of Childhood Family Size on Fertility in Adulthood: New Evidence From IV Estimation

Although fertility is positively correlated across generations, the causal effect of children’s experience with larger sibships on their own fertility in adulthood is poorly understood. With the sex composition of the two firstborn children as an instrumental variable, we estimate the effect of sibship size on adult fertility using high-quality data from Norwegian administrative registers. Our study sample is all firstborns or second-borns during the 1960s in Norwegian families with at least two children (approximately 110,000 men and 104,000 women). An additional sibling has a positive effect on male fertility, mainly causing them to have three children themselves, but has a negative effect on female fertility at the same margin. Investigation into mediators reveals that mothers of girls shift relatively less time from market to family work when an additional child is born. We speculate that this scarcity in parents’ time makes girls aware of the strains of life in large families, leading them to limit their own number of children in adulthood.     

Family composition and the labor force activity of American wives

This is a study of the employment patterns of American wives in relation to the composition of their families. The data are taken from the 1960 United States Census, both from published tabulations and the 1/1000 sample. The population studied is non-Negro, non-farm, married, husband present women who are under the age of sixty. The methods of analysis used include the comparison of employment rates among subpopulations and a dummy variable regression technique. Aspects of family composition studied include age of the youngest child (in single years in order to determine whether there are discontinuities in the rates of employment when youngest children enter school, etc.), number of children in the family, and the presence of other relatives in the family. The paper concludes with a discussion of the meaning of family status differentials in employment including differential preferences for employment, differential fertility experience, and differential demands on the mother’s time. Some discussion of the use of cross section data of this sort to infer life cycle patterns of employment is included.     

Work–Family Conflict and Well-Being Across Europe: The Role of Gender Context

This study analysed whether gender context is important to differences in the relationship between work–family conflict (WFC) and well-being across Europe. We hypothesised that in countries that support equality in work life and where norms support women’s employment, the relationship between WFC and low well-being is weaker than in countries with less support for gender equality. Cohabiting men and women aged 18–65 years from 25 European countries were selected from the European Social Survey. A multilevel analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between well-being and WFC, and two measurements were used to represent gender context: gender equality in work life and norms regarding women’s employment. Contrary to the hypothesis, the results showed that the negative relationship was stronger in countries with high levels of gender equality in work life and support for women’s employment than in countries with a relatively low level of gender equality in work life and support for traditional gender relations. The context in which gender is constructed may be important when studying the relationship between WFC and well-being. In addition, emphasis should be placed on policies that equalise both the labour market and the work performed at home.