{"title":"Extended Maternity Leave and Female Labour Supply: Evidence From a Regional Policy in China","authors":"Mingzhi Hu, Yinxin Su","doi":"10.1002/app5.70017","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Maternity leave for women has been substantially extended in China since the 2016 maternity leave reform, but maternity leave length varies greatly across regions. On the one hand, women are more likely to engage in employment due to extended maternity leave. On the other hand, extended maternity leave can increase the discrimination against women in the labour market and force them to enter into entrepreneurship. Exploiting the 2016 maternity leave reform as an exogenous change in maternity leave for women and employing a difference-in-differences framework, this study examines the effect of extended maternity leave on female labour force participation. Using data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey, we find that the maternity leave reform leads to an increase in entrepreneurship rate (employment rate) by 4.74 (1.76) percentage points for women without children, whereas this effect is insignificant for women with children and old women.</p>","PeriodicalId":45839,"journal":{"name":"Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/app5.70017","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/app5.70017","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"AREA STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Maternity leave for women has been substantially extended in China since the 2016 maternity leave reform, but maternity leave length varies greatly across regions. On the one hand, women are more likely to engage in employment due to extended maternity leave. On the other hand, extended maternity leave can increase the discrimination against women in the labour market and force them to enter into entrepreneurship. Exploiting the 2016 maternity leave reform as an exogenous change in maternity leave for women and employing a difference-in-differences framework, this study examines the effect of extended maternity leave on female labour force participation. Using data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey, we find that the maternity leave reform leads to an increase in entrepreneurship rate (employment rate) by 4.74 (1.76) percentage points for women without children, whereas this effect is insignificant for women with children and old women.
期刊介绍:
Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies is the flagship journal of the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University. It is a peer-reviewed journal that targets research in policy studies in Australia, Asia and the Pacific, across a discipline focus that includes economics, political science, governance, development and the environment. Specific themes of recent interest include health and education, aid, migration, inequality, poverty reduction, energy, climate and the environment, food policy, public administration, the role of the private sector in public policy, trade, foreign policy, natural resource management and development policy. Papers on a range of topics that speak to various disciplines, the region and policy makers are encouraged. The goal of the journal is to break down barriers across disciplines, and generate policy impact. Submissions will be reviewed on the basis of content, policy relevance and readability.