Can Women's Fertility Increase?

As the first year of the “Comprehensive Two-Child” birth policy implementation effected,the birth rate in 2017 was lower than the birth rate in 2016.This phenomenon reveals that the encouraging birth policy fails to significantly increase the fertility willingness of women of childbearing age.Studies have shown that the number of women's willing to give birth shows a downward trend,and the average number of ideal birth rate is around 1.4,which is lower than the number of births stipulated in the “two-child” comprehensive birth policy.Therefore,the fertility behavior is restricted by the willingness to bear,so will the female fertility increase? In order to stimulate women's fertility willingness and promote female fertility behavior,we can raise the fertility rate as a whole.The research in this paper will show that gender discrimination in employment is a bridge between birth policy and women's fertility willingness,and provides a new perspective for studying the channels through which encouraged birth policy affects women's fertility willingness.By tentatively placing fertility policies,gender discrimination phenomenon in employment,and fertility willingness in a general equilibrium framework,this paper focuses on the following questions: First,what is the impact of current birth policy on gender discrimination in employment? Second,based on the progressivenature of modern fertility concept,the improvement of women's status in society and family,the improvement of women's education level,the increase in demand for career development and the improvement of wage expectations,what is the gender discrimination in employment?influences? Third,what is the transmission mechanism of the birth policy,employment gender discrimination and fertility willingness?On the theoretical level,this paper introduces the fertility variable into the labor market partial equilibrium model,and analyzes the influence of the birth policy on gender discrimination in employment based on the mathematical model analysis of the Cobb-Douglas production function.Fertility willingness is the result of maximizing household utility based on established resources(time and income).This paper constructs a family utility function to preliminarily explain the mechanism of employment gender discrimination on women's fertility willingness,especially the inhibition of female fertility willingness by occupational vertical isolation.Therefore,the relaxation of the birth policy has led to serious conflicts in the work and family sectors ?Additional investment in the company' s maternity insurance costs ?Companies pursuing profit maximization are not willing to recruit female employees ? deepen gender discrimination in employment;the most intuitive impact of employment gender discrimination is Women's wages will be “exploited” by employers(final wages are earned compared to men in the same human capital stocks)? women ' s income budget constraints are tightened?women's fertility will be suppressed.On the empirical level,this paper uses the Chinese General Social Survey(CGSS)data to construct a comprehensive value index for women of childbearing age affected by the birth policy,to measure the looseness of the birth policy,and to measure the degree of employment segregation to measure the degree of gender discrimination in employment.Furthermore,the results of the theoretical analysis are measured.The empirical results reveal that: First,the birth policy is inversely related to the fertility willingness.The relaxation of the birth policy and the serious conflict between women's work and family may inhibit women's willingness to bear.As women's education level increases,theopportunity cost of birth increases,and modern women tend to pursue high wages and high quality of life,less likely to give up good career development opportunities for family responsibilities such as childbirth or to bow to low wages.The female fertility will be suppressed.Second,the relaxation of the birth policy has increased the occupational segregation in the labor market.As the main body of fertility,women's enthusiasm for the birth policy has led to serious conflicts between their work and family.Women are vulnerable to the withdraw due to family responsibilities such as childbirth,resulting in interruption of human capital investment,increasing the cost of enterprise replacement or training,and the difference in human capital will result which leads to the difference in human capital.At the same time,the increased easing of the birth policy will increase the cost of childbearing,such as maternity insurance and maternity benefits,and the increase in economic costs will greatly increase the gender discrimination of employed women.Third,the increase in occupational isolation will significantly inhibit women's willingness to bear.The most intuitive effect of gender discrimination in employment is that women's wages will be “exploited” by employers.Compared with men with the same human capital stock,they will receive lower wage income,tighten their income budget constraints,and thus inhibit female fertility.Willingness.The conclusions of theoretical analysis and empirical research agree that a relaxed birth policy will deepen gender discrimination in employment and thus inhibit women's willingness to bear.Therefore,if the expected effect of the encouraged birth policy is to be achieved,relevant supporting policies,such as the nursery policy and the maternity subsidy policy should be designed to reduce gender discrimination in employment and increase women ' s fertility will,promote female reproductive behavior,and generally increase fertility level.