The Impact Of Preschool Childcare Support On Maternal Employment

On the one hand,the scale of the labor force in China is affected by the slowdown of population growth,low fertility level,and increasingly serious aging.On the other hand,the sustainable development of the economy still has a great demand for the labor force.Resolving this contradiction is crucial for the healthy operation of the labor market and high-quality economic development.Based on the current population situation,China has gradually adjusted its family fertility policy.However,subject to the law of population growth,the supplementary effect of encouraging fertility on labor supply is limited.Therefore,it is particularly important to release the potential labor force resources.As the labor supply elasticity of females is greater than males,the female labor force is a key segment to explore across the working-age population.According to the traditional division of household work,as the main bearers of childcare responsibilities,females encounter a more prominent “family-work” balance problem,which hurts their employment participation.Support from kindergartens and grandparents will relieve female childcare pressure.Whereas,the access to childcare resources for females is affected by inadequate formal childcare systems and reduced grandparental childcare resources.Thus,it is necessary to explore the impact of preschool childcare support on maternal employment in China.Based on the above background,the thesis takes labor supply theory,family economics theory,etc.as the theoretical basis,and gives the definition of the core concepts such as childcare support and employment quality.In the current situation analysis chapter,this study uses the latest data from China Family Panel Studies in 2018 to describe the female employment status and the household childcare methods,which provides a realistic picture for subsequent empirical analysis.As for the empirical analysis,a Logit model and an OLS model are separately employed to capture the impacts of childcare support on female labor participation and job quality,these baseline estimations account for the female personal characteristics,spouse characteristics,and family characteristics as control variables.Furthermore,the propensity matching score method and the Heckman correction method are adopted to validate the robustness of the baseline results.Finally,the heterogeneities relevant to the age of child in care,the number of preschoolers in household,and the urban-rural residence are examined as the extension of the central argument.The research findings show that,firstly,grandparental childcare and institutional childcare can both increase the possibility of female labor force participation while promoting female job quality,these positive effects are significant and robust as well.Secondly,as the child in care grows up,the effect of both childcare supports on female labor force participation become smaller;for female job quality,the impact of grandparental childcare weakens,and the impact of institutional childcare increases.Thirdly,with the increase in the number of preschoolers in household,the effect of grandparental childcare in promoting female labor force participation has weakened,and the impact of institutional childcare has increased.Fourthly,the impact of both childcare supports on female labor force participation in urban areas is greater than in rural areas;for female job quality,the effect of grandparental childcare on female resident in rural areas is more prominent,and the effect of institutional childcare on female resident in urban areas is more obvious.Based on the research conclusions,this article puts forward relevant suggestions from the perspectives of improving female employment security,exploring the potential of grandparental childcare,developing the institutional childcare system,and refining the assistance to specific groups.The main policy implication of this study is providing childcare-based measures to increase female labor force participation and promote their job quality.