Research On The Influence Of Rural Married Women’s Labor Participation On Family Consumption

The problem of low household consumption rate in China seriously restricts the transformation,upgrading,and high-quality development of the Chinese economy.Many studies have explained the reasons for insufficient consumer demand in China from different perspectives,with some scholars believing that insufficient rural consumer demand is the main reason.In view of this,this study focuses on the consumption behavior of rural households,and from the perspective of female labor participation,conducts a study on the impact of rural married women’s labor participation decision-making on household consumption and consumption structure.Firstly,using representative data from the 2019 China Household Finance Survey,a descriptive statistical analysis was conducted on the labor participation status of married rural women and the consumption and consumption structure status of rural households.By comparing and analyzing the labor participation rates of rural women with different marital status,the statistical results show that married women are the main group of rural women,and their labor participation rates are similar to those of rural women.For married women,the average education level of labor market participants is higher than that of quitters,the average age is smaller,the number of children in the family is fewer,the average household income is higher,and the average household consumption is also higher.For married women in employment,the manufacturing and service industries absorb more than half of the workforce,and the employment stability of rural married women is poor.Secondly,construct a theoretical analysis framework for the impact of rural married women’s labor participation on household consumption and consumption structure,and set a benchmark regression model.The regression results show that rural married women’s labor participation significantly promotes the improvement of household consumption level,while having a significant positive effect on survival and development consumption of households,and not a significant positive effect on enjoyment consumption.To overcome endogeneity,the instrumental variable method is used for two-stage estimation.This article selects the average labor participation rate of other married women in the same community and age group as the instrumental variable for labor participation of rural married women.The twostage regression estimation results show that the conclusion is still valid.The robustness test was conducted by changing the definition of core explanatory variables and replacing instrumental variables,and the results were still robust.To investigate the heterogeneity of married women’s household consumption based on different household income levels,urbanization levels,and the presence or absence of unmarried boys in the family.Finally,this paper uses the mesomeric effect model to test the mechanism,and the test results show that the growth of family income plays a "partial" intermediary role in the process of married women’s labor participation to promote family consumption.The research conclusion of this article has certain reference value for policy formulation.To build a domestic and international dual cycle development pattern and unleash the potential of rural consumption,we can start by increasing women’s labor participation rate and rural income level.To steadily promote the process of new urbanization,expand the employment space of rural residents,increase the labor participation rate of married women and the income level of rural households;In order to achieve the long-term goal of improving the overall consumption level in rural areas,the government should also promote a long-term mechanism for the employment of married women from low-income families.In addition,the government should pay attention to the positive role of rural married women in improving household consumption structure and achieving household consumption upgrading,incorporate a gender perspective into public policies,and stimulate gender dividends in public policies.