Research On Urban And Rural Females’ Labor Supply

Aging population and the declining tendency of working-age population have caused many challenges for China’s sustainable social and economic development.In order to copy with such challenges,on the one hand,the policy of birth control is urgently needed to be adjusted;on the other hand,it can play an equally important role for dealing with the challenges existing in the labor market by making a more effective use of current stock of labor force and activating the willingness of labor participation.Against this background,the study of female labor supply will be helpful for the government in making a systematic and more comprehensive policy with the aims of increasing female labor supply and raising the willingness of female labor participation by strengthening the protection of their rights and benefits and expanding the space of female employment.Based on the method of combing theoretical and empirical analysis,and by using CFPS and econometric modelling,this master’s thesis focuses on identifying the factors affecting female labor supply and their influencing degrees.As the study of female labor supply has the characteristic of inter-discipline,when constructing the theoretical foundation,the thesis not only provides the explanations of neoclassical economics,but also examines the explanations of labor sociology.The possible impacts of labor market institutions are also discussed,such as the operation mechanism of the labor market,the law and regulations.Due to the fact that the decision of female labor supply usually contains two subsequent steps,that is,whether or not to work and working hours,when modelling female labor supply,the thesis first uses Logistic model to analyze the factors affecting female labor participation and then uses Tobit and Heckman models to examine female working hours.As urban and rural females might have differences in labor supply,the thesis examines urban and rural females’ labor supply respectively based on two-sub samples classified by Hukou.The research finds that,as a whole,both educational levels and Hukou have significant impacts on female labor supply.Marriage has a significant negative impact on labor participation for females with urban Hukou,but not for females with rural Hukou.The children age of married females exerts different influencing degrees for female labor supply:raising of pre-school children might require to consume much more time and energy,and therefore,causes negative impacts on female labor participation.Taking care of children of school-age could need less time and energy,but it could also deepen female economic pressure,both leading to the increase of female willingness of labor participation.As for female working hours,the empirical study demonstrates that,both the ownership and the size of working units have greater impacts on female working hours,compared to the influencing degrees of factors including educational levels and marriage.The results also reveal that,compared to the ones of female labor with urban Hukou,marital status and the number of children are more likely to exert impacts on the working hours of females with rural Hukou.The final part of the thesis summarizes the findings and gives policy suggestions based on empirical research.