The Impact Of Married Female Labor Force Participation On Household Financial Vulnerability

China’s vigorous socio-economic development cannot be separated from the smooth economic and financial development of households,highlighting the importance of resisting household financial vulnerability.Married women,as important members of the household,have been increasing their bargaining power and decisionmaking status in the household year by year,influencing the household’s economic status and financial decisions.This paper attempts to analyze the phenomenon of household financial vulnerability in China from the perspective of married women’s labor participation.Through a review of domestic and international literature,this paper clarifies the concepts and influencing factors of married female labor participation and household financial vulnerability,explores the impact of married female labor participation on household financial vulnerability through the paths of income transmission mechanism,expected effect transmission mechanism,care cost transmission mechanism,social capital transmission mechanism,and human capital transmission mechanism,and tries to provide an empirical basis.This paper uses the latest 2019 data from the China Household Financial Survey(CHFS)as the basis for empirical analysis,introduces the adequacy of the "financial margin" to measure household financial vulnerability,and conducts descriptive statistical analysis of household financial vulnerability profiles by income level,urban and rural areas,and urban classes.By constructing a Probit model to analyze the contribution of married women’s labor force participation,household characteristics,and married women’s characteristics to the phenomenon of household financial vulnerability,the results show that married women’s labor force participation can significantly suppress the adverse effects of household financial vulnerability.At the same time,the composite average labor force participation rate of the sample in the same age group and the same district and county among married women is selected as the instrumental variable for the twostep IV Probit endogeneity test,and it is found that the original model has no endogeneity problem,and there is a significant improvement effect of married women’s labor force participation on household financial vulnerability.The heterogeneity of the sample was also analyzed by dividing households into different group categories based on differences in household income level,urban-rural household registration,and urban class,and it was found that female labor participation in low-income and middleincome households would have a stronger inhibitory effect on household financial vulnerability compared to high-income households.The marginal effect of female labor force participation on household financial vulnerability is also more pronounced for rural households compared to urban households.The negative effect of married female labor force participation on household financial vulnerability is more pronounced in second-and third-tier cities and below compared to households in first-tier cities/new first-tier cities.Later,the model is also tested for robustness by redefining and screening the labor participation status of farming females,by changing the sample size and replacing the explanatory variables,and the findings are consistent with the baseline regression results,and the conclusions of this paper are robust.The mediating effect of human capital transmission mechanism is examined,and it is found that labor force literacy plays a significant mediating effect in the effect of married women’s labor force participation on household financial vulnerability.This paper provides a new perspective for understanding the sources of financial vulnerability of Chinese households and the role of married female labor force participation,which is conducive to the adjustment of household labor gender structure,prompting households to comprehensively assess their risk-resilient means and capabilities,and reducing the probability of household financial vulnerability exposure.