Analysis Of The Influence Of The Income Gap Between Husband And Wife On Childbearing Desire

In order to actively respond to the fact that China’s current fertility rate continues to decline,China announced the Decision of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Optimizing Fertility Policy and Promoting the Long-term and Balanced Development of Population in 2021,implementing the policy that a couple can have three children.However,according to the preliminary statistics of the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the National Bureau of Statistics,whether the previous "comprehensive two-child" policy or the current "comprehensive three-child" policy,its implementation effect is far from what was expected,reflecting the fact that the fertility desire of Chinese families is relatively low.At the same time,according to the 2022 Global Gender Gap Report released by the Davos Economic Forum in 2022,women are still at a disadvantage in income and wealth accumulation,and the gender income gap is obvious.This paper notes that the different income patterns of husband and wife in families are closely related to family fertility.Based on this,this paper studies the impact of the income gap between husband and wife on the fertility desire and the impact mechanism,and provides scientific suggestions for improving the fertility desire of the people.This paper uses the survey data of China Family Tracking Survey(CFPS)in 2018 to select a matched sample of women of the right age(15-49 years old)and their husbands for research.The multiple ordered logistic regression model was used to analyze the impact of the income gap between husband and wife on the fertility intention.The regression results showed that the income gap between husband and wife had a significant impact on the fertility intention.With the increase of the proportion of women’s income in the family,the fertility intention of both husband and wife showed a different degree of decline,and the higher the proportion of wife’s income,the weaker the husband’s fertility intention was than the wife’s.The order probit model is used to test the robustness and analyze the heterogeneity of different age groups.Then,taking into account the unpredictable factors that affect each other between husband and wife,we use the SUR regression model to explore the impact of the income gap between husband and wife on the fertility intention.The research conclusion is the same as the regression result of the ordered logistic model.In the part of the influence mechanism of the income gap between husband and wife on the fertility intention,according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and social resource theory,marriage satisfaction and family power status are selected as intermediary variables,and the KHB model is used to test.The test results show that the intermediary effect of family power status is not significant,but there is an intermediary effect of marriage satisfaction on both husband and wife,The impact of the income gap between husband and wife on their fertility will be reflected through marital satisfaction.Specifically,the increase of the wife’s relative income will significantly reduce the marital satisfaction of both spouses,which will lead to a reduction of 9.1% in the wife’s fertility intention and 18% in the husband’s fertility intention.Finally,according to the research conclusions of the paper,it puts forward relevant suggestions such as issuing policies to protect women’s rights and interests,reducing the cost of reproductive opportunities,and social support to improve marital satisfaction,and points out the research deficiencies and prospects of this paper.