Can hypergamy affect married women's entrepreneurship in China?

Abstract

Women's entrepreneurship in China remains an under-researched topic from a marital angle, especially the significant effects of marital status in hypergamy, a type of marriage in which the socioeconomic status of the woman is lower than that of the man. This paper fills this research gap by investigating the relationship between marriage and women's entrepreneurship, particularly different effects of marital status based on the data from the 2017 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), a nationwide survey in mainland China. The findings reveal that women in education-based hypergamy (men's education levels are higher than women's) are less likely to establish a business, whereas women in income-based hypergamy (men's incomes are higher than women's) are more likely to undertake entrepreneurship. In addition, raising more children would strengthen the negative impact of education-based hypergamy on women entrepreneurs. Moreover, we examine the mediation roles of decision-making power and social capital for the underlying mechanisms of education-based hypergamy and income-based hypergamy respectively. Our study contributes to existing literature on the correlation between marriage (hypergamy in particular) and female entrepreneurship in China, meanwhile applies the theories of power-dependence, opportunity cost and bargaining to better comprehend the martial influence on female entrepreneurship, and draws practical implications for developing countries.