Capital constraints or biased norms? Tracing the root of gendered agricultural productivity in rural China

Abstract

Notwithstanding the voluminous localized evidence of great gender divergence in agricultural productivity, the intricacies and interactions in underlying mechanisms—from comparative advantage at capitals and capabilities to biased social norms and institutions—lack a systematic quantification. This study applies a gender-inclusive livelihood framework, integrating feminist economics and simultaneous equation systems, to unveil the root causes and the role of gender norms in perpetuating agricultural inequality. Drawn on 12795 rural households in China from 2015 to 2019, our findings dismantle a resource-contingent decision-making process, interacted with local institutions, in constituting 7–13 % gender-productivity gaps. Earlier-born cohorts suffer concentrated yield gaps reaching 23 %. While limited access to fundamental resources and economic opportunities for rural women explains 62–82 % of the path-based mechanism, pervasive inequalities in human capital and access to crop marketing channels emerge as predominant contributors, stressing long-standing gaps in knowledge and motivation. Local gender-biased norms further exacerbate gender-productivity gaps by undermining returns to women's endowments, and an intra-household old-age caring penalty disproportionately restricts their market participation. We conclude with lessons for optimizing gender-transformative intervention frameworks.