{"title":"A study on the long-term trend of middle-aged female labor supply in urban China: The explanation from inter-generational care","authors":"Peng Zhan , Yibo Mao","doi":"10.1016/j.asieco.2025.102058","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study is the first to examine the long-term impact and trend of intergenerational care on the labor supply of middle-aged women. The primary data are drawn from the 2002, 2013, and 2018 China Household Income Project surveys. The findings reveal that the effect of intergenerational care on the labor supply has strengthened over the past two decades. Although the effect was not significant in 2002, it became highly significant by 2018. Decomposition analysis shows that compared to the endowment effect, the coefficient effect of intergenerational care was a key driver of the decline in labor supply among middle-aged women between 2013 and 2018, accounting for 16.81 % of the total change. Further analysis indicates that the expansion of public preschool education in 2018 encouraged young mothers to return to the labor market, thereby increasing the time burden of caregiving for middle-aged women. Simultaneously, the rising cost of education added to the financial burden on households and further increased the demand for intergenerational care. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how intergenerational care shapes women’s retirement decisions over time, offer important insights into their broader consequences, and provide policy implications for improving public preschool education services.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47583,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Asian Economics","volume":"101 ","pages":"Article 102058"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Asian Economics","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1049007825001824","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study is the first to examine the long-term impact and trend of intergenerational care on the labor supply of middle-aged women. The primary data are drawn from the 2002, 2013, and 2018 China Household Income Project surveys. The findings reveal that the effect of intergenerational care on the labor supply has strengthened over the past two decades. Although the effect was not significant in 2002, it became highly significant by 2018. Decomposition analysis shows that compared to the endowment effect, the coefficient effect of intergenerational care was a key driver of the decline in labor supply among middle-aged women between 2013 and 2018, accounting for 16.81 % of the total change. Further analysis indicates that the expansion of public preschool education in 2018 encouraged young mothers to return to the labor market, thereby increasing the time burden of caregiving for middle-aged women. Simultaneously, the rising cost of education added to the financial burden on households and further increased the demand for intergenerational care. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how intergenerational care shapes women’s retirement decisions over time, offer important insights into their broader consequences, and provide policy implications for improving public preschool education services.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Asian Economics provides a forum for publication of increasingly growing research in Asian economic studies and a unique forum for continental Asian economic studies with focus on (i) special studies in adaptive innovation paradigms in Asian economic regimes, (ii) studies relative to unique dimensions of Asian economic development paradigm, as they are investigated by researchers, (iii) comparative studies of development paradigms in other developing continents, Latin America and Africa, (iv) the emerging new pattern of comparative advantages between Asian countries and the United States and North America.