Women as breadwinners: A multifaceted relocation program and women’s labour market outcomes

Abstract

This paper exploits the staggered timing of relocations across eligible households to examine its impact on female’s labour market outcomes, under China’s Poverty Alleviation Relocation Program (PARP). Utilizing four waves of household panel data that retrospectively record individuals’ off-farm employment histories from 2011 to 2021, we find that relocation significantly increases the likelihood of off-farm employment among working-age women. However, it has limited effects on their annual working months, monthly wages, and annual earnings once being off-farm employed. Furthermore, the program’s impact on men’s off-farm employment is modest compared to that for women, suggesting that although PARP is designed to be gender-neutral, it has generated more favorable labour market effects for women than for men. Heterogeneity analysis further reveals that the increase in women’s off-farm employment is more pronounced among those with lower educational attainment, those who are married, those with resident children, as well as those relocated to urban or collective sites. We also provide suggestive evidence that improved time allocation and reshaped social networks may be mechanisms encouraging women to step out of the home.