Feed the children, free the women? Evidence from the China rural nutrition improvement program

This study establishes a causal impact of China Rural Nutrition Improvement Program (CRNIP) on the labour force participation of Chinese rural mothers, utilizing quasi-exogenous variation in the timing of program implementation across the country. Drawing on 1% samples of the 2010 and 2015 Chinese Population Censuses, we find that the CRNIP, which provided free lunch meals to students during their compulsory education, significantly enhanced maternal labour force participation by an estimated 4.25 percentage points, while showing no effects for fathers. The provision of school lunches reduced the time mothers spent on childcare, primarily benefiting less-educated mothers, who opted for informal, off-farm work in their local area. While only small in magnitude, this finding has significant policy implications for a country facing a declining population in general, and declining female labour force participation in particular.