The Three-child Policy and Its Positive Impacts on Female Labor Engagement in China

Abstract

With the implementation of the three-child policy in July 2021, many worry that womens role in the Chinese labor market will be further diminished due to the tradeoff between fer-tility and labor commitment, worsening the already lowered female labor engagement. However, after evaluating the new models for female employment, this paper finds that the new policy might have a positive impact on womens labor participation for two reasons. Firstly, the increased availability of public and commercialized childcare as well as pro-gression in social values means that the motherhood penalty for childbirth has largely di-minished compared to past decades, and there might be a positive correlation between fer-tility and female labor engagement. Secondly, the government subsidies and parental leave schemes implemented along with the three-child policy could further reduce the opportuni-ty of childbirth for women and therefore increase female labor participation. In conclusion, this paper finds that family planning policies such as the three-child policy can well en-courage womens engagement in the labor force and foster female employment.