China’s working women in the digital era
Creators: name: Yao, Ye
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2022

description: In the digital era, China is undergoing rapid economic transition and adapting to turbulent changes emanating from new technologies. However, economic growth, technology change, and greater participation in education and the labor force do not guarantee equality for women in comprehensive development outcomes. Thus, implications to female workers of the fallout from such broad transformations is critical to China’s economic future and gender equality in its labor markets. Surprisingly, little is known about the interactive relationship between economic transition with gender employment in China. This is particularly so from a macroeconomic perspective, even by industry and particularly with respect to structural and technology change. In any case, it is important to know the effect of leading technologies in digital era, i.e., computer and the internet, especially if it can play a role in narrowing the gender employment and wage gaps in China.Thus, this dissertation fills the above literature gaps by addressing three major research questions. First, how have economic growth and structural change affected the evolution of the gender employment gap in China? Second, how does internet usage affect women’s labor supply decisions in China? And, third, how does using a computer at work affect the gender wage gap in China? To answer them, I undertake three pieces of empirical research by use a variety of data source. They include both macro-level Chinese input-output (I-O) tables and a series of data on gender employment by industry and educational attainment that I constructed using administrative data as well as a micro-level public dataset of households—China Family Panel Studies (CFPS).In the first study, I take a macro-economic approach, i.e., structural decomposition analysis (SDA). I do so to examine the proximate causes of change in male and female employment in China. Besides using input mix, final demand mix, and final demand structure as factors of employment change by gender, I also examine the apparent effects of educational structure for both male and female Chinese workers. A gender substitution factor denotes the male and female shares of total employment. Finally, I use the change in labor/output coefficients by industry to examine the effects of labor productivity. In this way, I can explore drivers of recent change in employment over time, gender, industries, and education levels. My results confirm that technological change and structural improvements in China have benefited the nation’s female workers more than its male workers from 2007 to 2017. Also, I find that improved labor productivity, which has the expected negative effect on the employment growth for both genders, has had particularly important for closing China’s gender employment gap. Final demand (both its mix and structure) as well as the share of workers with a college education also improve job growth. In summary, this chapter contributes to the literature by revealing relationships between economic development and gender equality in China’s workforce.In a chapter that follows, I apply both binomial and ordinal logistical regression techniques to examine the determinants of individuals’ labor-supply decisions and the different roles that they play for men and women. Using data from 2018 CFPS, I find that internet use appears to positively affect the probability of being employed for both men and women. This positive effect of internet use is mainly from using internet for obtaining information rather than from other activities. But there seems be no measurable difference in that likelihood between the two sexes. Moreover, internet availability somehow seems to encourage employed women to work fewer hours. My results also indicate that family status in China has critically affected women’s engagement in paid employment. More specifically, “other family income,” marital status (married, divorced, and widowed), having pre-school and school-aged children affect women’s labor-market supply decisions in a negative manner. This study contributes to the growing literature on the labor market impacts of digital technologies, in this case as measured by internet use in China.In yet another chapter and employing the same 2018 CFPS dataset, I explore how using computers at work affects China’s gender wage gap. I apply both Heckman correction models and Neumark decomposition analyses. Among other matter pertinent to the gender wage gap in China, I find that using computer at work promotes wage growth for both men and women. Interestingly, computer use at work has the potential to significantly reduce the gender wage gap since it has a greater positive effect on women’s wages. Additionally, my Neumark decomposition results suggest that gender occupation and industry segregation heavily affect China’s gender wage gap. Overall, endowment differentials account for only around 8 percent of the gender wage gap. The unexplained portion, however, appears to most influence the gender wage gap in China. This study contributes to the literature of technology upgrading in the workplace as measured by gendered computer use at work and its influence upon wage differentials in China.Findings within my dissertation render four policy suggestions that could ameliorate China’s gender employment and wage gaps. First, more comprehensive and deeper economic reform should refocus inward toward stimulating the nation’s domestic demand, i.e., consumption and investment, instead of trade expansion. Second, government should further improve the availability and quality of public daycare and after-school care services. Third, schools at different levels should be encouraged to offer relevant basic and advanced training courses for women to improve their ability to use the Internet and computers. Fourth, current employment protection laws need to be updated so that they better protect the legitimate rights and interests of workers in the digital era, perhaps in part by promoting the development of flexible employment.