Home Production and Gender Gap in Structural Change

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Cao, Huoqing; Chen, Chaoran; Xi, Xican
• 署名单位: Fudan University; York University - Canada; Shanghai Institute of International Finance & Economics
• 刊物名称: INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0020-6598
• DOI: 10.1111/iere.70087
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: agricultural productivity; Child-care; OBSERVATIONAL RETURNS; quantitative-analysis; Migration costs; LABOR; TRANSFORMATION; INEQUALITY; MODEL; elasticities

摘要

The gender gap in non-agricultural employment in developing countries is concentrated among rural married workers. Within-family specialization is central: Married women spend more time on home production, work fewer market hours, and are less likely to incur fixed costs of entering non-agriculture. We develop a general equilibrium Roy model with joint household decisions, sector-neutral gender labor wedges, and entry barriers. Calibrated to China in 2010, the model reproduces the observed gender employment gap. Gender labor wedges explain about 80% of it, amplified by within-family specialization, while changing entry barriers account for its widening from 2000 to 2010.