Title:
MOTHERHOOD PENALTY AND FATHERHOOD PREMIUM: ANALYSIS ON GENDER DISPARITY IN THE POST ONE-CHILD POLICY ERA IN CHINA

Authors:
Yahan Sun and Yuetong Zhou ,China

Abstract:
The Motherhood penalty and fatherhood premium have long been a popular topic among the research that focuses on gender inequality. In the post-reform era in China, a rapidly growing economy generates more opportunities for both mothers and fathers but with the potential to enlarge the existing income gaps. In particular, the Chinese government adopted the Two-Child Policy in 2016 and Three-Child Policy in 2021. Whether these recent changes in the population program have different impacts on mothers and fathers are yet to be fully explored. Therefore, this study aims to explore the relationship between the number of children and the income of the said household. Employing the data from China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017, we make use of both the multivariate linear model and the fixed effect model to examine the existence of motherhood penalty and fatherhood premium. In general, the relationship between household income and the number of children is significantly negative. However, when the time-variant changes are taken into consideration, fathers’ incomes increase with more children in the family. The relationship between mothers’ incomes and the number of children is ambiguous. The findings have multiple implications in the Chinese context and the relevant academic research