Obstacle or Reservoir:The Influence of Overwork on Marriage and Childbearing Behavior and Its Mechanism

jiawei Gong, Xian Jiaotong University
Yan Li, Xi'an Polytechnic University
Shuzhuo Li, Xi'an Jiaotong University

Clarifying the impact of overwork on individual marriage and childbearing behavior is of great significance to the government's scientific formulation of population policy. Based on the data from the China Family Tracking Survey (CFPS) 2010-2020, this study draws the following conclusions: First, excessive labor has a significant negative effect on age at first marriage and age at first childbearing, a significant positive effect on two-child spacing, and no significant effect on one-child spacing. Second, the marital capital reservoir effect of overwork is one of the important mechanisms of the influence of overwork on age at first marriage and age at first childbearing. Third, the time crowding-out effect of excessive labor is one of the important mechanisms of the effect of excessive labor on two-child intervals. The conclusion of the study shows that the cost of marriage and childbearing is an important factor influencing individuals to make marriage and childbearing decisions, and at the same time, overwork does have a certain impact on childbearing behavior, so how to effectively help individuals to reduce the cost of marriage and childbearing, alleviate the consequences of undesirable overwork, and promote work-family balance has become an issue that needs to be focused on.

Keywords: Fertility, Human Capital, Education, and Work, Population and Development

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