Decision-making as cognitive household labor: Higher education expansion, women empowerment, and their intra-household decision-making responsibility

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

This paper explores whether higher education expansion can influence women's intra-household decision-making using China's expansion policy since 1999 as a quasi-experiment. We find that the expansion significantly enhances women's higher education attainment and labor market performance, but diminishes their involvement in household decision-making. Within households, decision-making responsibilities mainly shift to other family members, not husbands. Further analysis indicates that women with earned income tend to assume fewer household decision-making responsibilities, suggesting decision-making resembles cognitive labor rather than the exercise of resource allocation power. We also observe a decline in women's adherence to traditional gender norms and an improvement in their well-being. In conclusion, higher education expansion reduces women's labor input in household chores, contributing to a narrowing of gender inequality in household labor. At last, we advise researchers to exercise caution when using decision-making as a measure of bargaining power.