Employment Transfer of Rural Female Labor and Family Welfare Effect in Mountainous Areas: An Empirical Analysis Based on Panel Data

Abstract

Improving the understanding of rural female labor employment transfer and its impact on family welfare is of great significance to the improvement of rural family welfare and the rational transfer of labor forces. However, there are few studies on the effect of rural female transfer and there is a lack of comprehensive quantitative measurement and mechanism analysis of influences of female employment transfer on themselves and their families. Based on the peasant household survey in the mountainous rural areas of Sichuan Province, China, in 2013, 2016, and 2019, results were organized as panel data and divided the employment features into three aspects: employment industry, employment locations and whether the migrant was working or not. The family welfare effects (impact on children and impact on the elderly) of rural female labor transfer for employment were investigated by using the fixed effect and random effect regression models. Some major conclusions could be drawn: (1) age, education degree, employment industry and locations of rural females all had a significant impact on their children’s education degree; (2) age, urbanization rate and industry of rural females had a significant impact on their number of children; (3) age, education degree of females, employment location and urbanization rate had a significant positive influence on the number of elderly in the family: only the age of rural females had a significant negative influence on the health condition of the elderly. This study can enhance our understanding of the relationship between rural women’s employment and family welfare effects, the results can provide a reference for rural women’s rational employment mobility and maximizing of family welfare.