Living distance and women’s labor force participation: evidence from China

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in the living distance between parents and adult children in China. Changes in the living distance may have an impact on women’s employment. Using the data from the Panel Study of Family Dynamics (PSFD), we find that living close to parents has a positive impact on women’s employment. This conclusion still holds after solving endogeneity issues and a series of robustness checks. We also find that the positive impact is more pronounced in rural areas, among women with lower education attainment, and among women whose parents are no longer working or in better health. The underlying mechanism is that the closer the parents and adult children live, the more family support the parents can provide. However, when there are children under 6 years old in the household, living closer to parents does not increase women’s labor force participation.