Predoctoral trainees Sarah Hodgman (Sociology), Steven Lee (Economics), Yulin Yang (Sociology), and Zixi Li (Sociology) will present their research findings in preparation for the upcoming Population Association of America (PAA) Annual Meeting. 

Sarah Hodgman

Title: Does Expanding Child Care Access Hurt Maternal Time with Children? State-Level Child Care Subsidies, Maternal Employment and Maternal Time with Children.

Abstract: Using data from the Urban Institute Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Policies Database linked to household-level time diary data from the American Time Use Survey, this paper examines relationships between state-level child care subsidy policies, maternal employment, and maternal time with children. Our findings on maternal employment corroborate those of existing studies: lower income mothers of children ages 0-12 exhibit increased rates of employment and hours worked in state-years with more generous child care subsidy policies. We build on these findings to show that—despite their increased labor force participation—likely eligible mothers in more generous policy contexts do not spend less time with their children compared to similar mothers in less generous states. In fact, increased CCDF expenditures are associated with increases in the amount of time that mothers spend on primary child care in a typical day. Thus, this paper challenges public beliefs about the potential harms of outsourcing child care, instead suggesting that increases in CCDF generosity not only increase mothers’ employment, but they do so without strong evidence that increasing employment comes at the expense of primary child care investments in children.

Steven Lee

Title: Content Relatability and Test Score Disparities: Evidence from Texas

Abstract: We test whether differential interest in topics impacts standardized test performance in reading comprehension exams from Texas. Using time-use data and natural language processing to build a race-based measure of "relatability" to exam passages, we find that a one standard deviation increase in relatability predicts a 1.7pp increase in passage performance, an effect equivalent to a 0.05 SD test score improvement. Our results suggest equalizing relatability reduces Black-white and Hispanic-white score gaps by 4% in our setting. We counterfactually estimate ~11,000 Black and ~15,000 Hispanic students in our sample were misclassified to a lower reading comprehension level due to relatability.

Yulin Yang

Title: Education as Bargaining Power or Egalitarian Gender Ideology? Educational Assortative Mating and the Division of Housework Within Married Couples in China

Abstract: This study examines how a couple’s housework hours and the wife’s share of housework vary by different types of educational assortative mating in China. Prior research on the division of household labor has rarely focused on the role of education, which can act as both a resource and a gender ideology. Using data from the 2014–2018 China Family Panel Studies and multiple linear regression models, this study disentangles the gender ideology effect from the relative resources effect of education. Results show that higher education attainment acts as a symbol of an egalitarian gender ideology only for women. Higher education attainment is associated with fewer housework hours. However, the gender ideology effect does not apply to men. As a result, women in homogamy and hypergamy have a more equal division of housework when both partners are highly educated compared to non-highly educated couples. Couples in hypogamy is an exception. For women, relative educational advantage is neither a bargaining resource nor gender deviance; for men, however, they do less housework when their wife’s educational level is higher. This study sheds light on the implications of educational hypogamy for stalled gender revolution, and the consequences of the mismatch in gender ideology between partners.

Zixi (Valerie) Li

Title: Beyond the One-Child Policy: Navigating the Employment Terrain for Women of Child-Bearing Age

Abstract: This paper examines whether women of child-bearing age, especially those working in the private sector, were more likely to experience employment disadvantages after China’s one-child policy was fully relaxed at the end of 2015, against a backdrop of potential hiring and on-the-job discrimination. I formed this hypothesis based on past literature displaying a motherhood penalty, and the conjecture that employers would respond to the presumed increased probability that female applicants or employees would have a second child by increasing discrimination against women, especially those who worked in the private sector which lacked legal supervision. This paper uses four rounds (2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018) of the nationally representative survey data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) and adopts a difference-in-difference methodology to examine the nuanced effects on employment prospects and income for women in full-time, non-agricultural waged jobs. Preliminary findings indicate that women of child-bearing age, especially those in the private sector, faced increased employment disadvantages post-policy, a disparity not observed for their male counterparts or women in the public sector. Moreover, while women in the public sector experienced significant income declines, those remaining in competitive private sector roles did not, suggesting a differential impact by sector. After explaining the method and presenting the findings and limitations, the paper offers policy recommendations, and suggests avenues for future research.