Grandparental childcare and maternal labor supply in Chinese families with young children: Evidence from the China Family Panel Studies

Abstract

With the implementation of the three-child policy and delayed retirement policy, the conflicts between childcare responsibility and mothers’ labor supply in China have increased dramatically. The present study utilized data from the 2018 China Family Panel Studies to investigate the impacts of grandparental childcare on the labor supply of mothers with children aged 0–6 years. The results of the Probit model and Tobit model indicated that grandparental childcare could significantly increase mother’s labor force participation rate and extend their weekly working hours. The relation of grandparental childcare to mothers’ labor force participation in one-child families was stronger compared with multi-child families. However, its relation to mothers’ working hours in one-child families was smaller than that in multi-child families. Furthermore, the effect of grandparental childcare on mothers’ labor supply was more pronounced when children were younger, particularly for those with children aged 0–2 years. The findings highlight the important role of grandparental childcare and have several implications for family support policies.