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Does workplace involution suppress residents’ willingness to have children?
- 1 Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan
- 2 Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan
- 3 Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Currently, the phenomenon of workplace involution in China is becoming increasingly prominent, while residents’ willingness to have children continues to remain low. Unveiling the logical relationship and influencing mechanisms between the two is of significant theoretical and practical importance. This paper, based on the 2005 National Population Sampling Survey data from the National Bureau of Statistics, constructs an “institutional environment-structural pressure-behavioral decision” analytical framework and systematically explores the impact path and heterogeneity characteristics of workplace involution on fertility willingness through multiple linear regression and Logistic models. The study finds that workplace involution significantly suppresses residents’ willingness to have children through three mechanisms: the time squeeze effect, the female value suppression effect, and the competitive anxiety expectation effect. Various robustness tests support this conclusion. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that this suppression effect is more significant in the eastern regions and among sub-samples working within the system. Based on these findings, the paper proposes policy recommendations, including optimizing labor time regulation, improving the socialization of childcare costs, and reconstructing a fertility-friendly workplace culture, in order to provide a reasonable basis for mitigating the paradox of “policy leniency” and “low fertility,” and achieving long-term balanced population development.
Keywords
workplace involution, fertility willingness, time poverty, opportunity cost, fertility support policies
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Cite this article
Jiang,X.;Zhu,X.;Dai,J. (2025). Does workplace involution suppress residents’ willingness to have children?. Journal of Applied Economics and Policy Studies,18(3),85-100.
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