Publication Type
Master Thesis
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
7-2024
Abstract
Females are traditionally viewed as the primary providers of informal parental care in China, especially in rural areas. We investigate whether health insurance coverage in rural China, the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS), can unleash more female labor force participation by reducing the burden of informal parental care. Employing a heterogeneity-robust difference-in-differences estimation, we find that the NCMS has a significant positive impact on female labor supply, primarily in non-farm occupations. In contrast, we observe no significant changes in male labor supply. We explore the mechanism by showing that the NCMS significantly decreases both the provision and demand for parental care by females. Our findings illuminate the importance of public health insurance in developing countries, highlighting its potential to stimulate labor supply, mitigate gender disparities in the labor market, and empower women with more bargaining power within households.
Keywords
informal parental care, public health insurance, labor supply, gender disparity
Degree Awarded
Master of Philosophy in Econ
Discipline
Health Economics
Supervisor(s)
ZHANG, Xuan
First Page
1
Last Page
43
Publisher
Singapore Management University
City or Country
Singapore
Citation
BAI, Xingyu.
Health insurance and the rise of women: Evidence from the new cooperative medical scheme. (2024). 1-43.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/621
Copyright Owner and License
Author
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.