Family Leave Policies and Gender Inequality in Executive Positions: Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms

林威，暨南大学经济与社会研究院助理教授，密歇根州立大学博士。主要研究兴趣是应用计量经济学，以及微观计量经济学包括劳动、环境、产业组织和城市等.论文发表在Economics Letters, Environmental Research Letters, Computational Economics, and Review of Industrial Organization等国际期刊。

主持人

白郁婷

湖南大学经济管理研究中心助理教授

美国纽约州立大学布法罗分校经济学博士

时间

2024年11月8日（周五）  

下午4:15-5:30

地点

湖南大学财院校区-水上教学楼211

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates whether generous family leave policies can promote gender equality in top executive positions. Leveraging the 2016 family leave reform in China, which varied the extensions of maternity and paternity leave across provinces, we employ a difference-in-differences strategy to analyze its impact on gender inequality in top managerial roles within publicly listed firms. Our findings reveal that increased inequality between maternity and paternity leave durations significantly reduces the proportion of female new hires and existing female executives, particularly among women of childbearing age. This negative impact is primarily driven by the extended duration of maternity leave. Additionally, we find that newly appointed female executives receive substantially lower salaries than their male counterparts, even when accounting for differences in education and experience.