publication

Empowered young women trade liberalization and women's family decisions in China

Authors:
Yuan Zi
Difei OUYANG
Weidi YUAN
2026

This paper studies how trade affects women's marriage and fertility decisions in China. Exploiting regional variation in the exposure to the U.S. granting of Permanent Normal Trade Relations, we find that more exposed Chinese prefectures experience relative increases in the fraction of unmarried young women and women without children. These shifts in family decisions coincide with a trade-induced increase in female workforce participation and reallocation of women relative to men to the service sector, where wages are higher. Additionally, women in more exposed areas experience greater gender empowerment, as measured by their attitudes toward work, family, and gender equality.