Breaking barriers: Public education expenditure and the economic empowerment of mothers in China

Maternal employment and income serve as pivotal metrics of gender equality, reflecting the broader scope of women's socio-economic empowerment. This paper develops a theoretical framework that integrates public education expenditure, maternal time allocation, and child quality to examine the relationship between public education expenditure and maternal income. The framework posits that increased public education expenditure enhances maternal income by reducing time commitments to child education and improving wage rates. Empirical analysis, based on six waves of data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) and employing a two-way fixed effects model with instrumental variable estimation to address endogeneity concerns, uncovers several key findings. First, public education expenditure significantly raises mothers' income. Second, the positive impact extends across all educational stages—preschool, primary, middle, and high school. Third, the mechanism underlying these effects operates through improved access to education, shorter distances to schools, and higher maternal labor force participation and wage rates. Lastly, heterogeneity analysis shows that mothers with higher employment potential, elevated opportunity costs of child-rearing, or access to alternative caregivers benefit more from public education expenditure. These findings highlight the role of public education expenditure in enhancing maternal income and economic opportunities, thereby advancing gender equity and supporting broader economic development objectives.