Delayed retirement, elderly care and women labor supply

Purpose - This paper believes that while implementing the gradual delay retirement age policy in China, the impact should be considered comprehensively; we should pay attention to impacts brought by the delayed retirement policy and introduce policies to deal with the impacts in a timely manner. Design/methodology/approach - This paper aims to explore the delayed retirement’s impact on women’s labor supply and to clarify the elderly care’s role in it. Findings - The results found that the delayed retirement has a positive effect on the women’s overall and young women’s labor supply, with a more significant promotion for young women’s labor supply. The mediation results suggest that delayed retirement promotes women’s labor supply by affecting elderly care. Therefore, we believe that while implementing the gradual delay retirement policy in China, it is important to implement it on the correct estimation basis so as to reduce the volatility in the labor market. Originality/value - This paper may produce marginal contributions in the following two aspects: From the research perspective, we construct a model containing delayed retirement, elderly care and women’s labor supply and illustrate how the delayed retirement promotes women’s labor supply by affecting elderly care. Secondly, from the research content, this paper expands the delayed retirement on macro-employment and further explores the micro-impact on employment.