Gender disparities in job creation of RCEP in China: a social accounting matrix approach

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the gender disparities in the potential creation of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) for China. Using the latest available data, social accounting matrix for 149 sectors, combined with employment satellite accounts based on China’s seventh census published in 2022, we analyse gender disparities in the potential job creation from the RCEP. The results show that the RCEP will potentially create more than 4.08 million jobs in China, with a particularly large increase in low-value-added sectors such as agriculture, light industry and low-end manufacturing. Imports are likely to create more jobs than exports. The potential job creation for females is more than 1.58 million, which is still 910,000 less than for males. While the RCEP may create jobs for females, it may expand the gender and skills disparities. The increased rate of tertiary education for Chinese females has not resulted in significant gains in current female employment. Therefore, measures to reduce taxes on imports and exports, share the cost of childbirth between employer and husband, and upgrade industries to create more high-skilled jobs are important to address the gender disparity in employment in China.

KEYWORDS:

• job creation
• gender disparities
• skill disparities
• social accounting matrix

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• F16
• J16
• J71

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).