Labor Market Discrimination against Family Responsibilities: A Correspondence Study with Policy Change in China

China shifted its controversial one-child policy (1979-2015) to a two-child policy in 2016. We take advantage of this unexpected policy change and the heterogeneities in the prechange environment to investigate labor market discrimination against expected family responsibilities. In a two-wave correspondence study before and after the policy change, we sent 8,848 fictitious resumes with ages 22-29 in response to online job advertisements. Their gender and only-child/siblinged status were systematically varied. We find that women-but not men-are subject to labor market discrimination for expected family responsibilities. This discrimination worsens with the increase in women's reproductive age.