Abstract:

With the development of the digital economy, flexible employment will become an important employment channel for the childbearing age group, which will significantly affect the reproductive behavior of residents, and social capital plays an important mechanism role. Using the data from the Chinese General Social Survey, this paper empirically analyzes the influence of flexible employment on residents' reproductive behavior, and the mechanism of social capital. Flexible employment significantly improves the reproductive behavior of residents, and has the greatest effect on the promotion of second-child reproductive behavior. Flexible employment can improve the reproductive behavior of the best female residents of childbearing age with higher education in the eastern China. Flexible employment is detrimental to residents' reproductive behavior by reducing resident's social capital, especially by significantly reducing the number of boys. Social networks and social participation play a negative mechanism role, and social participation has the largest negative effect. It is necessary to optimize social security to enrich the social capital of flexible workers and create a childbearing-friendly social support system.

Key words:

flexible employment, digital economy, reproductive choice, social networking, social participation

 ,