The Gender Gap of Entrepreneurship:From the Perspective of Peer Effect
It is meaningful for transition and sustainable development of China economy to optimize gender structure in labor market.Using six periods of data from the China Family Panel Studies(CFPS)2010-2020,this paper empirically examines the gender gap in entrepreneurship activities.The results show that the entrepreneurship rate of male is remarkable higher than female,but the difference between male and female is decreasing year by year.Controling the reflection problem of peer effect by using generalized propensity score method and instrumental variable method,the analysis shows that peer effect has positive effect on entrepreneurship activities which has difference between males and females.The peer effect exists intergenerational transmission and convergence of gender for individual entrepreneurial behavior.From the perspective of different generations,the female entrepreneurs prefer to follow their mother's entrepreneurial behavior and the male entrepreneurs prefer to follow their father's entrepreneurial behavior.From the perspective of the same generation,female entrepreneurship is mainly influenced by the entrepreneurial behavior of female peers,while male entrepreneurship is mainly influenced by the entrepreneurial behavior of male peers,and the impact of the peer effect on female entrepreneurship is greater than that on men.The impact of the peer effect on the probability of individual entrepreneurship shows a non-linear characteristic of increasing first and then decreasing,therefore,the positive effect of the peer effect on entrepreneurial activities is short-term.Heterogeneity analysis shows that in survival-oriented enterprises,the peer effect has a significantly greater impact on female entrepreneurship than on male entrepreneurship,and there is no significant gender difference in opportunity-oriented entrepreneurship.In male-dominated industries,the impact of the peer effect on female entrepreneurship is significantly greater than that on males,while in female-dominated industries,there is no significant gender difference in the peer effect of entrepreneurship;after controlling for the self selection problem caused by population mobility,the research conclusion remains robust.The government should attach importance to innovation and entrepreneurship,promote the sharing of information and resources,and at the same time,the design of China's labor market incentive mechanism should focus on improving the matching degree between human capital and industry from a structural perspective,achieving a balance in the gender structure of entrepreneurship.