Robots and fertility intentions in China: Evidence from migrant workers

Amid growing interest in the labor-market outcomes of robots, scant literature has examined how recent technological advances shape rural migrants’ decisions to have a second child. Combining individual-level sample from the CMDS with data from the IFR, we find a significant and robust negative association between robot adoption and rural migrants’ second-child fertility intentions. The effect is particularly pronounced among migrants with higher human capital, in households where husbands are older than their wives, and among new-generation rural migrants. Mechanism analyses suggest that the negative association may operates in part through reduced income and heightened job instability. We further show that relaxing hukou restrictions, expanding access to public housing, and strengthening labor union mitigate the negative effect of robotization on migrants’ fertility intentions. These findings offer useful insights into the recent decline in China’s fertility rate.