Effect of Work-Family Compatibility Policies on Women’s Fertility Intention: A Case of South Korea

Over the past few decades, South Korea has received considerable attention for its lowest fertility rate. Korea’s fertility has been steadily decreasing since the early 1960s; and in 2009, its fertility rate of 1.14 was recoded as the world’s lowest fertility rate. This remarkable fertility decline in Korea is especially notable in that there was a considerable lag in adopting effective policy in order to inhibit the fertility decline in Korea. That is, while there is strong evidence that the steep decline of fertility level below the replacement level within two and half decades is largely due to government policies and family planning programs to reduce family size (Cho, 2000); these types of policies were not repelled until the mid-1990s. As direct cash payment and indirect transfer policies to promote higher fertility has been largely ineffective, how improving work-family compatibility would affect women's fertility intention has important implications. Using the Korea Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families (KLoWF), we investigate the effect of work-family compatibility on women's fertility intention. Preliminary results suggest that while some policies are effective, some are not; and further investigation of which policy works is called for.