Family Policy and Fertility Rate in Five East Asian Countries

Family policies in East Asian countries lag compared to their western counterparts; the International Labour Organization recommends no less than 14 weeks of paid maternity leave and European Union members provide much more generous parental leaves. However, typical leave in most East Asian countries falls below 12 weeks. Incidentally, East Asian countries collectively rank the lowest when it comes to fertility rate; Singapore marked .78, Hong Kong 1.09, Taiwan 1.10, South Korea 1.23, and Japan 1.39 in 2012. While there are many factors that affect fertility rate, this paper looks at whether family policies influence fertility trends in five East Asian countries above from 1980 to 2010 using data collected from national statistical institutes and organizations such as the OECD and ILO. Policy measures focused are (1) parental leave arrangements; (2) childcare services; and (3) financial supports. The study uses ordinary least squares regression, including country and year fixed-effect variables, in addition to taking into consideration other important control variables taken from previous research. Since studies on East Asia are significantly scarce, though previous literature overall indicates the positive impact of family policies on fertility rate, similar effects in East Asia are questionable and thus worth investigating.