The Relationship between Family Policies and Total Fertility Rate in East Asian countries, 1995-2009

Abstract: East Asia has experienced a substantial decline in fertility over past few decades. Japan and Korea touched lowest level of fertility, which is 1,26 and 1,08 children per woman respectively in 2005. However, Taiwan continued to decline until 2010 when the fertility rate was 0,90 children per woman. Population growth is also declining steadily in these countries. Population loss has already started in Japan and soon it will begin in Korea and Taiwan. Ratio of population aging is increasing gradually. These countries have also experienced rapid economic growth, in parallel increased female education, high female labor force participation remarkably. Governments of East Asian countries implemented different family policies to cope with fertility decline issue. The investments of government expenditure per capita on family policies have been increasing over time. Our objective, in this thesis, is to determine significance of these polices on fertility. There are numerous factors, which influence childbirth decision. In this study, we investigate how these policies effect fertility decision while supporting working parents. We also take into account traditional social culture to analyze its impact on these policies. We use aggregated data for Japan, Korea and Taiwan period from 1995 to 2009 and regression analysis is performed to answer chosen hypotheses.