Socio-economic and Demographic Factors associated with Fertility – Southeast and East Asian Evidence

Abstract: Over the last three decades, Southeast and East Asian countries have experienced a substantial fertility decline. The socio-economic and demographic determinants appear to be important in explaining the fertility transition experienced in the region. Applying a fixed-effects estimation technique on the 1990-2019 panel data, this study found that increased women’s empowerment (include female education, labour force participation and wage), access to contraceptive usage, decreased infant mortality and improved living standards have a significant negative impact on childbirth rates. Female employment is the most influential factor. In addition, this paper sheds light on the government effectiveness of government policy and to what extent fertility behaviour can be affected by government intervention, by studying reforms to China’s one-child policy. We utilize a regression discontinuity design and our results provide strong evidence of that government policy successfully impacted fertility rates in most provinces of China. Future research should further investigate the rates of change in fertility among different countries and contributing factors to the level of births.