The Effects of Female Wage on Fertility in Korea

여성의 임금수준이 출산율에 미치는 영향 분석

Although the decline in fertility rate is generally observed along the history of economic development throughout the world, the continuing decline hitting below the replacement level in Korea over the recent years gathered serious social concerns on the ground that it accelerates the process of population aging. The total fertility rate in Koreareached 2.08 in 1983, and gradually fell to the levels of 1.08 in 2005 and 1.26 in 2007. The policy debate over the role of the government has been focused mainly on the level of theoretical discussion without substantial basis on firm empirical evidence and the determinants of fertility. The objective of the paper is to empirically investigate the fertility effect of the female wage, which is understood as one of the most important determinants of fertility in Koreasince 1980 focusing on one aspect of fertility, namely birth spacing. Using the Korean National Fertility Survey conducted in 2006, I estimate a duration model of first and second births taking into account individual heterogeneity, which turned out to be an important factor to control for. Compared with previous studies in the literature on the Korean fertility, the study has an advantage of using the complete pregnancy history of women in a more representative sample. Unlike the previous studies, the analysis also deals with the endogeneity of marriage by treating a certain age, rather than age at marriage, as the time in which a woman becomes exposed to the risk of pregnancy. The study shares the common problem in the literature on birth spacing of lacking relevant wage information for respondents in a retrospective survey. I estimate the wage series as a function of the basic characteristics using the annual Wage Structure Survey from 1980 to 2005, which is considered as a nationally representative sample for wage information of employees. The results suggest that the increase in female wage by 10 percent leads to a decrease in second birth hazard by 0.56~0.92 percentage points and that the increase in spouse's wage by the equal amount is accompanied by the increase in second birth hazard by 0.36~1.13 percentage points. These estimates are more precisely estimated and of smaller magnitude than those presented by the previous studies. The results are robust to the different specifications of the wage equation. The simulation analysis based on the predicted values shows that about 17% of the change in the second birth hazard over the period 1980 to 2005 was due to the change in the female wage. Although there is some limitation in data, the results can be viewed as one estimate of the role of female wage on the recent fertility decline in Korea. The question raised by the paper is not a normative one of whether a government should promote childbearing but a positive one thatexplains fertility decline. Therefore, if there is a wide consensus on promoting childbearing, the finding suggests that the policies designed to reduce the opportunity cost of women in the labor market would be effective. The recent movement of implementing a wide range of family-friendly policies including child care support, maternity leave, parental leave and tax benefit in developed countries should be understood in this context.

지난 20여 년간의 지속적인 출산율 감소 현상에 대응한 최근의 정책논의에서 출산율 감소에 대한 이론적 논의는 많이 이루어진데 반해 실증적 연구 결과의 양은 아직 빈약한 수준이다. 본 연구는 출산율 감소의 가장 중요한 원인 중의 하나로 이해되는 여성의 임금수준이 1980년대 이후의 출산율에 미친 영향을 실증적으로 분석한다. 기간모형을 이용하여 출산율의 한 구성요소인 출산 간격을 분석한 결과, 1980년부터 2005년까지의 두 번째 출산확률의 감소 중 여성 임금의 변화가 약 17%를 설명하는 것으로 나타났다. 자료의 한계로 인해 통제되지 못한 변수가 존재하나, 최소한 여성의 임금수준이 출산에 미치는 총체적 효과의 크기를 제시하는 하나의 추정치로서 의미가 있다. 임금으로 표현되는 여성의 노동시장에서의 기회비용 상승이 자녀에 대한 수요를 감소시킨다는 사실은 출산율 저하가 경제발전에 따르는 현상임을 암시한다. 따라서 출산율 제고와 여성의 고용 증진은 동시에 추구해야 할 정책목표로 보이고, 이를 달성하기 위해 정부는 자녀양육에 대한 여성의 노동시장에서의 기회비용을 줄이는 포괄적인 가족친화정책을 고려할 필요가 있다.