Newly Married Couples‘ Housing Assets and Childbirth: Focusing on the Households Married Since 2000

Abstract

This study aims to examine how newly married couple's assets influence the timing of childbirth since delaying childbirth is one of the reasons of low fertility in Korea. In particular, we closely examine the period between marriage and childbirth for the households married since 2000. As a measure of assets, we focus on housing assets at the beginning of marriage because housing assets can be considered as one of the most important factors for newly married couples. We used data from the Korea Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) and analyzed the timing of childbirth using the Survival analysis. Key findings are as follows. First, newly married couples who a home are likely to have a child earlier than those who do not. Second, in general, the value of housing assets is positively related to the likelihood of having a child early in marriage. Last, covariates such as age and income are found to be associated with the likelihood of child birth. The findings of this study suggest that housing and housing assets are influential factors for childbirth and that housing policy for newly married couples should be enhanced to increase childbirth.