Determinants of Third or Higher Births in Korea: Focusing on the Effects of Cash Grants

Abstract

Recently, the proportion of third or higher-parity births accounts for about 10 percent of total births in South Korea, which is lower than Japan that has maintained around 15 percent. If Korea would have reached the similar level as Japan, more than 30 thousand births would have been occurred annually. Hence, third or higher births can play an important role of ameliorating the current lowest-low fertility level. This study aims to identify important determinants affecting the level of third or higher births. We constructed the longitudinal data encompassing 31 municipalities in Gyeonggi Province from 2008 to 2014, and employed the regression model to panel data. According to fixed effects model, incidents of marriage and divorce show a statistical significance while multicultural marriage and marital age are not associated with the dependent variable. Meanwhile, GRDP per capita and cash grants are positively related with the level of third or higher births controlling for other explanatory variables. This study suggests that cash grants policy implemented by local government can be an effective way of increasing fertility especially in small cities and rural areas whose economic condition is unfit for substantial economic growth in a short period.