Economic Dependence on Parents and Late Marriage

Abstract

Population ageing, which Korean society is facing, is expected to become a major obstacle in sustaining the country’s long-term economic growth, causing labor force shortage and productivity decline, great burden of young generation for elderly supports, and worsening financial soundness of the government. Marriage age should be considered as an important policy topic because delayed marriage is one of the most important factors to explain the lowest low fertility in Korea. This study analyzes the effects of children's economical dependency on their parents on marriage age employing data from Korean Labor & Income Panel Study (KLIPS), and then discusses policy implications of the analysis results. The results present that adult children who live with their parents are likely to get married at younger ages than counterparts. But, the results do not show statistical significant association between marriage age and not economically active status in full economic dependence on parents. The findings stress the necessity of policy measures to reduce marriage cost encouraging single youths to get married without or with less economic supports from their parents. Based on these findings, this study provides policy recommendations including housing policy reform, labor policy to decrease youth unemployment, and policy on workplace for work and family life reconciliation.