Co-residence and Its Effect on Labor Supply of Married Women

세대간 동거와 기혼여성의 노동공급

Co-residence is a type of intergenerational private transfers of resources: money, time and space. Adult daughters and their elderly parents decide to co-reside, depending on their utility levels before and after co-residence that mainly depend on the health status of the elderly. Therefore, co-residence implies positive net benefits to both parties in the sense that, when they co-reside, elderly parents share childcare and adult daughter provide elderly care. In other words, formal (paid) care can be substituted with informal (unpaid) one. Both marriage and giving births are considered as the major obstacles to labor market attachment of women who bear burdens of home production and childcare. Co-residence can be a solution for married women to avoid career interruption by sharing burdens with their elderly parents. However, most previous studies using the U.S. data on intergenerational private transfers focused on elderly care and have concluded that they reduce government expenditures associated with public subsidies to the elderly. This study focuses on adult daughters and it examines effects of co-residence on labor supply of married women in Korea, who face limited formal childcare programs in terms of both quantity and quality. It applies the Tobit model of married women's labor supply to the data from the Second Wave of the Korean Labor and Income Panel Survey( 1999), in order to investigate effects of co-residence and the work and health status of the co-residing elderly as well as their own health status. Four specifications of the empirical model are tested that each includes co-residence with elderly parents, their gender, or their work and health status. Estimation results show that co-residence, co-residence with female elderly, and co-residence with not-working female elderly have significant positive effects on labor supply of married women while poor health status of co-residing female elderly does not bring about any negative effects. However, co-residence with male elderly, regardless of their work and health status, has no significant effect The results indicate that co-residence is closely related to sharing of home production among female elderly and adult daughters who are married and, through intergenerational private transfers of resources in terms of time, it helps women avoid career interruption.

자녀양육에 수반되는 시간적 금전적 비용부담이 기혼여성의 노동시장 진입과 경력단절에 가장 큰 영향을 미치는 요인으로 지적한 선행 연구들은 이에 대한 정책적 지원을 강조하였다. 사회복지정책이 발달한 국가에서 세대간 동거(co-residence)는 고령층의 의료 및 부양과 관련된 공적 비용을 사적 비용으로 전환하고, 공식적인 부양을 비공식적인 것으로 대체하는 동시에 기혼여성의 노동공급을 증가시킨다는 관점에서 정책 설정에서 주요한 개선방안으로 인식되고 있다. 본 연구는 "한국노동패널" 2차년도(1999) 자료를 이용하여 부모세대와의 동거상태, 부모 및 기혼여성 본인의 건강상태가 기혼여성의 노동공급에 미치는 영향을 살펴본다. Tobit모형의 추정 결과, 동거 여부, 여성노인과의 동거, 노동시장 근로를 하지 않는 여성노인과의 동거는 동거하는 노인의 건강상태에 관계 없이 기혼여성의 노동공급량에 정(+)의 효과를 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 세대간 동거는 세대간 사적 자원이전 (intergenerational private transfer of resources)을 통하여 기혼여성의 노동공급에 긍정적인 영향올 미치며, 이는 세대간 사적 자원이전이 여성노인을 중심으로 시간자원의 이전이라는 형태를 취하고 있음을 의미한다.