• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.89-107
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• 2014

This study analyzes how governmental financial support of child care affects the participation of married women in the labor market in Korea. This dynamic analysis used data gathered over four years via the fifth to the eighth Korea Welfare Panel Studies (KWPS). The major results are as follows. First, child care allowance has a negative effect on the participation of married women in the labour market. Providing cash for child care seems to decrease women's labour market participation by cementing the role of women as the primary child care providers in the household. Second, the support for families, used by child care facilities, is found to increase the probability of married women working either part-time or full-time, thereby decreasing the burden on household budgets caused by child care costs. In conclusion, governmental policy-based child care benefits, used by child care centers, should be continued so that married women may participate in the labour market while raising their children.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.129-156
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• 2008

This paper investigated labor force participation pattern changes of married women from 1980 to 2005. Using the micro samples of Population and Housing Census provided by the Korean National Statistical Office, the following results were obtained. The labor force participation rate of married women has substantially increased from 1980 to 2005, with some significant changes in labor supply pattern worthy of note. The most important finding concerns the highly educated women's and younger cohorts' labor supply patterns. Labor force participation rate rapidly increased among college educated married women and wives of college educated men. This is different from the stylized fact associated with married women's labor in Korea, that is, "More educated, less work." This change is more obvious among recent cohorts born from 1971-1975 and from 1976-1980. In contrast to the spouses who trigger less of an influence on married women's labor, the presence of children still proved to be a critical component.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.113-136
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• 2010

Low fertility has become quite commonplace worldwide, and Europe has experienced below replacement fertility for several decades. In addition, lowest-low fertility, defined as period total fertility rate below 1.3, has rapidly spread in Europe during the 1990s and is likely to expand further. After the turn of century, lowest-low fertility started spreading in Eastern Asia. Korea's TFR of 1.19 in 2008 is lower than most European countries, although it is higher than the Hongkong(1.02) and Taiwan(1.09). The purpose of this paper is to examine the socioeconomic determinants of lowest-low fertility in Korea. In doing so, this paper discusses the effects of female labour force participation, labour instability on family formation and fertility. The data includes female labour force participation rate, unemployment rate, age at first marriage, and total fertility rate from 1980 to 2008. First, the economic recession hindered young people's economic independence and propensity to marry. Married couples were also depressed with uncertainty toward the future and avoided to have children. Second, the growth in female labor force participation had a negative impact on fertility, under the low level of compatibility between women's work and childrearing. Moreover, this paper argues that the rising cost of children including public and private educational costs is thought to be the main reason of the recent low fertility in Korea. Policy implications and some comments on population policies are also presented in the final section.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• no.36
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• pp.55-80
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• 2008

Research on the welfare state or income inequality has been concerned with variations in inequality between societies or families. These studies tend to view the family as a unit of shared interests where incomes are pooled and distributed equally. This study makes a theoretical and empirical case for why it is important to look at economic dependency within the family in comparative welfare state research. Using the Luxembourg Income Study data this study examined married women's dependency on their husbands' earnings in 16 western industrialized countries. The constructed measure for married women's level of economic dependency followed the procedure of Sørensen & McLanahan(1987), which stated : "her dependency is measured by the extent to which a woman's standard of living(as determined by her share of income) is derived from a transfer from her husband." The finding suggested that married women's economic dependence was lowest in Scandinavian countries. On the contrary, in Southern Europe countries most married women were dependent on husbands' earnings. In Netherlands, Austria, Germany where the share of part-time work among married women was high, married women's economic dependence was also high. This showed the women's labor force participation did not mean that the majority of couples were equal with respect to earnings, nor that a major shift in the sexual division of labour has taken place. This paper analysed the causal relationship between the married women's economic independence and the welfare state by using Ragin(2000)'s Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. This analysis considered the various conditions of the welfare state : namely, left power, union mobilization density, women's mobilization, public service sector employment and generous support on the family. The result showed that powerful union, high level of women's mobilization and the generous support on the family were necessary conditions for 'relatively high' level of married women's economic independence.