Table 8: The changing attitude of Taiwanese Young Cohort (Only Female respondents)
Question/ age
41-45
36-40
31-35
26-30
Husband external, Wife internal (Disagree )
50.55
56.81
59.87
66.24
By nature women belong to family (Disagree)
20.66
25.68
29.03
36.75
Women can live a good life without marriage
59.14
60.15
63.31
63.25
Husband’ achieve equals wife achievement (D)
12.18
12.84
14.52
17.95
Women need child to fulfill self (D)
37.24
39.30
47.28
54.27
A possible explanation of the stronger cohort effect in Korea is the decoupling
between labor market institutions and attitude among young cohorts. As Korean
young women are more willing to stay in labor market, the rigid labor market forces
them to choose fewer children. However, the test of this hypothesis goes beyond the
scope of this paper.
Conclusion and implication
By analyzing second and third births in Taiwan and South Korea, this article
shows how labor market structure shapes individuals’ fertility behavior. Especially for
second births, the impact of labor market is very signficant. In light of third birth, this
model only lends partial support to the hypotheses. Cohort plays a much more
important role in the determinant of the third birth.
At the level of theory, this paper offers a possible explanation for the recent
fertility trend of positive correlation between female labor force and fertility at the
macro level. By examining two countries with poor social policies, I show that in
addition to social policy, bargaining power generated by labor market structure is also
Convention