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Religion and Fertility in East Asia: Evidence from the East Asian Social Survey

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  • Donata Bessey

Abstract

This article analyses the effect of religious affiliation on fertility in Japan, Korea and the Republic of China (Taiwan). It adds to the sparse empirical evidence on the effects of religious affiliation on fertility in East Asia, for both Christian and other religions. It uses an identity‐economic model and analyses prescriptions among the different religions to derive testable hypotheses. In the empirical section, the East Asian Social Survey and a generalized Poisson model are used to estimate the effects of different religions on fertility. In line with theoretical predictions, the empirical results suggest that a positive effect of Catholicism on fertility is still present in East Asia. In line with the sparse previous empirical evidence on Buddhism, it seems to have no effect on fertility.

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  • Donata Bessey, 2018. "Religion and Fertility in East Asia: Evidence from the East Asian Social Survey," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 517-532, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:pacecr:v:23:y:2018:i:3:p:517-532
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-0106.12209
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    1. Kevin McQuillan, 2004. "When Does Religion Influence Fertility?," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 30(1), pages 25-56, March.
    2. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2000. "Economics and Identity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 715-753.
    3. Evelyn L. Lehrer, 2004. "Religion as a Determinant of Economic and Demographic Behavior in the United States," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 30(4), pages 707-726, December.
    4. Tammy Harris & Zhao Yang & James W. Hardin, 2012. "Modeling underdispersed count data with generalized Poisson regression," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 12(4), pages 736-747, December.
    5. Li Zhang, 2008. "Religious affiliation, religiosity, and male and female fertility," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 18(8), pages 233-262.
    6. Evelyn Lehrer, 1996. "Religion as a determinant of marital fertility," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 9(2), pages 173-196, June.
    7. Vegard Skirbekk & Marcin Stonawski & Setsuya Fukuda & Thomas Spoorenberg & Conrad Hackett & Raya Muttarak, 2015. "Is Buddhism the low fertility religion of Asia?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(1), pages 1-28.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sam Hyun Yoo & Victor Agadjanian, 2021. "The paradox of change: Religion and fertility decline in South Korea," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(23), pages 537-562.
    2. Dayuan Xie & Yonghong Zhou, 2022. "Religion effects on fertility preference: evidence from China," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 341-371, September.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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