Exploring the Structural Reform of Youth Policies to Promote Fertility

This study aims to establish policy directions for raising the world's lowest total fertility rate of Korea. Kleven et al. (2023) found that South Korea has the highest child penalty among 135 countries in the world. 'Child penalty' is the economic disadvantage that women face when having children. This is seen as an objective reason why South Korea has the lowest fertility rate. In addition, I analyzed the socioeconomic difficulties that young people, the main actors in childbirth, face when deciding to get married and have children. Despite numerous budgets, policies, and organizations for raising the fertility rate in South Korea, these efforts have not been effective. This study presents the direction of youth policy from both micro and macro perspectives. Micro-level policies should focus on creating jobs with family-supporting income, implementing labor policies centered on services and incentives, improving the quality of childbirth and child-rearing environments, securing housing space for raising children, and providing housing for young people through the downsizing of elderly households. Macro-level policies should aim to strengthen the linkages between income, housing, and education to enable stable childbirth and child-rearing, promote harmony and deregulation of youth-related service provision and policies for addressing low birth rates, and encourage the older generation to consider relinquishing vested interests. These youth policies are crucial for improving the quality of life for the young generation and social development and require collaborative efforts from the government, business, and civil society. Korea is one of the countries that spend a lot of money to raise birthrate, but in vain. The Korean experience of fertility policy would be a good reference to the countries of low birthrate.