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

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  • Bessey, Donata

Abstract

This article analyzes 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 Abrahamic and other religions. It uses an identity-economic model and analyzes prescriptions among the different religions to derive testable hypotheses about the effect of religions on fertility. In the empirical section, the East Asian Social Survey (EASS) 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 the positive effect of Catholicism on fertility that has disappeared in both Europe and the US in past decades is still present in East Asia. In line with the sparse previous empirical evidence on Buddhism, it seems to have no effect on fertility.

Suggested Citation

  • Bessey, Donata, 2016. "Religion and Fertility in East Asia: Evidence from the East Asian Social Survey," MPRA Paper 75372, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:75372
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. 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.
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    8. 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. 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.
    2. Tien Manh Vu & Hiroyuki Yamada, 2024. "Impacts of religion on sex selection in Vietnam," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1603-1621, December.
    3. 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.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fertility; Religion; East Asia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

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

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