Korea considers housing assistance to raise birth rate
The government of South Korea is considering a range of measures to raise the country’s low birth rate, including support for young couples in need of housing.
Under the proposals outlined by the Presidential Committee on Aging Society and Population Policy, the government would provide financial assistance for young people to find a home, as well as giving preference to young people applying for public rented housing.
The high cost of housing in Korea, particularly in the capital city of Seoul, is understood to be a factor in couples postponing marriage and having children.
The proposals also include financial incentives for firms to hire young people, and creating 40,000 new public-sector jobs for college graduates by 2017.
The average birth rate in Korea is currently 1.2 births per woman, one of the lowest in the world. The government is aiming to increase this to 1.5 by 2020.
Korea’s neighbour Japan has a similarly low birth rate, at 1.42 per woman. Last month, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe announced a range of policies to address the problem, including free preschool education and financial support for marriage and fertility treatment.
Elizabeth Brainerd has written about the effectiveness of government policies to reverse declines in fertility for IZA World of Labor. Noting that pronatalist policies can have a modest positive effect on birth rates, she argues that: “For policymakers trying to stem the population loss and the changes in population age structure resulting from declining fertility, the most effective approach is likely to combine well-crafted pronatalist policies with openness to increased immigration.”
Changzoo Song has also written for us about how the Korean government has mitigated the effects of its declining population by engaging with the growing number of Koreans who live abroad. He writes that: “The policy of engaging members of the diaspora has brought substantial benefits to the South Korean economy—and more are expected over the long term. Small countries with substantial diaspora populations might achieve similar long-term gains from adopting policies to engage the diaspora.”
Read more on this story at the Korea JoongAng Daily and the Nikkei Asian Review.
Related articles:
Can government policies reverse undesirable declines in fertility? by Elizabeth Brainerd
Engaging the diaspora in an era of transnationalism by Changzoo Song
Fertility postponement and labor market outcomes by Massimiliano Bratti
Find more IZA World of Labor articles about demography