Date of Award

Spring 5-22-2021

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Economics

Advisor(s)

Alfonso Flores-Lagunes

Second Advisor

Yoonseok Lee

Keywords

Fertility rates, Housing price, North Korea, Population policy, South Korea

Subject Categories

Economics | Labor Economics | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

This dissertation studies important social topics in South Korea. The first two chapters evaluate the effects of a pronatalist policy introduced by local governments in South Korea, a country with one of the lowest fertility rates worldwide. In the first chapter, possible selection into marriage is highlighted considering the low out-of-wedlock births in the country. Also, the policy effects are examined in two different dimensions: changes in the probability of having a child and the time-to-child delivery. The second chapter estimates two important key variables to address the effectiveness of this program. First is the unconditional distribution of the reservation price of fertility, which is the minimal compensation an agent must receive to induce her to have a child. Second is the infra-marginal ratio of spending, which shows the fraction of the program's budget spent on infra-marginal births. The last chapter investigates the effect of North Korea's repeated military provocations on the housing market in South Korea, focusing on the two nuclear weapon tests in 2009 and 2013.

Access

Open Access

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