Impact of Regional Factors on Births and Wives' Continuation in Employment - Panel survey of consumers by the Institute for Research on Household Economics (Japanese)

This thesis examines regional disparities in fertility rates, and analyzes the influence of regional factors on birth trends and continuation in employment. For this analysis, while controlling for individual attributes such as type of work, age, and academic career, by combining microdata and attribute data for the region in which individuals reside, we investigate how differences between regions with regard to the living environment and other factors affect women's birth behavior and continuation in employment. With regard to regional factors, we focus on housing conditions, commuting time, the government's family policies, and the economic climate. In order to consider the concurrence of birth behavior and continuation in employment by wives, we used a bivariate probit model to make estimates, and our findings were that there are correlations between the birth rate of the second child and whether the home is rented or owned, and between the birth of the first child and the father's commuting time and the capacity of daycare centers.