Workweek Reduction and Childbirth

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of workweek reduction on childbirth in Korea. Exploiting the stepwise introduction of the standard 40-hour workweek in Korea, I apply a difference-in-difference framework with fixed effects to longitudinal data to estimate the policy’s causal effect on childbirths. My results show that married couples without any children before increased the childbirth by 0.24 within three years after the policy came into effect due to the reduction of standard workweek.