THE IMPACT OF CHILD-CARE ON FERTILITY IN URBAN THAILAND

Women's labor force participation in Thailand, particularly in the mod ern sector, recently has increased in conjunction with rapid declines in fertility. This paper examines whether a relationship exists betwee n child care considerations and fertility decision making among Bangko k women. Although the two-child family has become the norm in recent y ears, and although most respondents said that ideally they would like to have two children, a high proportion of women surveyed said they pl anned to only have one child. Women's work status and type of employme nt is found to strongly affect the likelihood of having a second birth : those who work at jobs that not only are low-paying but are located in a formal setting are least likely to have a second child. The type of child care for the first child also has an impact: those whose firs t child is in a less preferred situation are less likely to have a sec ond. Variables measuring the need for and type of child care are found to have greater consequences for fertility than do usual measures of socioeconomic status.