FERTILITY AND SON PREFERENCE IN KOREA

In Korea, total fertility declined from 6.0 in 1960 to 1.6 in 1990, in spite of a strong preference for male offspring. This paper addresses the notion that son preference hinders fertility decline, and examine s the effects of patriarchal relations and modernization on fertility using the 1991 Korea National Fertility and Family Health Survey. It w as found that women who have a son are less likely to have another chi ld, and that women with a son who do progress to have another child, t ake longer to conceive the subsequent child. This pattern prevailed fo r women of parity one, two, and three, and became more pronounced with higher parity. A multivariate analysis showed that preference for mal e offspring, patriarchy, and modernization are all strong predictors o f second, third, and fourth conceptions.