The Trade-off between Fertility and Education: Evidence from the Korean Development Path

Unified Growth Theory suggests the demographic transition and the associated rise in human capital formation were critical forces in the transition from Malthusian stagnation to modern economic growth. This paper provides empirical evidence in support of this hypothesis based on the development process in Korea. Exploiting variations in fertility in human capital formation across regions in Korea over the period 1970 to 2010, the study establishes that the process of development in Korea was associated with a reduction in child quantity and increase child quality.