Effects of Children on Marital Stability: Case of Korean Women

Using the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families, this study investigates the effects of the number of children on marital stability. In particular, we implement the fixed effects panel data model to control for possible endogeneity arising from fertility decision. The main empirical results reveal that the number of children deter the dissolution of marriage. In particular, an increase in the number of children by one was found to reduce the likelihood of divorce by 1 percentage points. Further, it is shown that the number of children is likely to affect marital stability much less for those who are socio-economically advantageous.