Abstract
This study investigates the main determinants of fertility, number of children ever born and duration of first birth intervals among Taiwanese, Mainland Chinese or the Southeast Asian women who are married in Taiwan. The empirical analysis is based on the data from the 2003 Taiwan Manpower Survey and 2003 Women's Marriage, Fertility and Employment Survey and 2003 Survey of Foreign and Mainland Spouses’ Life Status. A binary Probit model, negative binomial regression model and survival model are employed as the estimation methods. The estimation results indicate that for Taiwanese women by age cohort, only age at marriage shows significant effects on the fertility behaviors, while other personal characteristics, such as educational level, husband’s educational level, employment status, husband’s employment status and sector, family income, family structure, and living area, are mostly insignificant in determining the fertility behaviors. However, for Mainland Chinese and Southeast Asian women by age cohort, most of the variables mentioned above show significant impacts on the fertility behaviors. As a result, this study infers that the fertility behaviors of Taiwanese women and those of non-Taiwanese women (including women from Mainland China and Southeast Asia) are influenced by different personal factors.