Marital Satisfaction and Work-Life Balance: A Viewpoint Indispensable to Mitigating Fertility Decline

This paper seeks to show that: 1) wives' marital satisfaction and their confidence in their husbands' ability to provide emotional support and financial security, a major component of marital satisfaction, affect their desire to give birth; and 2) wives' marital satisfaction and their confidence in their husbands - though also subject to the influence of household economic conditions such as the husband's income, household assets, and husband's unemployment - are far more affected by the way in which a married couple budgets its time, such as hours spent in companionship and for conversation between husband and wife, and husband's share in childrearing. Based on the results of the analysis, the paper discusses specific measures to achieve work-life balance that enhances wives' marital satisfaction.