A study has confirmed that Korea's fierce competition over private education is one of the factors contributing to the country's low birthrate. The study found that parents tend to increase spending on private education as they compare their children's academic achievements with those of other families. The resulting financial burden, in turn, discourages families from having additional children. Researchers estimated that without the effects of such competition, the average number of children per woman would have been about 0.53 higher than the actual figure. The findings were presented Wednesday at a conference on population aging jointly hosted by the Bank of Korea, the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The research team, which included Kim Sung-eun, a professor of economics at Sejong University; Michele Tertilt, a professor at the University of Mannheim in Germany; and Mincheol Yeom, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in the United States, examined the relationship between private education competition and