62 PERSPECTIVES ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS | VOL 43 | 2025 education beyond high school, with a literacy rate of 99.2% (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2025a). In 2020, women made up 52.5% of higher education graduates and attained 71.6% of associate’s degrees, 52.7% of bachelor’s degrees, 45.3% of master’s degrees, and 32.7% of doctoral degrees (Department of Gender Equity, 2024). Coinciding with that, more women are active in the workforce than ever before. In 2022, the female labor force participation rose from 50.2% in 2012 to 51.6%, a 1.4% increase, while men’s participation remained relatively stable, increasing by only 0.3%, from 66.8% to 67.1% (Department of Gender Equity, 2024). Consequently, the gender gap of labor force participation narrowed from 16.6% to 15.5%, reflecting women’s growing economic engagement. This increase in work participation has changed women’s roles, modifying the traditional family unit. Access to assisted reproductive technology Beyond declining interest in marriage and children, even those who want children face limited options for assisted reproduction services. As previously mentioned, the ages of first marriage and childbirth have risen in recent years. For women’s fertility, there are serious implications as time passes. Women have a finite number of oocytes at birth, and this number decreases steadily until age 32; then, the decrease accelerates until age 37 and falls even more rapidly until menopause (Owen et al., 2024). This trend toward later marriage has led to many couples experiencing infertility troubles, leading to higher demand for access to reproductive technology. In 2007, Taiwan passed the Artificial Reproduction Act (ARA) to outline federal policy surrounding assisted reproductive technology. Several amendments have updated the legislation since then, the most recent in 2018. ARA protections apply only to married couples consisting of a husband and a wife, where the wife can carry the pregnancy in her own body (Laws & Regulations Database…, 2018). Under the ARA, those who are not eligible include unmarried women, same-sex couples, and those seeking surrogacy (Laws & Regulations Database…, 2018). Taiwan was one of the pioneers in Asia, becoming the first to legalize same-sex marriage in 2019, yet homosexual couples are still not afforded the same opportunities for having children as heterosexual couples are (Laws & Regulations Database…, 2023). Homosexual couples and single people have no legal access to assisted reproduction. For those able to find reproductive support, multistep approvals are required from a governmental advisory committee, with strict restrictions on the couple requesting artificial reproduction access (Laws & Regulations Database…, 2018). For instance, the ARA goes into depth about what exactly can be done with embryos and what happens in the case of divorce or marriage annulment. The complexity and depth of restriction in the ARA severely limit its use. In 2024, 134,860 babies were born in Taiwan (National Development Council, 2025), yet only 9034 (6.7% of all births) were from in vitro fertilization (IVF), the most common assisted reproduction technique (Lee, 2025). In 2001, the proportion of deliveries facilitated by assisted reproductive technologies was 0.57%, increasing to 1.17% after the passage of ARA in 2007 (Yu et al., 2024). Economic impact of the declining population Despite the geopolitical challenges it faces, Taiwan’s strong economy serves as a crucial stabilizing force. Author Craig Addison coined the term “silicon shield” in 2001, reflecting the idea that Taiwan’s strong semiconductor industry and economic prowess protect it from Chinese aggression. When it comes to the declining population and low birth rate, an economic decline could put the silicon shield at risk. By the end of 2025, Taiwan is predicted to be classified as a superaged society, meaning at least 20% of the population is over the age of 65. This trend is expected to worsen as births decline and lifespans increase (Goh et al., 2023). While the population continues to age, Taiwan will see a variety of economic difficulties, including decline in GDP, increased spending on social support, and decrease in tax revenue. Taiwan’s economic dependence on human capital means that a declining population will weaken its industries and GDP. An increase in skilled labor could partially compensate for the population decline and boost productivity through increasing the amount of human capital with higher productivity. Over the past decade, the government has emphasized increasing workforce skills, with the budget for education increasing 21% to approximately NT$928B (~US$ 31.6B) in 2020. Continued investment in both human capital and physical infrastructure, such as modernizing machinery in operational facilities, is expected to compensate for the decline in workforce participation until 2035. However, after that point, labor shortages are projected to outweigh the capital improvements. With this scenario, both total GDP and GDP per capita will continue growing until 2035. Beyond then, GDP per capita would remain
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