Economic Problems of Rural Poor Households in Korea - Focused on the Economic Resources -

농촌빈곤가계의 경제문제 I -경제자원 문제를 중심으로-

The objective of this thesis is to analyse empirically the economic resource problems of the rural poor households. Data from 444 rural sample households in four provinces, divided into two subgroups, the poor and the non-poor households, were analysed and compared. The owned arable land size, level of agricultural and non-agricultural income, assets, debts and the sufficiency of living expenses of the poor households were measured and compared with those of non-poor households respectively. The significant findings and drawn conclusions are as follows : The rural poor households 1. tends to show smaller family size, older age and lower level of education of homemakers than the non-poor households, that might work as constraints to income sources and quality. 2. has not only small arable lands and agricultural income but also even smaller cash income, less than 50% of total income, with 27% of self-product consumption and depends more on non-agricultural income than the non-poor households. Such weakness of income structure might cause and increase the income instability of the rural poor households. 3. reveals significantly different level and components of assets from the non-poor households lower level of assets, less amounts of but more load of debt due to lower solvency that comes from low level of income and assets, higher debts for consumption and lower accessibility to credit. All these socio-demographic and economic characteristics of the rural poor households might have compound effects on the economic problems of the poor households and make vicious circle of poor.