Determinants of the Social Welfare Expenditure in Local Government

지방정부 사회복지비 지출수준의 결정요인 분석

The purpose of this study is to analyze the determinants of social welfare expenditure in local government. The period of 1995 through 1998 data in Seoul, 6 other metropolitan areas, and 9 provinces (Do) were selected and pooled as unit of analysis and total 8 independent variables were selected based on the theoretical background and previous studies. The pooled cross-sectional time-series regression using SPSS program was adapted for the analysis. Among selected independent variables, the rate of economic expenditure to the local government expenditure, the rate of financial self-reliance, and the increase rate of social welfare expenditure to the previous year has been played a significant role in the rate of social welfare expenditure to the total expenditure. Both the rate of economic expenditure and rate of financial self-reliance have had a negative impacts on the rate of social welfare expenditure and the increase rate of social welfare expenditure have affected the rate of social welfare expenditure positively. Therefore, the variables based on the economic constraint theory as well as incrementalism perspective gives greater explanatory power of the social welfare expenditure than the variables on the political choice theory in Korean local government.