• Economic Analysis
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.37-66
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• 2021

This paper examines the potential impacts of COVID-19 on poverty in ASEAN countries. The first estimate, adopted from Summer et al. (2020) and Nonvide (2020), configures three scenarios of contractions in per capita household income or consumption; the impact of each scenario on poverty is calculated using poverty lines at different thresholds. In the second estimate, poverty impacts in 2020 and 2021 were projected using regression models controlling for unobserved country effects, unbalanced data, and endogeneity. COVID-19 has been shown to have negative impacts on poverty reduction in the ASEAN Member States. To reduce poverty, concerted efforts are needed to implement policies for reducing income inequality and promoting economic growth. Such efforts will not only speed up the countries' return to pre-pandemic poverty levels but also contribute to further accelerating poverty reduction.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.50
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• pp.61-85
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• 2002

Using the 2001 Family Income and Expenditure Survey micro-data, this study analyses the anti-poverty effectiveness of public and private income transfers. In this study, the anti-poverty effectiveness of income transfers is summarized in two ways; 1) the poverty reduction effect of the income transfers, and 2) the poverty reduction efficiency of the income transfers. The poverty reduction effects are measured with several poverty indices including the head-count ratio, poverty gap, and Sen index. Using Beckerman's model, this study also analyses the poverty reduction efficiency of income transfers. This analysis documents substantial differences in the anti-poverty effectiveness of public and private income transfers. Although the private income transfers contribute more to reduce the head-count poverty ratio and Sen index than public income transfers, their differences are significantly reduced after the enactment of National Basic Livelihood Security Act. The results also reveal that the anti-poverty effectiveness of public and private income transfers vary by the types of families. In families headed by elderly and working aged, private income transfers have more anti-poverty effectiveness. But, public income transfers contribute more to reduce poverty than private income transfers among families headed by single adults with children. The results of this study suggest that recent changes in anti-poverty policies in Korea have been strengthened the Government's responsibility. And more importantly, to effectively reduce poverty among the poor families, anti-poverty polices must be designed to consider different family types.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.237-247
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effectiveness and efficiency of social security benefits to poverty alleviation. To this end, this study analyzed the poverty alleviation effect of public pension, basic pension, child-rearing allowance, disability allowance, basic living security subsidy, EITC, and other government subsidies using 2019 Household Financial Welfare Survey. The analysis results are as follows. First, social security benefits lowered the poverty rate by 6.8%p. Second, in terms of the poverty gap reduction effect, the public pension for the elderly male households, the basic pension for the elderly female householder, and the basic guarantee for the working female householder contributed the most. Finally, in terms of poverty alleviation efficiency, about 33% of social security benefits contribute to narrowing the poverty gap. Social security benefits for female heads of households were found to serve as a function of alleviating poverty gap and for male heads of households to supplement household income. Based on these results, this study suggested the discovery of various poverty states, expansion of basic security for the female elderly, and the connection between the purpose of social security benefits and key targets.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.5-28
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• 2017

Using 2006~2015 Korean Welfare Panel Survey data, this study analyzed the poverty reduction effects of social security benefits. The results show that social security benefits have substantial impacts on reducing the poverty gap. National Basic Livelihood Security, public pensions, and Basic Pension have relatively larger poverty reduction effects. Other benefits such as disability benefits, workers' compensation unemployment insurance, and childcare subsidies have much smaller poverty impacts. Two determining factors of the poverty reduction effect are (1)the amount and (2)the poverty reduction efficiency of social security benefits. With the expansion of the social security system in recent years, the poverty reduction efficiency has decreased in general. Due to a greater increase in the amount of benefits, however, the poverty reduction effect has gradually increased. In order to increase the anti-poverty effect of social security, it is important to find ways to improve efficiency while minimizing the disadvantages of the selectivistic welfare benefits.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• no.36
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• pp.175-202
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• 2008

This paper analyzes the relationship between social assistance and poverty in Korea. Social assistance in Korea which had a Poor Law tradition for about forty years, was finally reformed and a new general assistance scheme designed to protect fundamental human rights, was established in 1999. Are the means-tested social assistance benefits effective in protecting the poor from hardship? How effectively do the means-tested benefits reduce poverty? To assess the effects of the means-tested social assistance benefits in Korea on poverty reduction, the study uses household data from the National Basic Livelihood Security Programme Review Board (NRB). Moreover, to obtain a comparative perspective, a British dataset the Family Resources Survey (FRS) is assessed. The incidence and the intensity of poverty for a range of household types are analyzed before and after social assistance benefits for both countries. The results of the analysis show the Korean social assistance benefits do not radically alleviate poverty, although recipients' income positions are improved after social assistance transfers. Compared to Korea, Britain achieved marked success of means-tested social assistance benefits with a high degree of effectiveness, especially among the extreme and the severe poverty brackets, while there are variations between different household types regarding the incidence and the intensity of poverty before and after transfer.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.85-106
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• 2009

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the structural determinants of regional variations of poverty in Korea. Poverty rates and independent variables in Seoul, 6 other metropolitan areas, and 8 provinces except Jejudo from the year of 1998 through 2006 were pooled as unit of analysis. The pooled cross-sectional time-series regression(TSCSREG) using SAS program was adapted for the analysis. As a result of the analysis, absolute poverty and relative poverty of Gangwondo and Chungcheongnamdo were relatively higher, and that of Seoul and Ulsan metropolitan area were lower than other areas. And, the increase of financial self-reliance, social welfare expenditure, rate of standard workers, and rate of workers in manufacturing sector were associated with lower poverty rates. Therefore, place-based policies should be considered as another poverty-fighting tool in conjunction with people-based policies.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.520-526
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• 2020

This study aimed to address the effect of poverty on depression and self-rated health in older adults living alone in Korea. In addition, this study identified the mediating effect of social participation on the poverty-depression and poverty-self-rated health relationships. The researcher conducted a secondary data analysis using the 6th wave of the Korean Longitudinal Study on Aging. The final sample was 1,093 older adults living alone. Using structural equation modeling, standardized coefficients of each path were analyzed. Then, the statistical significance of the mediating effect of social participation was addressed via analyzing direct, indirect, and total effects. Results show that older adults under poverty were more depressed and had a lower level of self-rated health than their counterparts. Moreover, frequent participation in religious gatherings, social gatherings, and leisure activities decreased depression in older adults living alone. Moreover, religious gatherings, social gatherings, and alumni meetings were positively related to self-rated health om older adults living alone. Significant mediating effects appeared in poverty-social gathering-depression, poverty-social gathering-self-rated health, and poverty-alumni meeting-self-rated health relationships. Based on the results, the researcher also discussed implications for social work practice.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.207-213
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• 2017

The study aimed to evaluate the effects of the magic program on the depression and self-esteem in rural low-income children. A quasi-experimental study employing a nonequivalent control group and pre-post design was conducted. The participants were children aged 9 to 12 years old from community child center in K province (Experimental group=24, Control group=21). The experimental group participated in the program for 8 sessions for 8 weeks. Data were analyzed using ${\chi}^2$-test, independent t-test, repeated measures ANCOVA with SPSS 21.0 program. There were significant differences in depression (F=6.68, p=.013) and self-esteem (F=7.61, p=.009) of participants between experimental group and control group after completion of 8-session magic program. The results indicate that the magic program can be used to improve depression and self-esteem of low-income children.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.73-87
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to investigate the economic deprivation of male-headed or female-headed households. Household having children under the age of 18 are categorized into three types according to the gender of household head: male-headed household, female-headed household, and dual-parents household. The findings from data, for this study came from the Korean Labor Panel Study in 2003. The analysis shows that the household's age, education, residence types, etc are key explanatory variables in determining whether to be in poverty. While the public income transfer is most effective in reducing poverty in female-headed households, the private income source is relatively more useful among male-headed families. Since single-household families are particularly at risk, public policy makers should pay special attentions to developing and expanding welfare-to-work programs which provides work incentives to overcome relative poverty and community networks on child care.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.209-232
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• 2017

This study proposes supplemental security income programs for the elderly to reduce the serious elderly poverty in Korea. The experiences of the supplemental security income programs for the elderly among the developed countries were investigated. Based on this, the Korean supplemental security income models were proposed, and the effects of the programs on the poverty, inequality, and finance were analysed. The results suggest the following implications. First, the supplemental security income programs cover a sizable portion of the elderly in Korea, and reduce substantially the poverty and inequality problems among the elderly. Second, the supplemental security income programs are efficient compared to the increase of the basic pension. Third, the effects were varied among the combinations of the basic pension models and the supplemental security income models. Therefore Korea needs to introduce an adequate policy mix consisting of basic income and supplemental security income programs so as to construct solid basic income security systems for the elderly.