• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.163-188
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• 2012

This study examines recent trends in income inequality among the elderly in Korea. Aggregate income inequality trends are explained by examining evidence from inequality index decomposition by population subgroup and by income source. Data come from Korean Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS). The results are as follows. First, elderly income inequality increased from 1999 to 2002, and then decreased until 2008. Second, household composition changes appear to have disequalizing influence. The proportion of elderly people who are economically dependent on non-elderly family member or living with adult children has declined. Equalizing influence of private transfers also decreased between 2002 and 2008. These results indicate that the redistributive role of family has weakened over time. Third, the improvement of education level and changing occupational structure among the elderly household head contributed to increase in elderly income inequality. Fourth, earning's factor share has declined steadily, and the diminishing role of earnings provides equalizing influence on elderly income inequality from 2002 to 2008. Fifth, the impact of recent expansion of social insurance has changed over time. Inequality contribution of social insurance income increased from 1999 to 2002, and then decreased from 2002 to 2008.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.66 no.1
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• pp.61-85
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• 2014

Lately, as the problem of the aged poverty becomes a big social issue, this paper studies the problem of financial stability with respect to the income and consumption of before-and-after retirement generations. After dividing the data in Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing(KLoSA) into retired and non-retired groups, this study compares the difference among ageing groups by cross analysis and t-test. First, the result tells that the total personal income of retired group is lower than the one of non-retired group. Second, the public pension income benefit ratio of retired group is only 30% of it's total income, and the amount of public pension appears to be 40% of the total pension income. The benefit ratio of the personal pension income is low as about 1% in both groups, The private transfer income of the retired group takes relatively large portion in its total personal income. Third, as people gets older, financial stability gets worse because consumption does not decrease as much as the income decreases. Fourth, it is turned out that the expectation of old life supporting from nation is low in both groups. Fifth, the factors that affects the income of the public pension in the retired group are gender, age, education, and health status, when compared with the factors to the personal total income of the non-retired group. In terms of policy, this paper emphasizes the needs of the intensification of the public pension and the support for the revitalization of the personal pension.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.291-327
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to classify the type of retirement process among the mature-aged in Korea. The study used the panel data from Korean Labor Panel (year2~6) for the classification of retirement process through Optimal Matching and Cluster Analysis. Classification is made in 5 categories as 'peripheral-economically active', 'private-transfer dependent', 're-entering limited', 'securely exiting', 'exit-and-reentering'. First, "peripheral-economically active" is a group which frequently experienced job status change and work insecurity. Second, "private-transfer dependent" is a group in which private transfer is likely to be supplements income in the incidence of unemployment. Third, "re-entering limited" is a group in which the proportion of no financial support combined with the absence of any economic activity is the largest. Fourth, the type "Securely exit" is th group whose members switches over to non-economically active status with pension receipt. The last type is "exit-and-reenter" that the member are highly possible to reenter in the labor market and stay in long time regardless of with or without pension plan. To examine the inequality among the types of retirement process, the duration of each status is analyzed. First, in the situation of being non-economically active, the duration of status is maintain public pension receiving and duration stabile in "securely exit" group. For "private-transfer dependent" type, members are mostly dependent on private financial support and that duration of it is longest. Through the analysis of retirement process without under other financial supports, it is "securely-exiting" type for which the duration of full-time employment is longest. It appears that the duration of part-time employment is longest in "peripheral-economically active" type. And for the case of non-waged employment it is "exit-and-reenter" type. Finally, the redistribution policy based on life course perspective is necessary to prevent that the opportunity in the structure before retirement stage and the unfavorable position in labor market make worse disadvantage in retirement process and after that.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.66 no.3
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• pp.231-251
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• 2014

Recently, Korean government documented the plan to cope with the situation related to rich pensioners of Basic old-age pension. The purpose of this paper is to verify that how many rich pensioners are existing and to evaluate government reform plan's validity and effect. Main results are as follows; firstly, if the definition of rich pensioners is on the top 10%, the proportion of them would form 2.9% of total. And then, an amount of expenditure for them is only 2.6% of total. Secondly, in terms of disposable income, debt, and transfer income from child, the household who would be applied by government's plan is not richer than other household who is in the same living standard. And then, if the government's plan enforced, the effect might be very small. Lastly, the plan of government will discriminate against persons who support their parent. As a result, Basic old-age pension will be worsen. This paper should underline that the government's reform is only the 'hidden' retrenchment strategy in order to introduce a standard of the obligation to support own parent in the state without scientific prediction and serious discussion of negative public opinion. That is why, this is the same as the 'Trojan Horse'.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.79-101
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• 2014

The main objective of this study is to explain the differences in intergenerational resource transfers among the middle-aged at various income levels. Analyses of data on financial resource transfers from the 2nd wave of the Korean Retirement and Income Study were conducted. The study sample consisted of 931 middle-aged individuals who had at least one living parent and one child. The data analysis methods were ${\chi}^2$ analysis, one-way analysis of variance(ANOVA), logistic regression analysis, and multiple regression analysis. Financial resource transfers are statistically significant factors explaining the preparation for later life and life satisfaction of middle-aged individuals. The empirical results reveal that the frequency of intergenerational financial transfers was significantly higher in high-income households than in middle- and low- income households. A comparison of high-, middle- and low-income households shows that financial resource transfers had a greater influence on the preparation for later life and life satisfaction of the middle-aged in middle-income households than in low- or high-income households. The level of life satisfaction was dependent upon to whom middle-aged individuals gave financial resources. In the middle-income group, the middle-aged who gave financial resources to their parents were more likely to have higher life satisfaction than those who did not. Receiving financial transfers from parents or children did not have a statistically significant impact on the life satisfaction of the middle-aged in any income-level group.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.127-153
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• 2004

In the absence of a male provider the state must decide how far and under what conditions it will provide for the mother and her children. In the case of lone mothers, there are three main possible sources of income: the labour market, the absent father, and the state. However, the relative proportions of these three sources vary significantly from country to country as well as from individual to individual within the group of lone parents. Until very recently the UK has been alone among countries of the EU in allowing lone parents to draw benefits without making themselves available for work so long as they have dependent children. However, in the 1990s, the UK government introduced major changes to his policies regarding lone parents. The UK government attempted to restrict the role of the state as a source of income for lone parent families. At the beginning of the 1990s, the emphasis in the UK was put on securing more money from 'absent fathers' to maintain. However, the policy was unsuccessful and by the mid-1990s attention to the only other possible source of income for lone parent families, the labour market, was stepped up, notwithstanding the ambivalence of politicians about the desirability of women with young children entering employment. From 1998 the Labour government introduced a series of reforms aimed at reducing both worklessness and poverty by raising welfare payments to families both in and out of work, improving financial incentives to work and introducing a more proactive welfare system. The results presented here suggest that these policies have raised the employment rates of lone parents by around 5 percentage points, or 80,000. These employment gains have come from a welfare reform package that does not require lone parents to search for jobs, or uses time limits in welfare programmes. In addition these gains have been achieved despite generous increases in welfare payments for lone parents who do not work. These earnings gains combined with the more generous welfare are making rapid progress in reducing lone parents' poverty.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.27-49
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• 2010

This paper provides insight into some important features of the intergenerational resource allocation in Korea, before and after the financial crisis in 1997-98. Data sets of three periods before and after the financial crisis (1996, 2000, and 2005) were used to compare the results. This research particularly addresses two related issues: i) the generational effects of economic crisis, and ii) the capacity of age reallocation systems to spread economic risks across generations. The results show tremendous consumption smoothing and resource reallocation by age, during and after the financial crisis. Private education and private health consumption decreased for children between 1996 and 2000. However, the decrease in private education and private health consumption was mitigated by the increase in public consumption. It appears that the public sector did not only mitigate the adverse impact of the economic crisis on consumption, but it also reduced the widening disparity amongst generations. Within transfers, the public transfers for the elderly increased substantially as the private transfers decreased rapidly. Finally, there was a big increase in the asset-based reallocation of the elderly. The increase in asset-based reallocation was mainly due to an increase in asset income between 1996 and 2000, but it was almost entirely due to a decrease in saving (i.e. an increase in dissaving) between 2000 and 2005. This suggests that Korean elderly seemed to have some degree of supporting system during the crisis, even without sufficient pension benefits. The increased reliance on asset accumulation will be critical in the long-run in Korea, as public pension funds diminish due to population aging.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.171-194
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• 2004

The antebellum American South has been characterized by the lingering backward images of plantation, slaves and cotton. The South specializing in the cotton cultivation is compared with the manufacturing East and the breadbasket Midwest. Douglass North who examined the interregional trade assumed that the South up until 1860 relied on the Midwest for the foodstuffs. Statistical and literary evidence, however, disputes the North's model, showing instead that the southern region attained self-sufficiency in foodstuffs at least in the late 1830s or early 1840s. The South's food self-sufficiency is attributable, to a greater extent, to the region-wide environmental movement of scientific agriculture launched to address the aggravating soil problems from cotton monoculture. Diversification and crop rotation lied in the center of the new regime. The new agricultural system combining com, cotton and cowpea ensured the procurement of hoecake, hog meat, and cotton. The most significant outcome of the good farming regime, however, was the enhanced environmental consciousness which came to prevail the best farmer's reckless rush for profit maximization.

• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.905-923
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to examine factors affecting the conflict between grandparents raising grandchildren and adult children. The data were based on the panel survey to explore korean retirement and income study conducted by National Pension Service in 2009. For this study, 287 parenting grandparents rearing grandchild are selected from the survey. Included variables are a demographic factor, a economic factor, a caregiving-related factor, a health factor, and a family relationship factor. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, co-relation and logistic regression, with SPSS WIN 18.0 program. The results are as follows: First, when grandparents are male, older, highly educated, having no religion, and unemployed, a conflict with their adult children grows. Second, when grandparents do not have earned income or financial income, but have private income transfers, a conflict with their adult children is high. Third, when grandchildren are younger, there are no caregiving rewards, economic activities suspension or reduction because of caregiving, a conflict with their adult children is strong. Also, when grandparents' physical health is good, but their mental health is poor, a conflict with their adult children increases. Fourth, when grandparents' satisfactions with family relationship and spouse relationship are low, but their satisfaction with adult children relationship is high, a conflict with their adult children rises. This study suggests that unlike in the past, grandparents raising grandchildren can no longer make sacrifice themselves for their adult children, but they expect proper exchange between parents and children. Therefore, there needs to be understanding of grandparents raising grandchildren and further studies of a conflict between grandparents raising grandchildren their adult children.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.5-35
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• 2004

This research is about the change of the occupation and the income of the subscriber of the medical expenditure due to the economic influence on them. The data of this study are based on 4,215 of medical cost payers among respondents of the survey on "Health and Retirement", which was the fourth additional research of Korea Labor and Income Panel Survey. The main findings of this study are as follows: First, the average medical cost is 5.5% of the income. The ratio of the medical cost to an earned income is highly different between low-income group and high income group. For the low income group, the medical cost reaches up to 1/3 of the total family income. That proves that the medical cost si a heavy burden on them. The group with the high medical expenditure seems to be supported by their own private property and other family members whenever it is needed. But it doesn't show the exact sources of the property, which includes the fund from the interests and real estates. On the other hand, only 14.4% of the subscribers changed their job status on the 5th year, and 85.6% of those kept their job status until the 5th year from the 4th year. This shows that the amount of the medical cost could be the important factor for them to change their job; for example, it is crucial whether the medical expenditure is over the average rate or not. Furthermore, the change of the occupation caused by the medical cost has the negative influence on the gross income. It makes the economic conditions of the family get worse. Therefore, the health insurance in Korea is lack of the compensational function, which substitutes the family income reduced by the change of the job status due to the high medical cost.