• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.1
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• pp.109-126
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• 2013

This paper aims to define Mecius's people-care theory(保民論), and aims to recognize the characteristics of social security contained in Mecius's people-care theory. Mecius considered to the public relief as King's obligation. So to speak, the King protects to the property of the people. Especially his people-care theory implicate to continuity of safety life, a relief fund on the property, protection of disaster damage. Continuity of safety life means to enabling the people procurable food, clothing and bury dead persons without difficulties. It's may be said that implicated to the theory and system of modern social-welfare. It is reason for his opinion that a state should construct in the minimum social safety network by taking responsibility for basis needs of life. He was a humanist so much. He thought about the pursuit of the human happiness and the improvement in quality of life. Therefore his idea nearly means to the social security system in a modern sense. His thought is not only an ideal background on the public assistance and a social relief security in the contemporary but also a relief activity system such as Jindaebup called historical prototype of social welfare. It is an important fact that his people-care theory implicate to social security system.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.149-182
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• 2001

Due to the sustained increase in lifts expectancy, the number and proportion of the aged population has substantially increased, the proportion of the total population aged 65 and over was 7.1% in 2000 and 14.3% in 2022. But All public pension schemes in Korea, including the National Pension scheme, civil servants pension scheme, private school teachers pension scheme and the military pension scheme, are facing valving degree of financial problems at present because of their weak and unstable financial bases. with the result that some of them have recorded deficits for some time and the others are expected to run deficits in the near future. This crisis in financial sustainability in public pension schemes is attributable to the structural weakness of the schemes which can be characterized as high benefits, low contribution. Therefore, this article focuses on alternative of public pension schemes reform in Korea. The results is as follows. First, a basic pension is proposed to be newly established and the earnings related portion of National Pension Scheme will be as national pension. Secondly, the Basic Pension is a universal basic pension covering all nationals over 18 years and older, thereby achieving \"one pension for everybody\" Thirdly, National Pension will be operated as an earnings related pension covering only those participants with assessed income. Fourth1y, the current participants of public occupational pensions will also join the Basic Pension as well as the public occupational pensions whose scope of works will be reduced. And finally, The conversion of Retirement Allocation Scheme into a corporate pension should be left to the discretion of the company concerned.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.71-130
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• 2008

Using data from the Korean Labor & Income Panel Study (KLIPS), this study investigates private income transfers in Korea, where adult children have undertaken the most responsibility of supporting their elderly parents without well-established social safety net for the elderly. According to the KLIPS data, three out of five households provided some type of support for their aged parents and two out of five households of the elderly received financial support from their adult children on a regular base. However, the private income transfers in Korea are not enough to alleviate the impact of the fall in the earned income of those who retired and are approaching an age of needing financial assistance from external source. The monthly income of those at least the age of 75, even with the earning of their spouses, is below the staggering amount of 450,000 won, which indicates that the elderly in Korea are at high risk of poverty. In order to analyze microeconomic factors affecting the private income transfers to the elderly parents, the following three samples extracted from the KLIPS data are used: a sample of respondents of age 50 or older with detailed information on their financial status; a five-year household panel sample in which their unobserved family-specific and time-invariant characteristics can be controlled by the fixed-effects model; and a sample of the younger split-off household in which characteristics of both the elderly household and their adult children household can be controlled simultaneously. The results of estimating private income transfer models using these samples can be summarized as follows. First, the dominant motive lies on the children-to-parent altruistic relationship. Additionally, another is based on exchange motive, which is paid to the elderly parents who take care of their grandchildren. Second, the amount of private income transfers has negative correlation with the income of the elderly parents, while being positively correlated with the income of the adult children. However, its income elasticity is not that high. Third, the amount of private income transfers shows a pattern of reaching the highest level when the elderly parents are in the age of 75 years old, following a decreasing pattern thereafter. Fourth, public assistance, such as the National Basic Livelihood Security benefit, appears to crowd out private transfers. Private transfers have fared better than public transfers in alleviating elderly poverty, but the role of public transfers has been increasing rapidly since the welfare expansion after the financial crisis in the late 1990s, so that one of four elderly people depends on public transfers as their main income source in 2003. As of the same year, however, there existed and occupied 12% of the elderly households those who seemed eligible for the National Basic Livelihood benefit but did not receive any public assistance. To remove elderly poverty, government may need to improve welfare delivery system as well as to increase welfare budget for the poor. In the face of persistent elderly poverty and increasing demand for public support for the elderly, which will lead to increasing government debt, welfare policy needs targeting toward the neediest rather than expanding universal benefits that have less effect of income redistribution and heavier cost. Identifying every disadvantaged elderly in dire need for economic support and providing them with the basic livelihood security would be the most important and imminent responsibility that we all should assume to prepare for the growing aged population, and this also should accompany measures to utilize the elderly workforce with enough capability and strong will to work.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.97-124
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• 2001

Co-residence is a type of intergenerational private transfers of resources: money, time and space. Adult daughters and their elderly parents decide to co-reside, depending on their utility levels before and after co-residence that mainly depend on the health status of the elderly. Therefore, co-residence implies positive net benefits to both parties in the sense that, when they co-reside, elderly parents share childcare and adult daughter provide elderly care. In other words, formal (paid) care can be substituted with informal (unpaid) one. Both marriage and giving births are considered as the major obstacles to labor market attachment of women who bear burdens of home production and childcare. Co-residence can be a solution for married women to avoid career interruption by sharing burdens with their elderly parents. However, most previous studies using the U.S. data on intergenerational private transfers focused on elderly care and have concluded that they reduce government expenditures associated with public subsidies to the elderly. This study focuses on adult daughters and it examines effects of co-residence on labor supply of married women in Korea, who face limited formal childcare programs in terms of both quantity and quality. It applies the Tobit model of married women's labor supply to the data from the Second Wave of the Korean Labor and Income Panel Survey( 1999), in order to investigate effects of co-residence and the work and health status of the co-residing elderly as well as their own health status. Four specifications of the empirical model are tested that each includes co-residence with elderly parents, their gender, or their work and health status. Estimation results show that co-residence, co-residence with female elderly, and co-residence with not-working female elderly have significant positive effects on labor supply of married women while poor health status of co-residing female elderly does not bring about any negative effects. However, co-residence with male elderly, regardless of their work and health status, has no significant effect The results indicate that co-residence is closely related to sharing of home production among female elderly and adult daughters who are married and, through intergenerational private transfers of resources in terms of time, it helps women avoid career interruption.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.138-147
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• 2007

An emergy concept was used to evaluate the environment and economy of the Han River basin in Korea and to suggest policy perspectives far the sustainable utilization of its environment and associated estuarine ecosystem. The economy of the basin used $5.19{\times}10^{23}\;sej/yr$ of emergy in 2005. The economy of the Han River basin was heavily dependent on outside energy sources from foreign countries and other parts of Korea, with internal sources, renewable and nonrenewable, contributing only 15.6% to the total emergy use. The basin's trade balance in terms of emergy showed trade surplus, whereas there was a deficit in monetary terms. The population of the Han River basin was far greater than the carrying capacity calculated using the emergy flow, with renewable carrying capacity only at 1.8% of the basin's population and developed carrying capacity at 14.3%. The economy of the basin imposed a substantial stress on its environment, with an environmental loading ratio of 54.8. Overall, the economy of the Han River basin was not sustainable with an emergy sustainability of 0.02. These are reflected in lower quality of living expressed in the emergy term than the national average. Deconcentration of population and economic activities is needed to reduce environmental stress on the environment of the basin and its valuable estuarine ecosystem. Policies to restore ecosystem productivity of the basin are also needed to ensure the sustainability of the basin's economic activities and the sustainable utilization of the Han River estuary. In this regard, it is urgently needed for the Korean government to implement sustainable management measures for the Han River estuary, a well-preserved, productive natural estuarine ecosystem in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.19-49
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• 2011

In this study, multilateral conceptualizations of underemployment were measured in terms of wages, social status, skill utilization and permanence of the job, and then the effects of antecedents on underemployment and the effects of underemployment on organizational adaptation were examined. Data obtained by a longitudinally designed survey at intervals of 18 months with the reemployed(N = 153) after job loss were used. The underemployment measures include 1) the ratio of wage change 2) the ratio of status change 3) the ratio of education 4) the occurrence of change from the permanent job to temporary job, 5) overqualification - growth opportunity, 6) overqualification - mismatch. The first four measures are social-economic and objective measures and the last two measures are psychological and self-reported ones. Demographic variables(sex, age, education level, and period of unemployed), circumstantial variables(economic hardship, number of dependents), and psychological variables(job-seeking self-efficacy, depression/anxiety, latent function) are included in antecedents. In the effects of antecedents on underemployment, age increases the level of underemployment in the aspects of wage and job status. Economic hardship increases the possibility of underemployment in the aspects of education and number of dependents increases the possibility of underemployment in the aspects of job status. Job seeking self-efficacy decreases the possibility of underemployment in the overqualification - no growth. Retention of latent function during the period of unemployment lowers the possibility of underemployment in the overqualification - no growth. The level of depression and anxiety during the period of unemployment raises the possibility of underemployment in terms of education and in the overqualification - mismatch. In the effects of underemployment on organizational adaptation, the higher the level of underemployment in the aspect of education is, the lower the level of person-organization fit, emotional commitment, and job satisfaction are. And the transition from permanent job to temporary job makes emotional commitment and job satisfaction lower. No growth and mismatch exerted a significant influence on organizational adaptation generally.

• 한국노년학
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.1003-1024
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• 2016

The human rights of older people have gotten more attention recently in South Korea, a country that is in transition to a super-aged society. This study aimed to systematically review studies on elder abuse and related factors among community-dwelling older adults in South Korea over twenty years (1994-2016). We searched major databases (Riss, DBpia, KISS, KMbase, and PubMed) and identified published studies relevant to the topic. Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria related to study quality, a total of 31 studies were selected for this review. We examined types, measurements, and risk factors of elder abuse as well as study designs in the selected studies, guided by Johannesen's theoretical framework on elder abuse. All of the reviewed studies on elder abuse in Korea were cross-sectional studies, most of which focused on older people living in urban areas, using a non-random sampling method. All of the studies focused on certain types of elder abuse only. Some adopted elder-abuse instruments that were not validated, and others used self-developed instruments without psychometric tests. As for the risk factors of elder abuse in South Korea, the physical and mental health of the victims and aggressors impacted the risk of elder abuse, but general sociodemographic factors such as age, sex, and education were less likely to be related to the risk. In addition, decreasing caregiver burden and building elder-friendly communities are important for the prevention of elder abuse. Needed are further empirical studies on elder abuse with a theoretical framework that gives consideration to the unique sociocultural contexts of Korea. It is also recommended to develop instruments to measure elder abuse reflecting the sociocultural contexts of Korea, and to examine the multi-dimensional risk factors of elder abuse.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.35
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• pp.453-474
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• 1998

This paper attempts to analyse the patriarchal characteristics of welfare states. Increasingly, debates on welfare states are explicitly focusing on the relationships between state, market and family. How these relationships are structured forms the core parts of the particular welfare states, that is they give shape to different welfare state regimes. Although welfare states have developed incresingly, there are some problems that sustain these states asymmetrical, unequal, even sexist. In this paper, I want to make these problems visible by the terms of gender division of labour, the model of male work and the changing characteristics of patriarchy. Firstly, from the feminist perspective, we can point the fact that the welfare states are structured by gender. Welfare states take it for granted that our socities are based on the assumption of gender division of labour, what is called male breadwinner/ female dependent. And the state takes this gendered family as the stereotype in our societies. Secondly, it is not sufficient condition for men and women to perform satisfactory life of work and family that welfare states provide childcare center on an extensive scale. This is because that our societies are runned by "the model of male work". Thirdly, we can find that the characteristics of patriarchy of welfare state are changing. These changes can be explained from the 'private patriarchy' to the 'public patriarchy', in other words, from the women's dependence to individual man to the dependence to the state/ public sectors. And also under these changes, we can find the potent possibilities for women to take economic activities and independent self-supports.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.167-187
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• 2000

The rates and numbers of elderly suicide in Korea have been increased during 1985-1998. This indicates the seriousness of the problems which the elderly are faced with. So many late-life problems may push older people across the edges. Those in unbearable situations may call out fur helps, they may try to cope with various ways, or they may commit suicides. Because it is widely believed that suicide among the elderly can be understood as a personal solution or alternative to late-life problems in old age, the elderly\`s suicides seem to be an appropriate indicator in estimating seriousness of late-life problems. A comparison of the history of suicide research with other populations shows that the several late-life problems have been found with placing an individual elder at risks for increasing suicidal behaviors Research has identified such problems as financial insecurity, retirement, loss of social roles, physical illness, lack of social supports, and loneliness as the problems that increase the incidence of suicidal behavior. Though it is difficult far us to explain and understand the phenomenon of the elderly\`s suicide because of its complexity, we need to ascertain problems and social conditions behind suicides and also to prepare for some appropriate policy-tasks in light of social welfare for the aged, through examining the phenomenon. For explaining the elderly\`s suicide, the theoretical orientations are based on sociological perspectives in the paper. From the standpoints of social integration theory and exchange theory, this study is to examine the relationship between late-life problems and suicide. These two may have been fruitfully employed in conjunction with each other. Finally, this study would identify urgent late-life problems related with the elderly\`s suicide and suggest the relevant policies for Korean elders. Sometime in the near future, the government should be required to provide social welfare programs for the elderly, particularly for those at risk for increasing suicidal behaviors.

• Journal of Society of Occupational Therapy for the Aged and Dementia
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.57-65
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• 2018

Objective : The purpose of this study was to compare the demographic characteristics, health and quality of life between general adults and adults living with dementia. Method : The data were collected using raw data of the 2016 community health survey and compared between 2,592 adults living with dementia patients and 225,840 general adults. health were assessed for sleep time, stress level, depression, and subjective health status, and quality of life was measured by EQ-5D. Result : In comparison of demographic characteristics, age and family number of adults living with dementia patients were significantly higher than general adults (p<.001), income and eduation levels were low (p<.001), and marital status was higher rate of living with spouse (p<.05). In comparison of health status, adults living with dementia patients were significantly longer in sleep time than the general adults (p<.001), and stress level was higher (p<.001), the percentage of experience of depression was higher (p<.001), and the subjective health status was worse (p<.001). Adults living with dementia patients were significantly lower in quality of life total score and all sub-domain than general adults (p<.001). Conclusion : Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to seek ways to improve the health and quality of life of dementia patients' families.