• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.105-133
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• 2005

This paper attempts to verify that the economic gap between the workers in (large) firms with unions and those in (small and medium size) firms with no unions has recently been widened rapidly. A comparison of the wages of the workers belonging to the business establishments with and without trade union shows that the union premium has increased very sharply since 1997, after a relatively long periods with little changes. Also found is that union sector has witnessed a sharper decline in the share of the new entrants among workers as well as a faster increase of the average tenure of workers. These all indicate that the trade unions have forced a market equilibrium to move farther away from the competitive equilibrium in recent years.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.135-164
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• 2010

This paper compares the earnings effect of inter-industry technology differences between the self-employed and wage earners. It is assumed that primary skills utilized by the self-employed and paid workers differ in nature, and thus the earnings effect of technology differences and its skill-biasness also differ for each type of workers. For the empirical analysis. Heckman's two-stage method and quantile regressions are fitted to Korean panel data. The earnings effect of technology differences turns skill- biased for wage earners (job-specific skills), but prevails for all self-employed workers (entrepreneurial skills) regardless of their schooling level. This sectoral difference holds for each different quantile of earnings distribution.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.89-117
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• 2014

Employing female in the field of science and engineering is becoming increasingly important with diversity and creativity emerging as key factors to build Creative Economy. Under these circumstances, it is necessary to recognize and discourage gender discrimination in the labor market by analyzing wages - the market value of labor which determines one's economic status. This study uses the Oaxaca-Ransom decomposition (1994) to analyze the gender wage gap and identify factors influencing the pay gap in science and engineering labor force. The results of this study are as follows: First, the average wage of female scientists and engineers reaches only 65% of that of male labor force, and the male scientist and engineers are superior in terms of personal attributes, for instance, education background. Second, looking at the factors that influence wages, wage premiums are associated with higher education background, older age, longer period of service, and weekly working hours for both male and female in managerial positions. Third, the wage decomposition shows that in the case of science and engineering labor force, the productivity difference by personal attributes reaches about 58%, and gender discrimination by the characteristics of the labor market stands at about 41%. This means the wage gap by productivity level in science and engineering labor force is wider, and the gender gap is smaller compared to non-science and engineering fields. However, the results of an analysis on specialties and education background of male and female scientists and engineers suggest that the discrimination against women is more serious when the percentage of the female labor force is low and the percentage of temporary workers in the labor market is high. In order to eliminate this discrimination, it is necessary to reduce the imbalance of female scientists and engineers in the labor market, among others, while female scientists and engineers, themselves, need to make continuous efforts to strengthen their capabilities.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.22-39
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• 2011

This study examines the wage level from a viewpoint of major-job match as part of an analysis on the skill mismatch problem in 4-year college graduates. The empirical analysis explicitly incorporate the sample selection bias as an econometric problem not only suggested but merely introduced in the earlier studies. This study also set up a major-job match variable, which was usually handled as a binary variable for analytical convenience, as a polychotomous choice variable in selection equation as provided by the survey. In particular, it considered multi-cohort survey on graduates of the years 1982, 1992, and 2002 for the empirical analysis. As a result of empirical analysis, the wage premium of a major-job match was identified. This result was consistent after the consideration of a sample selection bias and also after modeling the major-job match variable as polychotomously selective. Through an analysis classified by the major, this study identified a relatively high wage premium among Social Science, Engineering, and Science majors. However, there was a difference in the effect of selection among these majors. Also, by assessing cohort effects this study found that the skill mismatch had rapidly progressed in 1992, while difference between 1992 and 2002 cohorts are insignificant. The analysis suggests that wage level is better understood within the context of both sample selection and major-job match, and regardless of model specification the major-job match affects wage strongly.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.65-80
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• 2000

In this paper We measured average earnings differentials between the government and the private sector, the degree of earnings inequality within each sector, and estimated net earnings differentials between the public and private sector in 1982, 1985, 1990, 1995 and 1998, respectively. According to our estimation results, the public servants in Korea are being more paid than the private sector on the average, and have been enjoying higher net wage premium after controlling variables such as education level, job experience and occupation, etc. In terms of earning inequality within each sector, the public sector was proven to have very narrow earnings differentials between the top and the bottom, compared to quite large differentials in the private sector. Wide recognition that the public servants' compensation is lower in Korea seems quite wrong. The problem to be resolved is the earnings standardization in the public sector and the strong trend toward more equality in recent years. We recommend that the wage gap between the higher rank and the lower rank should be extended, and employment flexibility within the lower positions or ranks of the bureaucracy should be enhanced.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.107-134
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• 2004

This paper attempts to find out the economic roots of the increasing tendency not to choose the science and engineering (S&E) fields in the colleges. The analysis shows that the relative economic position of the S&E graduates measured in terms of employment quality is not significantly different from that of the non-S&E graduates. But the S&E graduates earn relatively low wage and self-employment income. Furthermore, the relative income of the top 5% bracket of the S&E graduates has been declining in the recent five years. The paper concludes that low relative income of the average S&E graduates as well as the increasingly lower relative income of the most able S&E personnel, coupled with the increasing compensating differential required for the S&E jobs, is the main reason for the 'avoidance' phenomenon of the S&E fields.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-39
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• 2007

This study focuses on the possibility that skill-biased technological change is one of the factors for relatively poor employment conditions of the unskilled after the economic crisis. Increasing employment share of skilled workers accompanying with rising wage premium for education since implies that labor demand has shifted toward the skilled. The decomposition of changes in wage share of skilled workers into between-industry and within-industry changes suggests that the increase in the demand for skilled labor has been largely due to within-industry changes, which can be seen as reflecting the effect of the skill-biased technological change. Also the regression results indicate that the employment share of skilled workers has more rapidly increased in the industries with higher ICT (Information Communication Technology) investment intensity since the mid 1990s, hinting to the possibility that skill-biased technological changes may have come from ICT.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.411-435
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• 2013

Since catastrophe from explosion of Hukushima nuclear power plant, concerns over possibility of exposure to radioactive matter has been disseminating all over the world and frequent accidents of domestic nuclear power plants also has been amplifying throughout the nation. In the past, major focus was made on compensation for local residents who live nearby nuclear power plants, but focal point of this study is on wage premium of workers who are employed in R&D of nuclear power plants. It is difficult to derive socially desirable result if private sectors are responsible for compensation on workers who suffer from physical damages due to the exposure to radioactive matter. Because victims should verify the damages that occur in the working places. This study conducted a survey on which job would prefer the respondents who are engaged with the nuclear R&D projects as exposure levels to radioactive matter, security of job, location of firms, and work intensity differ. As a result, exposure to radioactive matter was the most important attribute in choosing alternative jobs followed by job security, work intensity and job location. Annual willingness to pay for reduction of exposure to radioactive matter was estimated as 7730~7770 thousand KRW depending on different econometric models. Therefore, Korean government should prepare institutional foundation in order that appropriate compensation should be made on workers who are engaged in R&D projects on nuclear power plants if they have damages from the exposure to radioactive matter.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.31-58
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• 2008

This study examines applying the elderly poverty labor hypothesis and skill-biased technological change hypothesis to labor force participation rate(LFPR) of older males in Korea. These hypotheses have hardly been examined on the this group. The analysis is based on the data "Summary of economically active population($1965{\sim}2007$)", "Population projection($1965{\sim}2007$)", "Report on wage structure survey($1993{\sim}2005$)" and "Korea Labor and Income Panel Study($1998{\sim}2006$)". The method employed for this study is logistic regression. The main results from this analysis are summarized in five points. Firstly, Korean older males' LFPR have been increasing since 1965 when industrialization was expanding at full steam. This trend has been different from the decreasing trend of industrialized countries. The second finding is that poor older males' LFPR is, on the average, 5.2% higher than that of non-poor older males from 1998 to 2005. The third result is that the non-elderly man has been increasingly positioned at higher grade occupations, while the elderly man has been held at lower grade occupations. The fourth is that labor demand for highly educated workers has exceeded the increased labor supply of the group, while the demand for low educated workers has decreased far beyond the declined labor supply. As a result, college premium has increased from 139% in 1993 to 157.8% in 2005. The final main implication of this study is that the industrialization theory and modernization hypothesis still holds for the LFPR of Korean older males. However, the elderly affluence hypothesis of the LFPR of older males are hardly persuasive in explaining Korean phenomenon. Especially, we find that the elderly poverty is the main mechanism in determining the Korean LFPR in old ages. This supports the elderly poverty labor hypothesis presented in this study. Skill-biased technological change hypothesis partially explains the LFPR of older man. However, we believe that other factors; human capital specially high school education rather than university education and skill required in less skill biased occupations or the poverty; also have taken effect.