• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.271-297
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• 2005

Since the 1980s, the western welfare states have experienced a wide spectrum of socio-economic changes; changes in population composition, the economic globalization, the post-industrialization, an increasing flexibility in the labor market. etc. This study examines the trend of poverty in welfare states, and analyzes how those socio-economic changes are related to it. For these purposes, this study first calculates the poverty indices for several years in 10 welfare states using the Luxembourg Income Study database, and then decomposes the index by subpopulation and income sources. Major findings of this study can be summarized as follows. First of all, the welfare state in general has experienced an increasing trend in the degree of poverty since the 1980s. In particular, poverty has greatly intensified in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Many other welfare states including Canada, Germany, Sweden, and Norway have also experienced substantial increases in poverty. The increasing trend of poverty is not wholly due to changes in population composition such as increases in the aging population and one-parent(mother) families. Contrary to the traditional belief, these population groups are not as much poor as the working-age population. In particular, the degree of poverty in the elderly is less severe than in the working-age group. Furthermore, since the 1980s the market income poverty in the aging population has shown a decreasing trend in many welfare states. The degree and trend of poverty in one-parent families vary greatly across countries, owing to the labor market and income transfer policies. The most important reason for the increasing poverty trend in the welfare state is that the degree of poverty has been deepening in the working-age population. Especially, the market income poverty of the working-age population has considerably increased in every country except the Netherlands. Structural changes in the economy and the labor market may drive the increasing trend of poverty. Further studies and deliberate anti-poverty policies are needed to tackle the factors relating to the increase in the market income poverty.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.108-117
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to analyze the blind spots of Korea's employment insurance system from a gender perspective. The data used for this study was derived from 12th (2009) and 20th (2017) years of the Korean Labor and Income Panel Studies. Logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the causes of the blind spot. As a result, the gender gap decreased by 5% in 2017 compared to that in 2009. In the coverage of employment insurance by gender, women are more likely to join when controlling for other demographic factors. If the conditions in the labor market are the same, then women's insurance coverage is likely to be higher than that of men. The policy suggestions are as follows. The current employment insurance system has a greater impact on the labor market characteristics than the difference in the participation rate according to gender itself. The results of this study show that bridging the gender gap in the labor market is an important way of bridging the gender gap in employment insurance coverage. In the short term, the social insurance subsidy program may be effective, but policy efforts are fundamentally needed to improve the employment environment of women and low-wage workers.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.141-154
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• 2018

As the sharing economic market grows, the subject of sharing is expanding to intangible resources such as time, experience, and expertise. The phenomenon that an individual temporarily participates in the platform by utilizing own intangible resources is defined as a 'gig economy'. The gig economy has a positive expectation that can create new jobs, but also has negative warnings that it is only a temporary job based on low wages. The gig economy market is growing rapidly in Korea, however there are very few academic discussions. This study examines the experiences of resource providers in the Korean gig economic platform, and then explores future job changes based on the perception of resource providers. This study selected the subject of research as a talent sharing platform and conducted in-depth interviews with 16 resource providers. The results of the research were presented through content analysis, and their experiences and perceptions were classified into six themes. This study implies academic and practical significance in exploring in depth the overall experience of resource suppliers and in suggesting proposals for desirable successful market growth.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.95-116
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• 2006

Traditionally, foreign labor inflow into Korea has been rare and, hence, issues on foreign workers did not draw much attention. However, changing economic conditions of the Korean economy, such as "labor-shortage" problem in SMEs in manufacturing sector, has made the Korean government open its door to the foreign workers since the early 1990s through the Industrial Trainee System. The inflow of foreign workers, on the other hand, has generated various social and economic problems, such as substantial increase of illegal over-stayers, illegal utilization of foreign unskilled workers by domestic SMEs, to name a few. Against this background, the Employment Permit System was implemented from 2004. This new system aims at supplying foreign workers to SMEs as well as protecting them as legal 'employees'. In any case, it is very important to understand how and to what extent the inflow of foreign workers have affected the Korean economy in order to establish long-term policy stance. This paper aims to empirically assess the economic impact of foreign workers on domestic workers in the manufacturing sector during 1997~20001, focusing on the Industrial Trainee System. The empirical results of the paper can be summarized as follows. First, there is some evidence that male semi-skilled workers are the group that is likely to have been displaced by industrial trainees. Second, we were unable to find any strong evidence suggesting that the inflow of foreign industrial trainees decreased wages of less-skilled Korean workers.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.290-308
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• 2008

The industrial development of Goryeong County was started by the operation of the Ssangrym Agro￢industrial complex in the 1980s. As of 2m3, there are 6 industrial complexes in Goryeong County which account for 80 percent of total employment and 67 percent of total production outPuts in local manufacturing. The local manufacturing industries grew steadily before the 1997 financial crisis which resulted in industrial decline and have shown again a growing tendency since 2000. In this period of growth, manufacturing outPuts are increased and the industrial structure are improved, while employment and value added are in stagnation. The major industrial agglomerations are based in Gaejin-Myun, Dasan-Myun and Ssangrym-Myun, all of which are those in which the agro-industrial complex is operated. More than half of local manufacturing finns are those which came to move in from other regions, looking for cheap labour forces, agglomeration of the related finns and the easy accessibility to transport and communication. However, such local advantages are increasingly losing due to the shortage of labour forces and the lack of industrial networks. Some policy agendas can be suggested as follows. First of all, industrial policy should attempt links with the building-up of the Daegu Technopolis and the up-grading of the local industrial structure towards the knowledge-based industries. Secondly, the local government should make efforts to establish the innovation supporting system for local firms and the industrial and residential basis.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.168-189
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• 2015

The job creation has been the most pressing issue after financial crisis in many countries around the world. Various policies for creating jobs have been implemented in order to revitalize regional economy in Korea. It has been known that the jobs have been created more in low-wage and part-time work than high-wage and full-time work. The purpose of this study is to analyze the differentiation of startups job in local labor market areas(LLMAs) in terms of job quantity as well as job quality. As the spatial unit, 121 local labor market areas which were delineated based on self-containment rate(demand and supply side of labor market) and numbers of resident workers are used. Also due to difference of the size of employment, LLMAs are classified into 3 groups: large, Medium, small LLMAs. The major results are as follows: First, the characteristics of the job creation are varied among 3 groups in terms of the quantitative and qualitative aspects. Highly waged and highly value-added jobs have been created more in large LLMAs, but full-time jobs created more in small LLMAs. Secondly, the job creation of LLMAs is somewhat weakly correlated to regional economic performance. While the quality of jobs is correlated to regional economic performance in Medium LLMAs, the quantity of jobs is significantly correlated to regional economic performance in small LLMAs. The results of this research give some implications for implementing the effective policy to create jobs related to regional economy, indicating that differentiated strategies for 3 groups of LLMAs is critically important.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.13-36
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• 2012

This paper is to reconsider comprehensively and systematically major issues on transnational immigrants, increased rapidly since the beginning of the 1990s, and their impacts on socio-spatial changes in S. Korea. Foreign immigrants who have moved on the contexts of unevenness of globalization and advancces in transport & telecommunication technology on the global level and of economic development and shortage of cheap and unskilled workers have been distributed unevenly, concentrating on the Capital region and local areas with industrial complexes. Foreign workers seems to have some negative influences on regional economies in the long-term, though positive in the short-term. Domestic people seem to have an ambivalent attitude which accepts necessity of multi-culture, while simultaneously continues to be self-confident on ethnic homogeneity. The Korean government has launched multicultural policies for foreign immigrants by the mid-2000, but still continues some policies with assimilationism and differential exclusionism, marginalizing them socio-spatially, while lacking local government's policy and programmes. In conclusion, in order to resolve these problems and to transfer multicultural societal space of Korea, a geography of transnational migration which promotes especially discourse and policy with authentic multiculturalism, extending roles of local government, and ensuring glocal citizenships.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.277-306
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• 2017

This article empirically explores the impact of minijobs in the wake of the Hartz reform in Germany on women's employment relationship. Theoretically it is of great significance to examine whether the minijobs play an active role as a bridge in leading the minijobbers to regular, socially secured jobs or not. Several interviews as well as secondary data I could get during my sabbatical in 2015 were used to test the theory. One of the main findings was the fact that the minijob labor market opened doors wide for women in Germany, particularly for career-interrupted women, students or pensioners. However, the minijob can easily become a trap of lowest income and poverty for women. Most women minjobbers cannot go over to regular, socially secured jobs. Especially in terms of collective industrial relations, it considerably damages the power of industrial unions and the legal binding force of collective agreement. In conclusion, this study makes it clear that the labor market segmentation theory rather than the transitional labor market theory is valid in accounting for the reality of minijob in Germany. In other words, the minijob in Germany has a Toijan Horse Effect. It also suggests, from a practical viewpoint, that German industrial unions or works councils organize the minijobbers and that the coverage of collective agreements be extended to the minijobbers. Consequently, the time-selective part-timer model put into practice in Korea in 2014 is not only invalid but also undesirable.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.53
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• pp.129-153
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• 2003

This study examines the socio-economic impacts of recent welfare reform in the United States. Based on the neo-conservative critique to the traditional public assistance system for low-income families, the 1996 welfare reform has given greater emphases on reducing welfare dependency and increasing work effort and self-sufficiency among welfare recipients. In particular, the welfare reform legislation instituted 60-month lifetime limits on cash assistance, expanded mandatory work requirements, and placed financial penalties for noncompliance. With the well-timed economic boom in the second half of the 1990s, the welfare reform seems to achieve considerable progress; welfare caseload has declined sharply to reach less than 50% of its 1994 peak, single mothers' labor force participation has increased substantially, and child poverty has decreased. In spite of these good signals, the welfare reform also has several potential problems. Many welfare leavers participate in the labor market, but not all (or most) of them. The economic well being of working welfare leavers did not increased significantly, because earnings increase was canceled out by parallel decrease in welfare benefits. Furthermore, most of working welfare leavers are employed in jobs with poor employment stability and low wages, making them highly vulnerable to frequent layoff, long-time joblessness, persistent poverty, and welfare recidivism. Another serious problem of the welfare reform is that a substantial number of welfare recipients are faced with extreme difficulties in finding jobs, because they have severe barriers to employment. The new welfare system with 5-year time limit can severely threaten the livelihoods of these people. The welfare reform presupposes that welfare recipients can achieve self-reliance by increasing their labor market activities. However, empirical evidences suggest that many people are unable to respond to the new, work-oriented welfare strategy. It may be a very difficult task to achieve both objectives of the welfare reform((1) providing adequate income security for low-income families and (2) promoting self-sufficiency) at the same time, because sometimes they are conflicting each other. With this in mind, a possible solution can be to distinguish welfare recipients into "(Very)-Hard-to-Employ" group and "(Relatively)-Ready-to-Work" group, based on elaborate examinations of a wide range of personal conditions. For the former group, the primary objective of welfare policies should be the first one(providing income security). For the "Ready-to-Work" group, follow-up services to promote job retention and advancement, as well as skill-training and job-search services, are very important. The U. S. experiences of the welfare reform provide some useful implications for newly developing Korean public assistance policies for the able-bodied low-income population.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.390-413
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• 2010

Facing reconfiguration of world economic order in the process of globalization and changes in domestic economic and social conditions, Japan has experienced a rapid inflow of foreign immigrants and hence a restructuring of labor market and ethic and cultural mixture. This paper explores contexts of inflow and social and spatial characteristics of immigrant workers in Japan. Uneven regional development on the global level and shifting to flexible accumulation regime, depletion of previously underutilized labor resource, better-educated youth and shrinking and aging of Japanese populace on the national level can be pointed out as important elements of immigration contexts. This paper also explains the hierarchizaton of labor market and differentiation of spatial distribution of immigrant workers in Japan in terms of visa condition and nationality. In particular, focusing on the case of Hiroshima prefecture, this paper analyzes residential differentiation of immigrants according to their nationality. Finally, it finds out some problems which immigrant workers have confronted in Hiroshima region.