• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.105-138
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• 2009

Although the decline in fertility rate is generally observed along the history of economic development throughout the world, the continuing decline hitting below the replacement level in Korea over the recent years gathered serious social concerns on the ground that it accelerates the process of population aging. The total fertility rate in Koreareached 2.08 in 1983, and gradually fell to the levels of 1.08 in 2005 and 1.26 in 2007. The policy debate over the role of the government has been focused mainly on the level of theoretical discussion without substantial basis on firm empirical evidence and the determinants of fertility. The objective of the paper is to empirically investigate the fertility effect of the female wage, which is understood as one of the most important determinants of fertility in Koreasince 1980 focusing on one aspect of fertility, namely birth spacing. Using the Korean National Fertility Survey conducted in 2006, I estimate a duration model of first and second births taking into account individual heterogeneity, which turned out to be an important factor to control for. Compared with previous studies in the literature on the Korean fertility, the study has an advantage of using the complete pregnancy history of women in a more representative sample. Unlike the previous studies, the analysis also deals with the endogeneity of marriage by treating a certain age, rather than age at marriage, as the time in which a woman becomes exposed to the risk of pregnancy. The study shares the common problem in the literature on birth spacing of lacking relevant wage information for respondents in a retrospective survey. I estimate the wage series as a function of the basic characteristics using the annual Wage Structure Survey from 1980 to 2005, which is considered as a nationally representative sample for wage information of employees. The results suggest that the increase in female wage by 10 percent leads to a decrease in second birth hazard by 0.56~0.92 percentage points and that the increase in spouse's wage by the equal amount is accompanied by the increase in second birth hazard by 0.36~1.13 percentage points. These estimates are more precisely estimated and of smaller magnitude than those presented by the previous studies. The results are robust to the different specifications of the wage equation. The simulation analysis based on the predicted values shows that about 17% of the change in the second birth hazard over the period 1980 to 2005 was due to the change in the female wage. Although there is some limitation in data, the results can be viewed as one estimate of the role of female wage on the recent fertility decline in Korea. The question raised by the paper is not a normative one of whether a government should promote childbearing but a positive one thatexplains fertility decline. Therefore, if there is a wide consensus on promoting childbearing, the finding suggests that the policies designed to reduce the opportunity cost of women in the labor market would be effective. The recent movement of implementing a wide range of family-friendly policies including child care support, maternity leave, parental leave and tax benefit in developed countries should be understood in this context.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.907-914
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• 2015

Reduction in the number of students due to the low birth rate has notice very many changes in the national education policies. The purpose of this study is to propose a method for estimation of the number of students (the population) by age or grade promotion rate of progression rate to estimate the exact number of students (the population) by 2032. It was suggested the nth moving average proportional method and the weighted proportional moving average method as the method of population projections. It presents the means and standard deviations of the measurement errors of the suggested methods by Monte Carlo simulation. Measured in this study are predicted result was a phenomenon is estimated lower than the actual value.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.153-158
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• 2023

Experts are concerned about the lack of troops and security vacuum due to the low birth rate in the Republic of Korea. They consider policies to expand the proportion and role of female soldiers to address these issues. In this regard, We would like to introduce the successful use of female personnel in the Ukrainian military and draw implications for the Korean military. This will provide a clue to offset the shortage of troops in the Republic of Korea.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.117-124
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• 2007

Objectives: This study was conducted to investigate how willingness to have an additional childbirth was related to mother's general characteristics and various reasons for avoiding an additional childbirth. Methods: By using organized questionnaire, we had face-to-face interviews with 722 mothers who had 12 to 36 months child in a urban-rural area of Chungcheongnam-do from 14 February to 19 February in 2005. Questionnaires included general characteristics composed of age, monthly income, number of children, major carers and mother's job status, and 6 reasons for avoiding an additional childbirth. We performed chi-square test and multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: Of 722 mothers, 66.5% had no willingness to have an additional childbirth. In the multiple logistic regression analysis, old age of mother(95% CI of OR: 1.084-1.190), two or more children(95% CI of OR: 6.97-15.602) and weak norm about need for a child(95% CI of OR: 1.633-29.352) were independent related factors with willingness to have an additional childbirth. Conclusions: In our study, 2/3 women who already had children were appeared to have no willingness to have additional childbirth. Policies about family planning and controlling birth rate should be focused on eliminating barrier to additional childbirths.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.59-70
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• 2016

This study aimed to find effective policies to cope with low birth rate in local authorities. It was analyzed the variables-a number of child-care facilities, paid parental leave, labor force participation, and total working hours-using panel analysis from 2005 to 2014. The results were as follows. First, after testing the whole years, we found that the fittest model was the fixed-effects model of 2 models(fixed-effects model, random effects model). A number of child-care facilities had positive effects, and a number of child-care facilities, and total working hours in women influenced negative effects on total fertility rate. Second, during the former time and the period of plan for low birth rate and aging society, a number of child-care facilities influenced negative effects on total fertility rate. Third, a number of child-care facilities had negative effects on total fertility rate in Busan, Daegu, and Kwangju. Paid parental leave influenced positively on total fertility rate in 5 cities and a province. Women's total working hours were a significant variable of total fertility rate in Jeju. This study found that the variables which influenced on total fertility rate were different by local authorities, and a number of child-care facilities and paid parental leave were very important variables on total fertility rate.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.171-179
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• 2010

Korea owns vast amount of apartment houses no less than those of world prominent countries, but did not pay enough efforts to maintain existing apartment houses and develop policies to reuse them due to growth driven policy of housing supply like construction of new houses. Korea constructed tremendous amount of houses in short period through government led forced house supplying policy, and resulted in excess houses such that present house supply rate happened to be reaching 110%. However, recently there are growing demand of change in housing policy due to social environmental changes like low birth rate and aging of society etc and nationals' demand for improvement of residential quality. When such social changes are demanded and 80% of apartment houses in Korea are less than 20 years old, renovations and remodeling of apartment houses are anticipated to emerge as important matter. In particular, the apartment houses in Seoul and the 1st generation new cities like Bundang and Ilsan etc have passed considerable period of time after construction and require safety measure, it is quite impending to loan programs for the maintenance of existing apartment houses. The objective of this study is to compare and analyze the system of loan programs about apartment houses of Japan, and then to propose to accelerate loan programs about maintenance for apartment houses in korea.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.307-328
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• 2009

This study aims to investigate the patterns and causes of the marital duration. Data used for this study are ten waves of Korean Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS) in 1998~2007, in which the final sample consists of 2,397 households. The Life-table method is used for describing the overall patterns of marital duration by birth-cohorts and different education groups, and the Cox proportional hazard regression model is used to identify significant factors on the marital duration. The results show that among the all respondents, the 0.79% has divorced or separated within five years after marriage, 2.12% within 10 years, and 5.84% within 20 years, respectively. In addition, the Cox regression results show that the marital duration is significantly affected by the birth-cohorts of respondents and their spouses, education level, earning of spouses, co-residence with parents, and household income. This implies that the hazard rate of marital disruption is higher for younger cohorts, individuals with lower education and economic status, persons living with parents-in-law, compared to their counterparts. Thus, it is necessary to implement social welfare policies applicable for these persons.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.729-736
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• 2023

Traditionally, Germany, a conservative welfare state, has pursued a male breadwinner model based on gender division of labor. For a long time, Germany tried to address low fertility through economic support centered on cash benefits, but it was not successful. In 2007, the German government began to shift the paradigm of family policy for work-life balance under the slogan of "A mix of time policy, income transfer, and infrastructure." When the issue of low birth rates emerged as a national concern in Germany, there was a growing social sentiment that not only the government but also private companies should contribute to increasing fertility by providing family-friendly personnel policies and working conditions. Private companies have been voluntarily improving family-friendly working conditions beyond legal obligations, aiming to secure personnel and prevent turnover. Germany's fertility rate is currently rising toward the European average level in 2023, which can be attributed to the government's work-life balance policies and the participation of private companies. In terms of improving work-life balance policies in Korea, it has been proposed to change the perception of the need for fathers to participate in child care, to make parental leave compulsory for men, to guarantee employment for women after childbirth, to expand child care facilities, and to revitalize family-friendly policies in companies.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.29-36
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• 2018

This study aims at suggesting directions to make children's parks considering the actual groups using them by comparative analysis of age distribution in residents within area of use and locations of children's parks with regards to changes in population structure of low birth rate and aging. Cheongju was selected for the study, and the current status of children's parks and population structure were categorized into six stages and the investigation and analysis were conducted by statistics by population group and by using Arc GIS Program. As a result of the analysis, children under 13 were 13.1% of the entire population in Cheongju and share of middle-aged and aged group including middle-aged was 31.3%. Park area per one children under 13 was 5.9㎡ and based on walking use area(250m), average number of parks available by autonomous district was eight. As a result of the analysis of characteristics of distribution of children's parks, they are densely located in old downtowns or the distribution density was relatively high in newly developed areas such as Osong-eup or Ochang-eup. However, outer rural areas have no children's parks or relatively low rate. As a result of the analysis on population structure and co-efficient of park location, in nine autonomous districts, aged group is increasing, leading to decrease use of children's parks. If resident rate aged group is higher in the region where a children's park is located, it is necessary to re-compose the existing one to different one or to change purposes of parks to be planned. Also, in the area with similar rates in both children's group and aged group, composing complex parks for both of them could be considered. This study has limitations by not conducting field studies about the current status of use of children's parks in areas where the population structure has been changing and not suggesting specifically new types of parks according to changes in population structure. It is necessary to conduct the following studies about relationship between children's parks and policies for composing parks responding to changes in population structure in neighboring regions in future.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.901-919
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize some issues around university restructuring in Korea, and explore rational-practical solutions ensuring the survival of higher education institutes confronting many challenges like rapid decreasing rate of birth, global open market of higher education system, and the phenomena of concentration on capital city area etc.. In order to achieve study goals, higher education policies and provisions of past governments from DaeJung Kim's to current MeongBak Lee's were analyzed, and also characteristics and directions of university restructuring of each government were identified. Through this analysis, it was evident that the main concern of university restucturing discourse was primarily focused on how to make public universities have high level of competitiveness. On the other hand, private universities had been totally alienated from university restructuring discourse since 1990's, despite their historical and great contributions to national development of our country. Based on some criticisms of educational policies of national government and partial revision proposal of the higher education act initiated by a few assemblymen, this study suggested eight solutions for developmental restructuring of private universities; constructing comprehensive framework of university restructuring, keeping market-friendly restructuring principle to allow universities take an autonomous position, revising methods, criteria and indexes of university evaluation, reducing the number of enrolling students, not the number of universities and colleges, a new policy to develop local universities allying with universities located at capital city area, differentiating private universities into two types of semi- or quasi-national university and complete autonomous university, legislating financial supports to private universities, and lastly, equal treatment of public and private universities in pursuit of half price tuition.