• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.21-30
• /
• 2019

Purpose - While many related prior studies have focused on the segregation by race and ethnicity, the academic interest in the separation of residence by income and social class is gradually increasing. This study aims to not only investigate spatial pattern of economic segregation and poverty rate in South Korea, but also shed light on what affect residential distribution of the poor. Research design, data, and methodology - The unit of analysis is Si-Gun-Gu municipal level entities of South Korea. Most demographic, socioeconomic, and residential variables were derived from Korean Census Data in 2015. In order to examine spatial patterns of economic segregation and poverty rate in South Korea, a series of measurements and visualization was conducted through the Geo-Segregation Analyzer and ArcGIS programs. Determinants of economic segregation and local poverty rates were investigated by regression analyses using STATA. Results - The spatial patterns of areas with high poverty rates were extremely clustered, while the distribution of areas with high economic segregation was relatively evenly distributed. Demographic, residential, and local factors appeared to affect whether the poor live in particular area or spread evenly. Conclusions - The factors that raise the poverty rate result in lower level of economic segregation, while factors that reduce the poverty rate lead to severe level of economic segregation.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.365-388
• /
• 2011

By analyzing 1998~2008 Korean Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS), this study examines socio-economic characteristics of people who become poor. The study also explores the reason why they are in the state of poverty. To find determinants affecting poverty entrance, discrete-time hazard models are applied. Major findings are as follows. The socio-economic characteristics driving people into poverty are in the middle way of the long-term poor and the non-poor, combining the characteristics of both groups. This implies that many cases of the newly poor tend to enter and exit from poverty repeatedly. Poverty entry rate was at a high level right after the economic crises, then was a downturn and remained fairly stable since 2000. However, the young, the high-educated, and even the professional are on the rise as a new poverty group. The major reason people become poor is temporary job loss. This factor is confirmed again by multi-variate analyses. In building anti-poverty policies, it is important to distinguish the long-term poor from the short-term poor. For the long-term poor, virtually the only affective policy will be income support. On the other hand, a labor-market strategy for jos security will be more effective for the short-term poor. The characteristics and determinants of poverty entry may affect poverty duration and exit in the future. Future research will be needed to investigate the relationship among these factors.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.59 no.1
• /
• pp.251-274
• /
• 2007

Although linkages between poverty and disability are often noted, until recently they have not been systematically examined in Korea. Many people with disabilities tend to become poorer because they lack access to jobs. And income support programs are not sufficient. But more severe is people with disabilities in labor market tend to be poor. The purposes of this study were to explore the characteristics of working poor with disabilities and to identify the major determinants of poverty. For this, '2005 Survey on the Workers With Disabilities' was used. The data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, logistic regression. The results showed that gender, age, education level, marital status, region where they live, the number of the household member, the severity of disability, the onset of disability are significant predictors in determining their poverty status. Also employment status, occupation type, industry type, numbers of years in current job are major determinants of their poverty status. Finally, based on these results several policy implications were presented.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.75-95
• /
• 2002

Using 3 years of panel data on nearly 3,507 households, the Korea Labor Income Panel Survey(KLIPS) data, the authors measure the determinants of poverty and unemployment, and the extents to which poverty influenced unemployment. The probit analysis of unemployment shows that unemployment probability is lower, when male, lower age and is higher, high-school and over junior college, work duration is over 3 years. The probit analysis of poverty shows that poverty probability is lower, when male, higher education level, longer career. specially unemployment and social insurance is determinants of increasing poverty. Bivariate probit model of unemployment and poverty also provides similar findings to those probit analysis and shows an evidence of the influence of unemployment on poverty along with the positive role of social welfare policy such that social welfare receipt reduces the impact of unemployment on poverty.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.67 no.4
• /
• pp.31-50
• /
• 2015

This study attempted to empirically investigate the determinants of poverty transition of the working poor with disabilities from a dynamic perspective. Analyses were conducted on the data from Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled(PSED, Year 1-6), included the households with a disabled head of household. The working poor were defined as the household of which income fell below 120% of the absolute poverty line among the households just described. As results, The 6-year mean poverty rate for the working poor with disabilities included in the analysis was 31.4%, approximately three times of the poverty rate of the total population and the working poor with disabilities were found to have greater difficulty with poverty exit once having fell into poverty than all households living in poverty. And it was found that the economic activity factor was the key determinant of in-work poverty. In addition, employment of the working poor with disabilities did not lead straight to poverty exit, and the quality, rather than the status of, employment was the key determinant of poverty exit. The implications of the findings of this study are that it is essential to increase decent jobs, expand the social safety net of the working poor with disabilities and establish poverty reduction measures for each class of the working poor with disabilities to exit from poverty.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.57 no.2
• /
• pp.351-374
• /
• 2005

This study examines dynamics of poverty in Korea, focusing on poverty duration and its determinants. Data come from Korean Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS), 1998-2003. KLIPS is a longitudinal survey of 5,000 families and their members which are representative of urban residents in Korea. Respondents of KLIPS annually report detailed information on their income, economic activities, and other socio-economic characteristics. This study use poverty exit probabilities to generate distributions of spell lengths, following Bane and Ellwood(1986)'s methodology. This study finds a high level of poverty exit rates in Korea. About three quarters of those beginning a poverty spell exit from poverty within two years. Only 14.3 percent of all the poverty spells consist of long spells which persists five years or more. Yet, a different picture emerges when spells of the poor persons at a given time are analysed. Persistent poor occupy a considerable share of all the poor. Almost 50 percent of those who would be in poverty at a given time are in the midst of poverty spells lasting five years or more. When repeat spells of poverty are also included in the analyses, the proportion of long-term poor increases further. 63 percent of persons poor at a given time are long-termers. The majority of long-term poor are members of families headed by the aged. They show both a low level of poverty exit rates and a high level of reentry rates, and thus are most likely to experience long-term poverty. In the first place, they occupy a substantial share of all the poor. The second who are likely to be poor longer is members of families headed by non-aged women. Researchers have recentlty paid much attention to the working poor who have increased since the economic crisis in 1997. Yet, it is very likely that families headed by non-aged male who largely consist of the working poor temporarily experience poverty. Findings for this study suggest that further studies and policy proposals addressing persistent poverty are necessary.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.61 no.2
• /
• pp.85-106
• /
• 2009

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the structural determinants of regional variations of poverty in Korea. Poverty rates and independent variables in Seoul, 6 other metropolitan areas, and 8 provinces except Jejudo from the year of 1998 through 2006 were pooled as unit of analysis. The pooled cross-sectional time-series regression(TSCSREG) using SAS program was adapted for the analysis. As a result of the analysis, absolute poverty and relative poverty of Gangwondo and Chungcheongnamdo were relatively higher, and that of Seoul and Ulsan metropolitan area were lower than other areas. And, the increase of financial self-reliance, social welfare expenditure, rate of standard workers, and rate of workers in manufacturing sector were associated with lower poverty rates. Therefore, place-based policies should be considered as another poverty-fighting tool in conjunction with people-based policies.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.65 no.1
• /
• pp.147-174
• /
• 2013

Until recently, self-employment workers are often excluded from labor market studies. Most relevant studies has focused on the determinants of entry into self-employment. However, the self-employment is highly exposed to poverty risk although they are working. Despite that, relatively little is known about the economic severity of the self-employed. This study uses data from the Korea Welfare Panel Study to examine the situation of the self-employed's in-work poverty and the determinants of in-work poverty among them. Major findings are as follows. First, self-employed people experience 3.5 times higher in-work poverty risk than employees. Especially, the ratio of own-account self-employed people living below the poverty line is similar with that of even precarious employees. Second, the extent of poverty of self-employment is more serious. Third, the proportion of self-employed among working poor is about 53% although self-employed workers are composed of only about 24% among working people. Fourth, temporary employees and self-employed people are more likely to be poor than full time employees according to logistic regression. It is statistically significant. It implies that it is desirable to regard the self-employed as the policy target group along with temporary employees. Fifth, the ratio of in-work poverty of self-employed aged 40-64 whose education level is low and the self-employed aged 40-64 who work in low-skilled service sector are higher than that of the other group. It implies that measures to alleviate their economic difficulties are urgently needed.

• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.343-354
• /
• 2013

Elderly people living in poverty are one of the most vulnerable population groups who are at risk of experiencing social exclusion. Social participation is an important contributing factor to active aging and social integration of the older adults living in poverty. This study aims to identify factors affecting social participation of the poor elderly. Data from the second wave of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing was used for the analyses and 1,346 poor elderly aged over 65 were analyzed. The findings showed that age, education, health status, a level of depression, financial stress, and economic activity were associated with the social participation of the elderly living in poverty. These results indicated that psychological empowerment and specific needs of the older adults living in poverty should be considered in developing services and programs to promote social participation of the poor elderly.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.66 no.1
• /
• pp.163-189
• /
• 2014

The public perceptions about the cause of the poverty are generally considered as the important subject because they are assumed to have profound influences on the anti-poverty strategies, the features of the welfare system, and the welfare politics. Yet, there have been few studies on the public perceptions about attributions for poverty in Korea. In this article, we explore the popular perceptions about the causes of the poverty and investigate the determinants of the various beliefs about the causes of the poverty in Korea. The data derive from the Welfare Attitudes data of the 8th Korea Welfare Panel Survey. The results indicates that Koreans are more likely to support the individualistic explanations on the causes of the poverty than the structural and the fatalistic explanations. The results of regression model analysis show that there are differences in the determinants of the three types of poverty explanations, but subjective variables have the strong effects on all of the poverty explanations in Korea. In this study we find that Koreans are more likely than the western european welfare states to endorse individualistic explanations. These findings suggest that the underdevelopment of the welfare system in Korea is assumed to have the connection with the popular individualistic explanations. And, they suggest that there are needed to have notices to changing the public perceptions of the poverty and the cultural context of the social welfare in order to advance the welfare state in Korea.