• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.78-82
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to review the labor force partitpation rate and work environment characteristics of female workers to provide basic information for establishment and implementation of effective policies related to accident prevention and workers health protection for female workers. It was analyzed employment status, work environment and injuries and illnesses based on economic activity census results, compensation of industrial injury and the second working condition survey. According to economic activity census results, female labor force participation rate has been steadily increased, whereas male labor force participation rate has been decreased since 1970. Industrial accident rate has been declined in male workers but that in female workers has been steadily increased even though male workers were higher accident rate than female workers. It was evaluated that female workers are vulnerable to industrial injuries and illnesses in the aspect of their working environment and employment status. Also, Substantial differences between female and male workers in occupational exposure patterns, occupational disease and occupational environments were observed. Therefore it was recommended that special care programs for female workers such as a specialized monitoring and management program should be introduced in the near future.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.1-29
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• 2019

This study estimates how changes in the female (aged 25 to 54) labor force participation rate (LFPR) following the historical experiences of the US and Japan would alter the future trend of the female economically active population by 2065, compared to the case in which the LFPR as of 2018 will remain unchanged. According to the results, the female labor force aged 25 to 54 will increase by 14% (about 797,000) and 15% (about 831,000), respectively, by 2042 if the female LFPR should change following the past trends of the US and Japan. In particular, the increase in the labor force is expected to be pronounced among females aged 30 to 44 who currently suffer high rates of job severance. The results of this study strengthen the prediction that the on-going population changes will not reduce much the overall economically active population in the near future. The result of a simulation based on the historical experiences of Japan suggests that, as least in the near future, policy efforts to encourage female labor supply will be more effective in alleviating the potential labor-market impacts of population changes, compared to policies aiming at increasing old-age employment.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.169-179
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• 2004

This study investigated female-head's employment and household economic status of the single-mother households compared to those in the two-parent households using the data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study. Major findings are: first, female-heads showed lower educational attainment, lower labor force participation rate, lower occupational status, and lower wage rates than male-heads; second, the level of household income was as 1.3 times as the Minimum Living Cost and the level of household expenditure was close to the Minimum Living Cost; third, one-thirds of single-mother households were in poverty. Based on the results, the implications to public policy were suggested.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.133-156
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• 2006

This paper tries to explore the overall profile of Korean female labor force over the period of 1960-2000. A particular emphasis is put on portraying major over-time characteristics of female labor force, following five different political regimes--that of Park, J.H.(1960 and 1970s), of Chon D.H. (early and late 1980s), of Roh T.W. (late 1980-early 1990s), of Kim,Y.S. (early 1990-1ate 1990s), and of Kim. D. J. (late 1990-early 2000s), respectively. Discussions have centered around: 1) utilization of young single girls from rural areas during the early industrialization process of 1960-1985; 2) the beginning of married women's entry into labor market and issues of the socalled &M-curve& thesis in Korean experiences since 1990s; 3) the emergence and enlargement of non-regular workers; and 4) the launching of labor related legal measures such as the Equal Employment Act of 1988 and its successive revisions, the Maternity Leave Acts, the On-the-Job Chi1dcare Centers, and the prohibition of sexual harassments on the job setting, and so on. All in all, although it is undeniable that the Korean female labor force has experienced much progress over the period of time in terms of &equality and protection& issues, overall industrial reality we are facing with has not been so prosperous in the sense that most women workers have become the victims of industrial polarization, as time goes by.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.41-52
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to examine how female labor force participation, family policies, and gender equality are related to fertility rate across countries. Multiple measures has been collected from various data sources(such as OECD, UNDP, and WVS) and the panel data set which includes (mostly) OECD countries range from 1990 to 2019 are analyzed. The major findings are as follows. First, based on OECD countries samples, female labor force participation is positively associated with the fertility rate, which implies that women's labor force participation does not lead to a reduction in fertility rate. Second, the length of paternity leave is positively associated with fertility rate whereas the direction is the opposite for the relationship between the length of maternity leave and fertility rate. This is attributed to the possibility that a longer period of maternity leave incurs the a higher opportunity cost of earning income, which leads to a reduced fertility rate. Third, countries with higher gender inequality index tend to have a higher fertility rate. Similarly, countries with higher gender equality value have a lower fertility rate. When the gender equality value is devideed into three sub-categories, education, politics, and employment, the gender equality value in education is the only sub-category which is negatively associated with the fertility rate. This study confirms that female labor force participation may not be a contributing factor in the lowering of fertility rate but instead can be positively associated with the fertility rate. Also, the results show that family policies or gender equality values can be significantly affect fertility rate.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.5-36
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• 1998

This study examines the change of female labor market structure during the last several decades, focusing the effects of demographic factors such as declining fertility and increasing educational attainment of women. Women of the recent cohort tend to postpone their first marriages, to attain higher levels of education, and to have smaller number of children than women of the old cohort. This demographic trend results in the change of the population compositions in a way that population subgroups with high labor force participation have been increased. In addition, women of each population subgroup supply their labor in the market with higher rate than their old cohort counterparts. The labor force participation rate of highly educated women, and of married women has been increased faster than that of women with low education and of unmarried women. Although childbirth is still one of the most critical barrier for the women's participation, more and more women with young children tend to work for pay than ever before. In spite of the demographic change which is supportive to the increasing labor force participation, the Korean labor market have lost its female participants for the last year of the economic restructuring, reflecting demand-side factors as well as demographic factors are essential to determine the labor force participation of women.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.99-124
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• 2016

This study analyzed the effects of labor unions on the wages of Korean female workers using 'Korean Labor and Income Panel Study.' In the estimation we considered the self-selection bias due to the women's labor force participation decision and a plausible non-response bias from not answering the question about the company size in terms of number of employees. By fixed effect estimation we found that labor unions in Korea do not increase the wages of both the female union workers and non-union workers who work at a company in which a union is organized comparing to female workers who work at company without a union. This results indicates that female workers who work in the company with labor union tend to have unobserved characteristics that are positively correlated with both wages and the probability to enter the company with labor union. We also came to the conclusion that there is no free-rider effects of non-union workers.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.113-141
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• 2000

The aim of this paper is to project the state of the labor farce and employment in Korea from 2000 to 2005. The labor market in Korea is experiencing significant changes with the rapid development of Information and Telecommunication Technology (ICT) and the transition of the Korean economy into a knowledge-based economy. On the labor supply side, it is expected that the growth of the labor force will be sluggish; baby boomers will become the middle-aged, while the proportion of senior citizens, the highly educated and the female labor force will grow fast. These changes will alter the human resources management system in business sectors. Moreover, the permanent employment relationship, the hierarchy system and the seniority-based wage system are all expected to change. On the labor demand side, the employment share in highly skilled. knowledge-intensive industries will grow faster than the rest of the economy in tandem with the quickly growing output share of these industries. Especially, more jobs will be created in the ICT industries. The proportion of labor in highly skilled and professional occupations will also grow faster than in other occupations. At the same time, the employment share of female workers will grow more quickly than that of the male workers. These changes, however, may worsen income inequalities and/or increase the unemployment rate when workers do not have the suitable skills or knowledge required by the knowledge-based economy. To avoid this, it is necessary for the government to build up a lifetime learning system for workers.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.63-94
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• 2001

Based on the human capital theory, the wage differentials among laborers are generated from the discrepancy of human capital stock which depends on individual laborer's decision. Hence, the wage differentials among laborers or between male and female are not the results of discrimination, but the results of individual choice. But, if the individual choice for human capital stock would be affected by the male-female discrimination, the explanation for male-female wage differentials base on the human capital stock has a bias. Actually, women have experienced in the discrimination on labor market participation due to gravity, parturition, infant rearing. Also, it is a fact that women have been discriminated against men in labor market owing to social, traditional, and cultural discriminations. If woman or her parent will less invest on human capital than man owing to the existence of discrimination in labor market, the 'expected human capital stock' instead of human capital stock will explain male-female wage differentials better. Therefore, in this study, we set up three models; first model includes working hours, industry, occupation, etc which are in general used as explanatory variables for wage decision, second model includes the variables which reflect the traditional human capital stock together with the first model's explanatory variables, third model employes the 'expected human capital stock' instead of traditional human capital stock. From the empirical test, the estimates of discrimination in three models are .93, .60, and, .48 respectively. This result implies that the male-female wage differentials in Korea can be explained by the discrepancy of 'expected human capital stock'. Since the discrepancy in expected human capital stock depend on the disparity in life-cycle labor force participation, male-female wage differentials can largely be attributed to male-female disparity in expected lifetime labor force participation.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.185-207
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• 1996

It is frequently pointed out that the Korean economy, with its scarce natural resources, would never have been able to achieve current levels of economic development without the massive provision of well-educated, hardworking human resources. Throughout the industrialization process ,full-fledged deployment and mobilization of qualified human resources have been the foundation to industrial policy and S&T policy. This paper describes the development of S&T human resources in Korea using various statistics including educational enrollment rates, unemployment rates, the allocation of researchers and R&D expenditures among sectors of performance, educational composition of employment within and across industries, technical human resource shortage rates, relative wage levels of SMEs, and composition of labor force by age-group and gender. While analyzing S&T human resources development, this paper discusses issues such as the mismatched demand and supply of skill and knowledge levels of the highly educated, the unbalanced distribution of S&T human resources between sectors, and the low utilization of the female and aged labor force. This paper suggests that the policy maker applies a hybrid of quantitative and qualitative policies to reduce the mismatches of supply and demand of skill and knowledge levels for each labor market categorized according to supply side.