• East Asian Economic Review
• /
• 제25권4호
• /
• pp.361-401
• /
• 2021

This paper sets up a two agent small open economy with monopolistically competitive firms and catching up with the Joneses to investigate the labor and capital Laffer curve, taking into account aging population along the line of Auray et al. (2016), Galí and Monacelli (2005), and Trabandt and Uhlig (2011). The paper finds that the higher the market power of firms is, the larger the consumption inequality between asset holders and non-asset holders is in the economy with aging population. It also finds that there is room for government to increase the tax revenue by raising tax rates under the economy with higher markup, as households will work more hours to compensate for their loss of labor income to tax hikes. The expected maximum tax revenue is likely to shrink with progressive taxations, since non-asset holders with additional dividend income work less and consume more. The paper finds that the fiscal multiplier decreases with the degree of progressive redistribution.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• 제32권1호
• /
• pp.131-169
• /
• 2010

I develop a matching model in which risk-averse workers face borrowing constraints and make a labor force participation decision as well as a job search decision. A sharp distinction between unemployment and out of the labor force is made: those who look for work for a certain period but find no job are classified as the unemployed and those who do not look for work are classified as those out of the labor force. In the model, the job search decision consists of two steps. First, each individual who is not working obtains information about employment opportunities. Second, each individual who decides to search has to take costly actions to find a job. Since individuals differ with respect to asset holdings, they have different reservation job-finding probabilities at which an individual is indifferent between searching and not searching. Individuals, who have large asset holdings and thereby are less likely to participate in the labor market, have high reservation job-finding probability, and they are less likely to search if they have less quality of information. In other words, if individuals with large asset holdings search for job, they must have very high quality of information and face very high actual job-finding probability. On the other hand, individuals with small asset holdings have low reservation job-finding probability and they are likely to search for less quality of information. They face very low actual job-finding probability and seem to remain unemployed for a long time. Therefore, differences in the quality of information explain heterogeneous job search decisions among individuals as well as higher job finding probability for those who reenter the labor market than for those who remain in the labor force. The effect of the extended maximum duration of unemployment insurance benefits on the aggregate labor market and the labor market flows is investigated. The benchmark benefit duration is set to three months. As maximum benefit duration is extended up to six months, the employment-population ratio decreases while the unemployment rate increases because individuals who are eligible for benefits have strong incentives to remain unemployed and decide to search even if they obtain less quality of information, which leads to low job-finding probability and then high unemployment rate. Then, the vacancy-unemployment ratio decreases and, in turn, the job-finding probability for both the unemployed and those out of the labor force decrease. Finally, the outflow from nonparticipation decreases with benefit duration because the equilibrium job-finding probability decreases. As the job-finding probability decreases, those who are out of the labor force are less likely to search for the same quality of information. I also consider the matching model with two states of employment and unemployment. Compared to the results of the two-state model, the simulated effects of changes in benefit duration on the aggregate labor market and the labor market flows are quite large and significant.

• Journal of Korea Trade
• /
• 제24권6호
• /
• pp.115-134
• /
• 2020

Purpose - International trade leads to the international division of labor, improving the efficiency of the global economic system. Transport costs are a more serious barrier to international trade than customs tariffs. An increase in competition in the transport sector may thus lead to a reduction in transport costs. However, if a carrier's nationality significantly influences transport costs, simply adding more competing carriers of different nationalities would be ineffective. Therefore, it is necessary to establish national or regional carriers to influence competition and reduce transport costs. This study investigates this "nationality effect" by treating Hanjin Shipping's collapse as a natural experiment. Design/methodology - The theoretical basis of this study is the 3rd-degree price discrimination in container shipping market. By using the monthly data of container freight rates of Korea, China and Japan, this study shows the so-called Korea Premiums, which are the empirical counterparts of nationality effect in Korea container shipping market. For this empirical investigation, the structural model with state-space form is used and the dummy models are also estimated. In addition, because China has been also affected by the Hanjin's collapse, the China premiums are considered too. Findings - Compared with Japan's case, it is shown that there had been the so-called Korea premiums since the collapse of Hanjin Shipping. These results are robust from both the state-space model and dummy models. The time pattern of Korea premiums was consistent with the market evolution, especially the pattern of substitutability in container shipping markets. In addition, this paper shows the magnitude of Korea premiums. Originality/value - The argument of this study that the nationality effect can be interpreted as an extended concept of the home market effect is original, which is expected to evoke future research efforts. Further, the discussion on the shipping industrial policy from both horizontal and vertical aspects will provide the relevant policy makers with solid information, especially for the policy coordination in a global scale.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• 제60권4호
• /
• pp.55-77
• /
• 2008

After the economic crisis of Korea, the character of Korean Poverty has changed. Most notably, many people are working but poor. Therefore it is important to understand the characteristics of the working poor, especially the unstable work experiences of the working poor since one of the causes of poverty is that. Prior research about the working poor has not fully proven this issue. This study is to examine the job sequences of the working poor. Thus I utilized the KLIPS(Korea Labor and Income Study), and analyzed it by event sequence analysis and optimal matching methods. The job sequences are divided as follows: total years of working in the labor market, the number of gaps and the length of gaps in their careers, and the characteristics of experienced jobs since they have entered the labor market from age 15. As a result, there are no statistically significant in the total years of working in the labor market. And the number of gaps and the length of gaps in their careers, and the characteristics of experienced jobs show that working poor have been experiencing more unstable than non-poor. Thus, almost all of the male working poor has unstable jobs their whole lives, and the female working poor's job sequences show distinct features according to women's life course. These results can give political implications to the anti-poverty policy in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
• /
• 제39권4호
• /
• pp.33-51
• /
• 2023

This study aims to investigate the changes in the employment structure of occupational groups by job characteristics and analyze the factors influencing wage premiums in local labor markets from 2010 to 2020. This study's analysis involves three primary steps. First, the occupational characteristics data from the Korea Network for Occupations and Workers are subjected to an exploratory factor analysis, and then a non-routine task intensity index is calculated by each occupations. Then, we conduct an exploratory analysis of changes in the distribution of employment by occupation from 2010 to 2020 by combining data from the Population Census with data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study to construct individual-level and regional-level data. Thirdly, we employ a hierarchical linear model to examine the individual-level and regional-level factors influencing wage premiums. Since 2010, the proportion of employment in occupations requiring non-routine task has continued to rise and now dominates the metropolitan labor market. Moreover, agglomeration effects resulting from urbanization produce a substantial wage premium for wage workers in occupations requiring non-routine tasks. This study seeks to provide policy implications to mitigate inequality and polarization in local labor markets by empirically analyzing the transition of occupational structure and wage inequality in relation to the local labor market context.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
• /
• 제12권4호
• /
• pp.267-274
• /
• 2021

This study used data from the 6rd and 12th year of the Korean Welfare Panel to evaluate the effects of the Personal Assistance Service(PAS) system on the labor market of PAS users' participation. For the purpose of this study, 64 program groups using the Korean PAS and 344 control groups not using the Korean PAS were selected using Caliper matching among the propensity score matching. A chi-square test was used for the difference in characteristics between groups, and a simple difference-in-differences (DID) model and a double-difference multiple regression analysis of DID were performed to estimate the effect of thepolicy before and after the Korean PAS. As a result of the study, it was found that statistically, PAS had no significant effect on the labor market. This is due to the low number of system users, resulting in low post-hoc power, incomplete matching and limited availability of PAS Assistants for Disabled People. Therefore, In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Personal Assistance Service(PAS) system, specialized services and systems that meet the needs of the disabled and household members should be implemented.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• 제64권3호
• /
• pp.203-229
• /
• 2012

This study aims to analyze fundamental dilemmas of welfare-to-work programs, which aim to introduce labor market principles to the welfare system. Through a qualitative case study of a South Korean welfare-to-work program (the self-sufficiency program), this study demonstrates that various institutional problems are an inevitable consequence of such welfare-to-work programs because they have tried to combine two contradictory values and principles of the labor market system and the social welfare system in one policy. The analysis of the collisions between social welfare and market labor in the self-sufficiency program suggests that not only institutional reforms, but also profound debates on the values and principles underlying welfare-to-work programs are necessary to solve the phenomenal conflicts and problems with such programs.

• Issues in Feminism
• /
• 제11권2호
• /
• pp.49-83
• /
• 2011

This article explores the characteristics of care and care labor which is core keyword of the welfare state and the way of institutionalization of care labor, focusing specially on differences among women. Caring is defined by the expression of morality and labor accompanied by concrete action. But, care labor in the welfare state is defined by "activities involved in caring for the ill, elderly, handicapped and dependent", and I think, that definition is more useful than the narrow one for policy institutionalization. But the latter definition intentionally separates the domestic work from care work. Care labor is considered to be different from the market labor in terms of motivations, but there are some limits in standardization and commercialization of the traits of emotional and moral engagement. Thus, requiring of emotional motivation as one of the job descriptions is not realistic. Welfare state is institutionalizing women's unpaid care work in family through de-familization, and its policy tools are cash benefits and services for care-related, which influence to the female wage worker and fulltime housewife, care receiver and care giver, and polarization of women's class in a very different way. Cash benefits enhances the division of gender labor, polarizes the care laborer and weakens of expansion the care as decent job. The movement of feminist welfare state have a vision of universal service expansion and need the policy list for de-gendering of care labor.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• 제26권2호
• /
• pp.61-95
• /
• 2003

This paper investigates the characteristics of Japanese vocational education and training(VET) system and its recent changes with regard to the labour market changes under the long-term economic depression. The employment system model of Marsden(1999) is used as an analytical framework. By the review of 'the debate of intellectual skill', it is pointed out that the fundamental characteristic of Japanese VET system lies in forming multi-functional workers by the internal promotion in connection with the OJT-focused enterprise training along the job-competency rank system. In this system 'the skill as work-competency' is not institutionalised. By the long-term depression this type of internal labour market (ILM) has been under serious changes. By the policy analyses it is made clear that the direction of its change is not toward the collapse of the ILM. A series of labor market and VET policies does aim at sustaining the ILM by the introduction of the unified job qualification system, which is expected to institutionalise the widening external labour market into the craft-based labour market.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• 제27권2호
• /
• pp.1-27
• /
• 2004

The share of self-employment shows a downward trend until 1990 and then an upward trend since then. The upward trend is mainly due to more employers and more male self-employed, which implies that self-employment plays a significant role as an alternative form of employment. This paper examines whether self-employment can be a bridge between no work and wage work in the processes entering into or exiting labor market, and if so, what determines the choice of self-employment as a bridge, using the data from the Korea Labor and Income Panel Survey(Wave 1 to Wave 5). Empirical analysis employing the probit model shows that the older, female, the less educated, and persons with bad health are more likely to choose self-employment as a bridge in the exit process and that they are less likely to choose it as a bridge in the entry process. Business cycle has a statistically significant negative effect on its role of bridge employment in the exit process but not in the entry process. The result implies that, in the ageing society, labor market policy should consider self-employment as a better alternative than wage work for the aged.