• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.301-322
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• 2013

By analyzing wave 1~11 (1998~2008) of Korean Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS) database, this study examines the effects of household characteristics and poverty duration on poverty exit. A special concern is to decide whether the decrease of poverty exit rates comes from true duration dependency or from the sample heterogeneity as poverty duration progresses. I also analyzed how the effects of independent variables are changed when unobserved heterogeneity is controlled. The results show that duration dependency disappears after controlling observed household characteristics and unobserved individual heterogeneity. This finding confirms that the apparent relationship between poverty exit rate and poverty duration is in fact a spurious association due to the sample heterogeneity rather than true duration dependency. In addition, the effects of household characteristics on poverty exit rate become more stronger when unobserved heterogeneity is controlled. Socioeconomic factors affecting poverty exit rates are such as householders' age, education, household composition, number of family members, labor force participation, and work status.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.5-28
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• 2017

Using 2006~2015 Korean Welfare Panel Survey data, this study analyzed the poverty reduction effects of social security benefits. The results show that social security benefits have substantial impacts on reducing the poverty gap. National Basic Livelihood Security, public pensions, and Basic Pension have relatively larger poverty reduction effects. Other benefits such as disability benefits, workers' compensation unemployment insurance, and childcare subsidies have much smaller poverty impacts. Two determining factors of the poverty reduction effect are (1)the amount and (2)the poverty reduction efficiency of social security benefits. With the expansion of the social security system in recent years, the poverty reduction efficiency has decreased in general. Due to a greater increase in the amount of benefits, however, the poverty reduction effect has gradually increased. In order to increase the anti-poverty effect of social security, it is important to find ways to improve efficiency while minimizing the disadvantages of the selectivistic welfare benefits.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.277-311
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• 2010

The powerful association between poverty and mental health has been recognized for many decades in the Western Countries. Despite growing poverty studies, there has been little attention to the association between poverty and mental health in Korea. In this article we examine the effects of the mental health on the poverty status transition. In this study we draw on nationally representative data from the The Korean Welfare Panel Study, to estimate the effects of depression and self-respects on the poverty status transition. Major findings are as follows. First, we find that there are mental health disparities between poor and non-poor classes. The mental health conditions of the poor are worse than the non-poor. Second, we find the strong correlations between the mental health and poverty status transition. Whether poor family exits poverty or not depends on the household head's mental health. Third, poverty experiences are different depending on the mental health conditions. To the mental ill-health family, the probabilities of poverty-exit are much lower and poverty duration is more long. Fourth, we find that family poverty status transitions are very significantly related with household head's mental health from the logistic model analysis. These findings suggest that there is a strong relationship between poor mental health and the experience of poverty in Korea. They also suggest that intervention programs to enhance the mental health of the poor are needed in order to reduce the poverty problem in Korea.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.423-435
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• 2010

Objectives: The low benefit coverage rate of South Korea's health security system has been continually pointed out. A low benefit coverage rate inevitably causes catastrophic health expenditure, which can be the cause of the transition to poverty and the persistence of poverty. This study was conducted to ascertain the effect of catastrophic health expenditure on the transition to poverty and the persistence of poverty in South Korea. Methods: To determine the degree of social mobility, this study was conducted among the 6311 households that participated in the South Korea Welfare Panel Study in both 2006 and 2008. The effect of catastrophic health expenditure on the transition to poverty and the persistence of poverty in South Korea was assessed via multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: The poverty rate in South Korea was 21.6% in 2006 and 20.0% in 2008. 25.1 - 7.3% of the households are facing catastrophic health expenditure. Catastrophic health expenditure was found to affect the transition to poverty even after adjusting for the characteristics of the household and the head of the household, at the threshold of 28% or above. Conclusions: 25.1% of the households in this study were found to be currently facing catastrophic health expenditure, and it was determined that catastrophic health expenditure is a cause of transition to poverty. This result shows that South Korea's health security system is not an effective social safety net. As such, to prevent catastrophic health expenditure and transition to poverty, the benefit coverage of South Korea's health security system needs to the strengthened.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Child Welfare
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• no.26
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• pp.113-137
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• 2008

Present study investigated the effects of poverty and poverty-co-factors in childhood. The effect of poverty status was measured by needs-income ratio. It compared its effect on children's socio-emotional development with that of poverty proxy variables such as recipient of public assistance, financial stress, subjective perception about social class, residence in public housing. It also examined the effects of poverty-co-factors after poverty status were controlled. Results show that poverty status has a more consistent negative relationship with socio-emotional development than other proxy variables. However, the relationship between them disappeared after poverty-co-factors were controlled. Findings from the present study suggest that targeted efforts for decreasing poverty-co-factor risks should be made along with financial support.

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

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.131-142
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• 2018

Since income growth rate and poverty level are related, there is a possibility that the poverty rate may converge in the long run steady state as well. If the poverty rate converges, then for this study the state that begins with the high poverty rate would have a higher poverty reduction rate. To examine the convergence of poverty rate among the US states, this study uses two times series methodologies. First, in order to prevent the power loss from ignoring the structural break when testing for a unit root in a single time series, this study employs the newly developed panel LM unit root tests with level and trend shifts. The results of unit root tests of the log of poverty rate without allowing for structural breaks show that twenty six states reject the null hypothesis of unit root test for the ADF test, twenty five states for the LM test, and thirty five states for the RALS-LM test. The result of unit root tests that allow one structural break shows that the null hypothesis of a unit root test is rejected for twenty two states with the LM test, and thirty three states with the RALS-LM test. This supports poverty rates are converging among US states.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.43-51
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• 2015

Objectives: Socioeconomic factors are one of the significant factors explaining drinking problems in our society. From the poverty and inequality perspective, not only absolute poverty but perceived level of poverty or inequality has a direct effect on one's health and health behaviors. The purpose of the study is to explore the growth trajectories of problem drinking in Korea in relation to poverty and perceived income. Methods: Data from 13,414 adults were analyzed using 4 years of data (2010 to 2014) from the Korea Welfare Panel. Main variables included poverty status, perceived income inequality, and problem drinking. A latent growth modeling was employed for the analysis. Results: The non-poverty group had higher initial level of problem drinking; however, the poverty group showed higher rate of increase in problem drinking rate. The perceived income inequality had no significant influence on the initial level, but over time, those with higher level of perceived income inequality showed higher rate of increase in problem drinking. Conclusions: Findings showed that poverty and inequality affect changes in problem drinking. Efforts to prevent and decrease problems related to alcohol should not only focus on changing individuals' behavior but also on decreasing the inequality gap.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.127-167
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• 2013

This paper aims to analyse the inequality and poverty in Malaysia. Malaysia is considered to be a country of high inequality and high poverty according to the Asian Development Bank. To tackle the income inequality and poverty in Malaysia, especially after the incident of ethnic riot in 1969, the government pursued to implement the affirmative action for the benefit of bumiputra. Recognizing the fact that the economic factors are crucial in determining the levels of inequality and poverty, this paper analyses the historical, institutional and cultural factors and evaluates the affirmative action designed to reduce the income gap between bumiputra and non-bumiputra.