• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.58 no.3
• /
• pp.245-268
• /
• 2006

The purpose of this study is to investigate the empirical relation between economic growth and poverty in Korea. Especially, the focus is put on exploring if there are any changes in the relation of economic growth and poverty. From 1982-2004 Korea Urban Household Survey, I constructed the annual data of poverty rate. I also obtained the annual data of the real GDP and the unemployment rate from the National Statistical Office. Using these annal data of the poverty rate and the macroeconomic performance, I analyzed the relation of them. As the result, I found that the macroeconomic growth have played very important role in reducing the poverty rate in Korea. Since 2000, the macroeconomic growth have still worked as an effective instrument for poverty reduction. However, there have been poverty increase that has not been explained by the macroeconomic growth since 2000. Based on these results, this paper suggests that the anti-poverty strategy in Korea should be changed from the old strategy emphasizing only economic growth to the new strategy pursuing both economic growth and social security simultaneously.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.63 no.1
• /
• pp.85-111
• /
• 2011

This study has the purpose to measure the multidimensional poverty in Korea by the counting approach which was theorized by Alkire and Foster to overcome problems of unidimensional approach, union method and intersection method for the identification of the multidimensional poor. By the counting approach applying to Welfare Panel in Korea during 2006-2008, the head-count ratio of the multidimensional poverty was measured. When 3 dimensions are applied as a dimension poverty line, the multidimensional poverty rate was 20% in 2008. It was due to broad deprivations in assets, social securities, income and health. Vulnerable classes such as single parent families, low-education level group, the aged, economically non-active population were among the severe poverty rates, which were reaching around 50%. The analysis reveals the possible alternative to change the present public assistance program to the robust approach of multidimensional poverty measurement, the counting approach. Social policies to reduce poverty in Korea would gain expected positive outcome with the various approaches based on the concepts of multidimensional poverty.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.61 no.1
• /
• pp.57-79
• /
• 2009

This study analyzes the effect of poverty on child development outcomes including academic achievement, self-esteem, depression/anxiety, attention problems, aggression, and delinquency. The poverty experiences among elementary school children are longitudinally observed during 3 years between the 4th grade and the 6th grade. When development outcomes are compared among persistently poor children, transitory poor children, and non-poor children, academic achievement is found to be significantly different. The analyses of the relationships between the poverty status and developmental trajectories show that academic achievement among non-poor children has improved over time, while the level of poor children's achievement has decreased. The result also shows that problematic behaviors such as attention problems, aggression, delinquency has improved over time among all the children. Yet, the gap between poor and non-poor children has not decreased. The multivariate analyses indicate that the effect of poverty remains statistically significant only for academic achievement after children's individual and familial characteristics are controlled. Past experiences of poverty in addition to the current poverty affect academic achievement and persistent poverty has a stronger effect than transitory poverty on academic achievement, although the findings are not consistent across all the estimated models.

• Economic Analysis
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.37-66
• /
• 2021

This paper examines the potential impacts of COVID-19 on poverty in ASEAN countries. The first estimate, adopted from Summer et al. (2020) and Nonvide (2020), configures three scenarios of contractions in per capita household income or consumption; the impact of each scenario on poverty is calculated using poverty lines at different thresholds. In the second estimate, poverty impacts in 2020 and 2021 were projected using regression models controlling for unobserved country effects, unbalanced data, and endogeneity. COVID-19 has been shown to have negative impacts on poverty reduction in the ASEAN Member States. To reduce poverty, concerted efforts are needed to implement policies for reducing income inequality and promoting economic growth. Such efforts will not only speed up the countries' return to pre-pandemic poverty levels but also contribute to further accelerating poverty reduction.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.65 no.2
• /
• pp.203-230
• /
• 2013

The present study aimed to analyze possible causal relationship between drinking problem and depression. In addition, The study examined if poverty status transition is associated with the causal relationship between drinking problem and depression. The study sample consisted of 3,976 adults who have participated in both the first and the second wave survey of the Korea Welfare Panel Study. The causality between drinking problem and depression was analyzed using Latent Difference Scores (LDS) model, which was established in McArdle & Hanagami (2001). Furthermore, it was examined if poverty status transition (represented by four subgroups: poverty-sustained group, poverty-escaping group, non-poverty-sustained group, poverty beginning group) would influence the causal relationship between drinking problem and depression. The major findings are as follows. The result of a LDS model analysis using the entire sample shows that depression at the first wave predicts significantly the change of drinking problem between the first wave and the second wave and also drinking problem at the first wave predicts significantly the change of depression between the first wave and the second wave, which can be interpreted as there is reciprocal causal relationship between depression and drinking problem. In poverty status transition subgroup analyses, the reciprocal causal relationship between depression and drinking problem is held in the poverty-sustained group while depression is a cause of drinking problem both in the poverty beginning group and in the non-poverty-sustained group. However, there is no significant causal relationship between depression and drinking problem in the poverty-escaping group. All these findings indicate that the direction of causality between depression and drinking problem can be varied according the poverty status change, which provides a comprehensive explanation to inconsistent research findings from previous cross-section studies of the relationship between depression and drinking problem.

• 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.

• 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 Child Studies
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.57-68
• /
• 2009

This study addressed ways in which parental poverty factors are associated with child school performance and how these relationships may be mediated by self-regulated study performance. Data of the Korea Education Longitudinal Survey (KELS : 2005) were used in this survey of 6,908 students in 150 schools. Parental poverty status, self-regulated study performance, and school performance achievement were administered when children were in 7th grade. Using structure equation modeling analysis, the results of this study confirmed that self-regulated study performance is a mediator of the linkage between poverty and school performance. Thus, children's positive self-regulated study performance acts to buffer the negative cycle of poverty.

• Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.77-94
• /
• 2014

Little attempt has been made to empirically investigate the effects of childhood poverty on children's educational attainments and their everyday life in Bangladesh. Quality education is a prominent aspiration in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but there are few studies of school improvement in relation to the educational achievement of disadvantaged children living in rural Bangladesh. This article offers a theoretical understanding of childhood poverty and educational exclusion, building on the empirical research carried out in two rural areas to explore the following questions: Why do so many socio-economically disadvantaged children tend to dropout from formal secondary school? and Why do some succeed? After exploring the challenges of childhood poverty and educational exclusion, it shows how the challenges could be mitigated through attention to the ecology of human development in the contexts of individual children. Complex ways in which efforts can be made to tackle the challenges of childhood poverty are influenced by ecological factors within the context of the study. Recommendations for policy and practice are offered based on the findings to improve formal secondary schooling for socio-economically disadvantaged children in Bangladesh.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.243-255
• /
• 2014

We examined the minimization effects of a subjective sense of poverty by social networks for urban workers and the mediating effects. The purposes of this study are to draw up measures and provide implications in community health care by gender. The findings are as follows: First, differences in understanding a subjective sense of poverty have been generated by demographic socio-economic characteristics according to gender. Second, differences in perception of the subjective sense of poverty have been generated by types of social networks according to the gender. Third, differences in types of social networks have been generated by gender. Fourth, differences in mediating effects of the types of social networks influencing a subjective sense of poverty have been generated by gender. We provide effective methods in community health care by analyzing these examinations.