• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.231-251
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• 2001

In this study I attempted to compare the two contrasting theories on life satisfaction; alsolute or relative. I could confirm a positive curve-linear relationship of income and life satisfaction among Koreans as in many previous studies. A relative hypothesis saying that one's relative superiority on education could bring about more satisfaction was partly supported in this study. On the other hand, another relative hypothesis saying that income increase could make more satisfaction than income decrease over time on a identical level of income was rejected. This result suggests that income increase can not give more satisfaction in addition to more affluence simply because of the fact that one's current income is higher than his or her previous level of income.

• 한국노년학
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.169-188
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• 2019

In this study, the author utilizes longitudinal data of the recent 12 years to verify whether the absolute versus relative income of old age has a significant effect on their life satisfaction of life. The findings of this study show that there is a significant difference in life satisfaction of old age according to respondents' relative income of three reference groups based on their asset quintile and residental area and education. In the correlation analysis using the cross-sectional data, the absolute and relative income level was closely related to the life satisfaction. In the panel regression analysis using the 12 years longitudinal data from the Korea National Labour Panel dataset, the income level of counterparts in those reference groups appeared highly significant in determining the level of life satisfaction of the elderly. However, some demographic variables such as age and marital status did not have a statistically significant effect in the long-term perspective. The income of reference groups in terms of asset levels, education and region as well as their own past life satisfaction level had a significant effect on the elders' life satisfaction determination. These results suggest that the relative income hypothesis in terms of life satisfaction among the elderly is more valid than the previous absolute income hypothesis.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.77-102
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• 2007

This paper compares income and consumption for their relative effectiveness in measuring inequality. Although income inequality has received more attention in the literature, the permanent income hypothesis links consumption to welfare more directly than income. To the extent economic agents smooth their consumptions, consumption inequality is a better indicator for an economy's welfare inequality, and it is especially so when income volatility is high. The empirical analysis in this paper indicates that the income and consumption patterns among the Korean wage/salary worker households are quite consistent with the permanent income hypothesis. Further, it is found that consumption inequality tends to be lower than income inequality, and more importantly, that the two inequalities do not always vary in the same direction. These results call for stronger emphasis on consumption inequality in inequality literature.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.67-88
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• 2013

The purpose of this study empirically examines the pattern of regional disparities on the level of development in China's eastern, central, western and northeast regions for the period 1978-2012. To do this, it test Williamson's inverted-U hypothesis and Amos' augmented inverted-U hypothesis, focusing on polarization, polarization reversal, and spatial restructuring. Results of study are as follows: In the absolute economic disparity(AED) models of per capita income within a region, the Williamson's inverted-U hypothesis was supported in the eastern region, central region and inter-region model. The central region and the western region supports Williamson's hypothesis in the case of the relative economic disparity(RED). On the other hand, The inter-region model and the western region supports Amos' augmented inverted-U hypothesis in model of per capita income. In the urban-rural income economic disparity model, the inter-region model of AED and the central region of RED supports Amos' augmented inverted-U hypothesis. But the Williamson's inverted-U hypothesis was supported in the inter-region model and the western region in RED.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 2022

The first purpose of this paper was to investigate whether wives' income contributions affect the time spent on housework by dual-earner couples. The second purpose was to investigate period interaction effects on the effect of wives' income contributions. For this, Korean Time Use Survey data 2004-2019 was analyzed. The analysis target was dual-earner couple aged 20-59 years. The dependent variable was time spent on housework, and the analysis method was tobit regression. According to the results, there were three findings: First, there was a U-shaped relation between wives' income contributions and wives' housework time. Second, this relationship became stronger as time progressed. Third, although wives' income contributions positively affected husband housework time, husband housework time was actually zero before 2019. These results demonstrated that not economic perspective, but gender perspective, is more useful for understanding dual-earner couples' division of housework.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.107-118
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• 1993

A dimension of well-being economic security was analyzed and compared with economic adequacy. Again it was tested whether two indicators of economic security(short-term vs. long-term) yield same distribution across all household groups. Economic Security was defined as the household ability to sustain a given level of consumption in the case of economic emergency; specifically loss of income. Measure of 8 different kinds of economic security were constructed from household net worth including and excluding home equity. Data were taken from the 1988 U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey and 2148 households were selected to test hypotheses concerning the economic security of American households Empirical results showed a very low level of economic security in general. The first hypothesis that distribution of economic adequacy and economic security are same across all population groups was rejected. On the average security measure rather than adequacy measure was favor to white female-headed households and households who have old and highly educated house-holder. The second hypothesis that the indicators of long-term and short-term economic security yield the same results across all household was not rejected. In general the level of economic security was relatively higher when long-term indicator was used than short-term indicator was however the direction and relative size of effect of income and each control variable was almost same.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.99-114
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• 1991

This study was designed to determine the relative importance of specific family environmental variables and positive self-concept of psychological variables in explaining family life satisfaction. Data were collected from 423 housewives in Daegu City. Multivariate regression and factor analysis and path analysis were used to analyze the data. The results of this study partially supported the hypothesis that positive self-concept of psychological factors would be more closely associated with family life satisfaction than would family environmental factors. The findings were as follows: 1. Urban housewives' positive self-concept and family life satisfaction were relatively high. 2. Among family environment variables, health, wives' education level, husband's satisfaction with job significantly influence on positive self-concept. 3. The variables which significantly affect family life satisfaction are husband's satisfaction with job, monthly family income, health. 4. From the path analysis, it found that positive self-concept has the most great influence on family life satisfation.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.64 no.1
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• pp.53-77
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• 2012

The Easterlin Paradox is widely accepted as a pioneer of happiness study in social science disciplines including Economics, Psychology, and Sociology. Moreover, it should be noted, the paradox has abundant implications on many social issues such as 'economic growth or social equity', 'basic income' and so forth. It is in this regard that this paper purports to understand debates around the paradox. For this purpose, the chapter two examines the theoretical perspectives of the Easterlin Paradox, and accordingly the chapter three examines the Easterlin Paradox debates since the early 1990s. In the context of the Easterlin paradox debates, the chapter four scrutinizes the debates around satiation point in income-happiness nexus and duly concludes with some social welfare implications.

• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.121-133
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of socioeconomic factors and health behaviors on the prevalence of oral diseases(dental caries and periodontal disease) among Korean adults. Data from the 2005 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was analyzed for adults aged over 19 years (n=25,215). Oral disease was defined as disease diagnosed by a dentist for the previous 12 months. Chi-square test and logistic regression analysis were used to conduct statistical analysis. The population without dental caries and periodontal diseases were used as the reference category for all analysis. The overall prevalence of annual dentist-diagnosed dental caries and periodontal diseases were 23.5% and 10.6% respectively. The relative risk of developing dental caries for graduates of middle school and lower were 1.53 times (95% CI: 1.24-1.89) more likely to develop dental caries comparing to college graduates. Low income earners were 1.23 times(95% CI: 1.01-1.49) more likely to develop dental caries than high income earners. Persons covered by national medical insurance were 1.45 times(95% CI: 1.08-1.95) more likely to develop dental caries comparing to persons covered by employee medical insurance. Compared with persons not eating snacks, the risk of developing caries in persons eating snacks once a day was 1.16(95% CI: 1.01-1.32), while those who snacked twice or more a day were 1.19(95% CI: 1.01-1.41). The relative risk of developing periodontal disease was 3.71(95% CI: 2.38-5.80) higher in older individuals than younger. In terms of education level, middle school graduates and lower were 1.54 times more likely to develop periodontal disease than college graduates. Low income earners were 1.47 times more likely to develop periodontal diseases than high income earners. Using data from a large, nationally representative sample of Korean populations, we support the hypothesis that the prevalence of oral diseases is related with socioeconomic factors and health behaviors. More intensive intervention efforts to reduce the prevalence of dental diseases are warranted in Korea.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.89-111
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• 2008

Due to the development of digital technology, studies regarding smart wear integrating daily life have rapidly increased. However, consumer research about perception and attitude toward smart clothing hardly could find. The purpose of this study was to identify innovative characteristics and perceived risk of smart clothing and to analyze the influences of theses factors on product attitudes and intention to adopt. Specifically, five hypotheses were established. H1: Perceived attributes of smart clothing except for complexity would have positive relations to product attitude or purchase intention, while complexity would be opposite. H2: Product attitude would have positive relation to purchase intention. H3: Product attitude would have a mediating effect between perceived attributes and purchase intention. H4: Perceived risks of smart clothing would have negative relations to perceived attributes except for complexity, and positive relations to complexity. H5: Product attitude would have a mediating effect between perceived risks and purchase intention. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on previous studies. After pretest, the data were collected during September, 2006, from university students in Korea who were relatively sensitive to innovative products. A total of 300 final useful questionnaire were analyzed by SPSS 13.0 program. About 60.3% were male with the mean age of 21.3 years old. About 59.3% reported that they were aware of smart clothing, but only 9 respondents purchased it. The mean of attitudes toward smart clothing and purchase intention was 2.96 (SD=.56) and 2.63 (SD=.65) respectively. Factor analysis using principal components with varimax rotation was conducted to identify perceived attribute and perceived risk dimensions. Perceived attributes of smart wear were categorized into relative advantage (including compatibility), observability (including triability), and complexity. Perceived risks were identified into physical/performance risk, social psychological risk, time loss risk, and economic risk. Regression analysis was conducted to test five hypotheses. Relative advantage and observability were significant predictors of product attitude (adj $R^2$=.223) and purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.221). Complexity showed negative influence on product attitude. Product attitude presented significant relation to purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.692) and partial mediating effect between perceived attributes and purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.698). Therefore hypothesis one to three were accepted. In order to test hypothesis four, four dimensions of perceived risk and demographic variables (age, gender, monthly household income, awareness of smart clothing, and purchase experience) were entered as independent variables in the regression models. Social psychological risk, economic risk, and gender (female) were significant to predict relative advantage (adj $R^2$=.276). When perceived observability was a dependent variable, social psychological risk, time loss risk, physical/performance risk, and age (younger) were significant in order (adj $R^2$=.144). However, physical/performance risk was positively related to observability. The more Koreans seemed to be observable of smart clothing, the more increased the probability of physical harm or performance problems received. Complexity was predicted by product awareness, social psychological risk, economic risk, and purchase experience in order (adj $R^2$=.114). Product awareness was negatively related to complexity, meaning high level of product awareness would reduce complexity of smart clothing. However, purchase experience presented positive relation with complexity. It appears that consumers can perceive high level of complexity when they are actually consuming smart clothing in real life. Risk variables were positively related with complexity. That is, in order to decrease complexity, it is also necessary to consider minimizing anxiety factors about social psychological wound or loss of money. Thus, hypothesis 4 was partially accepted. Finally, in testing hypothesis 5, social psychological risk and economic risk were significant predictors for product attitude (adj $R^2$=.122) and purchase intention (adj $R^2$=.099) respectively. When attitude variable was included with risk variables as independent variables in the regression model to predict purchase intention, only attitude variable was significant (adj $R^2$=.691). Thus attitude variable presented full mediating effect between perceived risks and purchase intention, and hypothesis 5 was accepted. Findings would provide guidelines for fashion and electronic businesses who aim to create and strengthen positive attitude toward smart clothing. Marketers need to consider not only functional feature of smart clothing, but also practical and aesthetic attributes, since appropriateness for social norm or self image would reduce uncertainty of psychological or social risk, which increase relative advantage of smart clothing. Actually social psychological risk was significantly associated to relative advantage. Economic risk is negatively associated with product attitudes as well as purchase intention, suggesting that smart-wear developers have to reflect on price ranges of potential adopters. It will be effective to utilize the findings associated with complexity when marketers in US plan communication strategy.