• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.13 no.10
• /
• pp.313-324
• /
• 2013

The purpose of this study is to understand the experiences and perspectives of the self-reliance program participants through a longitudinal qualitative study from 2006 to 2012. Based on Grounded theory approach, it examines how participants managed their lives up to now status. Through open-coding process, 181 meanings were identified. Paradigm model shows that the goal of the self-reliance program can be viewed as causal condition. However, contextual factors such as poverty experiences and child-support affected the self-reliance program participants to adapt and stay in the program rather than actively participate in the market. The finding shows that the meaning of self-reliance are differently understood by policy makers and self-reliance program participants.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.77-105
• /
• 2004

Given the limitations of UI benefit and self-insurance through precautionary savings, this paper suggests a new scheme of income support for the unemployed, which offers unemployed workers not only UI benefit but also borrowings from their future pension incomes. Allowing individuals to have effective self-insurance through pension- borrowing, this scheme provides them with consumption-smoothing and reduction in risk burden while maintaining search incentives of the unemployed. Simulation study based upon household panel data in Korea suggests that a heavy reliance should be set upon self-insurance through pension-borrowings rather than upon UI benefit, even for the low-income individuals who are subsidized under UI system. This result provides us with insightful implications for a social safety net in (fast-growing) developing countries, where people cannot afford a good amount of UI benefit or of precautionary savings against unemployment although they expect their incomes to be much higher in the future. Indeed, it is consumption-smoothing effect of self-insurance through pension- borrowings, as well as its incentive-maintaining effect, that makes it a promising alternative of social safety net in developing countries.

• Journal of Labour Economics
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.31-59
• /
• 2003

This paper analyzes a social insurance system that integrates unemployment insurance with a pension program, allowing workers to borrow against their future wage income to finance consumption during an unemployment episode and thus improving their search incentives while reducing risks. This paper identifies the conditions under which the integration improves welfare and the factors which determine the optimal degree of integration. A fully integrated system is one in which no reliance is placed at all on a separate tax-funded unemployment insurance program. We show that when the duration of unemployment is very short compared to the period of employment or retirement, the optimal system involves an exclusive reliance on pension-funded self-insurance. This system imposes a negligible risk burden for workers while avoiding attenuating search incentives. We also argue that a joint integration of several social insurance programs with a pension program through an individual account is desirable unless the risks are perfectly correlated to each other.