• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.391-415
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to examine the trends of income inequality by gender since 1997 economic crisis and to investigate what is the most influential factor on these changes for males and females. Data used for this study are nine waves of Korean Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS). Income inequality is measured by the Gini coefficient and the mean logarithmic deviation(MLD) and the MLDs are decomposed into three components to quantify within- and between-group inequalities. The results show that the extent of income inequality is greater for women during the whole period and is fluctuated more widely. Women's income inequality is mainly affected by the family-related variables, such as age and marital status, while men's inequality is primarily determined by the labor market factors, such as employment status, industrial types and occupation status. These results imply that gender-sensetive welfare policies need to be implemented and that it is necessary to assist the poor women and men through the benefits from the income assistance programs and labor market programs.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.151-178
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• 2014

Highly Differentiated and segmented social insurance scheme in Taiwan shows its salient dimension of stratification, which has been considered as a general feature of conservative welfare regime. However, compared to Western conservative welfare states, Taiwan's social insurance scheme shows a distinct feature. First, Taiwan's social insurance scheme has offered a full coverage for various benefits. Secondly, Labor Insurance and Government employees' Insurance reveal distinct features of stratification. Labor Insurance has developed a universalistic system based on status equality and cross-class solidarity of working classes while Government employees' Insurance includes a myriad of occupational- and status-based programs. This article aims to articulate the historical origin of Taiwan's unique social insurance scheme and explains it as an unintended result of state's political intervention and various interests of each insured groups, especially, politically, economically, and ethnically conflicting identities of government employees and working classes.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.63 no.2
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• pp.199-210
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• 2021

A number of management issues can be used as drivers for change in order to improve animal welfare and nursing capacity of the hyperprolific sow. Group housing of sows during gestation is a recommended practice from the perspective of animal welfare. Related health issues include reproductive health and the locomotor system. It appears that management of pregnant sows in groups is challenging for a producer and considerable skill is required. We explored the benefits and challenges of group housing, including feeding issues. Increasing litter size requires additional attention to the mammary gland and its ability to provide sufficient nursing for the growing litter. We discuss the fundamentals of mammary development and the specific challenges related to the hyperprolific sow. We also address challenges with the farrowing environment. It appears that the old-fashioned farrowing crate is not only outdated in terms of welfare from the public's perspective, but also fails to provide the environment that the sow needs to support her physiology of farrowing, nursing, and maternal behaviour. Studies from our group and others indicate that providing the sow with a loose housing system adequate in space and nesting material, along with reasonable chance for isolation, can be considered as fundamental for successful farrowing of the hyperprolific sow. It has also been shown that management strategies, such as split suckling and cross fostering, are necessary to ensure proper colostrum intake for all piglets born alive in a large litter. We thus conclude that welfare and nursing capacity of the sow can be improved by management. However, current megatrends such as the climate change may change sow management and force the industry to rethink goals of breeding and, for instance, breeding for better resilience may need to be included as goals for the future.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.53
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• pp.129-153
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• 2003

This study examines the socio-economic impacts of recent welfare reform in the United States. Based on the neo-conservative critique to the traditional public assistance system for low-income families, the 1996 welfare reform has given greater emphases on reducing welfare dependency and increasing work effort and self-sufficiency among welfare recipients. In particular, the welfare reform legislation instituted 60-month lifetime limits on cash assistance, expanded mandatory work requirements, and placed financial penalties for noncompliance. With the well-timed economic boom in the second half of the 1990s, the welfare reform seems to achieve considerable progress; welfare caseload has declined sharply to reach less than 50% of its 1994 peak, single mothers' labor force participation has increased substantially, and child poverty has decreased. In spite of these good signals, the welfare reform also has several potential problems. Many welfare leavers participate in the labor market, but not all (or most) of them. The economic well being of working welfare leavers did not increased significantly, because earnings increase was canceled out by parallel decrease in welfare benefits. Furthermore, most of working welfare leavers are employed in jobs with poor employment stability and low wages, making them highly vulnerable to frequent layoff, long-time joblessness, persistent poverty, and welfare recidivism. Another serious problem of the welfare reform is that a substantial number of welfare recipients are faced with extreme difficulties in finding jobs, because they have severe barriers to employment. The new welfare system with 5-year time limit can severely threaten the livelihoods of these people. The welfare reform presupposes that welfare recipients can achieve self-reliance by increasing their labor market activities. However, empirical evidences suggest that many people are unable to respond to the new, work-oriented welfare strategy. It may be a very difficult task to achieve both objectives of the welfare reform((1) providing adequate income security for low-income families and (2) promoting self-sufficiency) at the same time, because sometimes they are conflicting each other. With this in mind, a possible solution can be to distinguish welfare recipients into "(Very)-Hard-to-Employ" group and "(Relatively)-Ready-to-Work" group, based on elaborate examinations of a wide range of personal conditions. For the former group, the primary objective of welfare policies should be the first one(providing income security). For the "Ready-to-Work" group, follow-up services to promote job retention and advancement, as well as skill-training and job-search services, are very important. The U. S. experiences of the welfare reform provide some useful implications for newly developing Korean public assistance policies for the able-bodied low-income population.

• Issues in Feminism
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.49-83
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• 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.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.137-177
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• 2007

The medical expenses review system in Korea has developed under fee-for-service system with its own unique structure. The importance of reviewing medical expenses has been emphasized, as the size of medical expenditures moving through the health insurance legal context and its weight in the national economy have increased very rapidly. It is, however, analyzed that the feuds and arguments continue among the stakeholders for the lack of laws supporting the medical expenses review system. The medical expenses review is a series of administrative procedures, deciding whether claims from medical care institutions to the insurer are legal and valid or not. It mainly controls the increase of unnecessarily excessive health insurance claim and prevents fraudulent claim and abuse and checks the less use or unsuitable use of medical resources. It also works a function guarantees medical benefits for the appropriate treatment according to the object of health insurance system as a social insurance scheme. The dispute on legal base of the medical expenses review is about the source of law in the medical expenses review. There are the Health Insurance Act and administrative laws as jus scriptum and the guidelines of review as administrative orders. The medical expenses review should reflect various factors, such as the development of medical healthcare technologies, the health expenditures distribution, the financial situation of the health insurance, and the evaluation on the level of appropriate benefits. It is also likely to adapt to the traits of characters of medicine, and trends and transition, Besides it should judge the legality and the validity of medical benefits expenditures by synthesizing these all factors. And the evaluation system of appropriateness of medical benefits was administrative procedure which was consecutive with reviewing the medical expenses system and it was intended to make up for the result of reviewing the medical expenses in more comprehensive levels.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.627-634
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to analyze the employment policy for persons with disabilities, and to propose a policy development plan to promote employment of persons with disabilities in North Korea. For this purpose, this study reviewed the laws and employment status related in persons with disabilities in North Korea through literature studies and secondary data analysis as the context of the policy analysis. Since then, North Korea's employment policy for persons with disabilities was analyzed according to the framework of Gilbert and Specht(1974). The results of this study are as follows. First, the benefits of the North Korean employment policy for persons with disabilities are employment benefits and vocational skills development benefits. Second, segregated employment is mainly composed of employment policy for persons with disabilities. Third, the allocation of employment policy for persons with disabilities is centered on persons with mild and physical disabilities. Fourth, the delivery system of employment policy for persons with disabilities is segmented around the Cabinets and the People's Committee of each municipality. Based on the results of this analysis, this study suggests the development of employment policy for persons with disabilities in North Korea through the revision of regulations, the diversification of benefits, and the reorganization of delivery systems.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Educational Facilities
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.19-26
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• 2017

The aim of this study is to suggest an improvement of BTL in Educational Facilities applying the concept of n-BPPP(non-Benefits Public-Private Partnerships). The research is based on four of ninety-nine completed projects of Mixed-use Educational Facilities since 2001. Ninety-nine projects are analyzed and categorized to the typology of architectural program. The architectural programs planned are uniform in function, such as gym, swimming pool, library, info-center, parking etc. The public parking is a main program in the BTL projects, where district offices are involved as partner. The difference between BTL and n-BPPP for educational facilities is the business units. The n-BPPP concerns in regional or district units in order to expand public infrastructure facilities based on the network of schools and local community. And the fund for n-BPPP does not come from the government but from the investors. The economic interest is to reinvest on the maintenance of the facilities. The benefits of n-BPPP will be not only for the Governments in terms of social welfare budgets but also for local residents and students in terms of a variety of high-quality public services. The concept of n-BPPP can be an alternative way for the Mixed-use Educational Facilities.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.1017-1035
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• 2018

The European Union (EU) is the world's third largest producer of beef. This contributes to the economy, rural development, social life, culture and gastronomy of Europe. The diversity of breeds, animal types (cows, bulls, steers, heifers) and farming systems (intensive, extensive on permanent or temporary pastures, mixed, breeders, feeders, etc) is a strength, and a weakness as the industry is often fragmented and poorly connected. There are also societal concerns regarding animal welfare and environmental issues, despite some positive environmental impacts of farming systems. The EU is amongst the most efficient for beef production as demonstrated by a relative low production of greenhouse gases. Due to regional differences in terms of climate, pasture availability, livestock practices and farms characteristics, productivity and incomes of beef producers vary widely across regions, being among the lowest of the agricultural systems. The beef industry is facing unprecedented challenges related to animal welfare, environmental impact, origin, authenticity, nutritional benefits and eating quality of beef. These may affect the whole industry, especially its farmers. It is therefore essential to bring the beef industry together to spread best practice and better exploit research to maintain and develop an economically viable and sustainable beef industry. Meeting consumers' expectations may be achieved by a better prediction of beef palatability using a modelling approach, such as in Australia. There is a need for accurate information and dissemination on the benefits and issues of beef for human health and for environmental impact. A better objective description of goods and services derived from livestock farming is also required. Putting into practice "agroecology" and organic farming principles are other potential avenues for the future. Different future scenarios can be written depending on the major driving forces, notably meat consumption, climate change, environmental policies and future organization of the supply chain.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.92-113
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• 2000

Products liability refers to the liability of any or all parties along the chain of manufacture of any product for damage caused by that product. This includes the manufacturer of component parts (at the top of the chain), an assembling manufacturer, the wholesaler, and the retail store owner (at the bottom of the chain). Products containing inherent defects that cause harm to a consumer of the product, or someone to whom the product was loaned, given, etc., are the subjects of products liability suits. The goal of products liability system should be to maximize consumer welfare by efficiently providing just compensation for injuries incurred and deterring future injuries without unreasonably impeding the supply of the goods and services to consumers. Some advanced countries, apart from relying on products liability systems, also apply other policies and legislation directly aimed at the safety of the consumer. The application of general safety policies as well as products liability rules is not costless. An efficient system will not eliminate risk from society. An efficient system ... that maximises consumer welfare ... maximises the benefits while minimising the costs. Products liability claims can be based on negligence, strict liability, or breach of warranty of fitness depending on the jurisdiction where the claim is based. In view of international business and law circumstances, it should be stressed that international enterprises in Korea should consider how to cope with the situation of international transaction. International enterprises should have a correct perception about products liability which is to contribute the stabilization and improvement of the people's life and the sound develpement of the national economy. Products liability system creates incentives that influence behaviour and performance in ways that are desirable, such as more diligent monitoring to prevent defective products from reaching the market-place. At the same time, any liability system will impose burdens that are undesirable, such as greater costs imposed on business and consumers and reduced avaiability of consumer goods. The concern for society is to balance. The ideal situation is where the cost imposed on producers of goods and services pushes them to a desirable level of care but not so far that producers reach undesirable level of caution that may deprive consumers unnecessarily of the benefits from new and innovative products.