• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.333-354
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• 2009

This study decomposes the gender differences on poverty to explain the causes of the poverty gap between male- and female-headed households. In order to do this, we start from examining the extent of the poverty gap between maleand female-headed families and then conduct decomposition of poverty differences by gender using the Oaxaca method. This paper uses the (Urban) Family Budget Survey data from 1982 to 2008 and measures poverty using 50% of the median income poverty line. Major findings of this study are as follows: First, in 2008, the coefficient effect explains 70% or more of the total gender-poverty gap. Second, the trend of gender-poverty gap in the period of 1982~2008 shows that the poverty gap by gender increased in the 1980s', decreased in the 1990s', and a re-increased in 2000s'. Third, comparing the decomposition results in 1982, 1989, 1999, 2008, we found that the share of characteristic effect of the total gender poverty gap has been increased gradually over time. It means the characteristics of the female-headed households have become worse than those of the male-headed households in urban working families. At the same time, the still large coefficient effect suggests that the problems such as the discrimination against matriarchs or the lack of social support for them still play important roles among urban working families in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.147-174
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• 2007

This study examines how path dependency of working poor labor market segmented from the primary and the secondary labor market affects employment and quality of employment of working poor. It Further examines how path dependency makes working poor to remain in the labor market and makes it difficult for them to escape from a vicious poverty cycle. Data is based on the $3{\sim}7th$ Korea Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS). Markov's transition probability and discrete-time hazard analysis are used for analysis. This study finds that Korea labor market is divided into three parts; the primary labor market, the secondary labor market and the working poor labor market. The proportion of employed poor has been reduced, but the proportion of non economically-active working poor has been increased and has become the main group among the working poor. This shows that labor demand of working poor is fundamentally lacking and there are structural barriers that block working poor's employment itself. The regression analysis shows that the longer working poor labor market participation is, the lower poverty-exit rate. This is an evidence of vicious poverty cycle that the poor have little chance to exit from working poor labor market, once they step into it. Therefore, the longer their participation in poor labor market, the more likely they would move only within the closed working poor labor market. Consequently, it is necessary to fundamentally reform labor market structure and to alleviate negative perception and discrimination about the poor labor while activating labor demand.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.251-274
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• 2007

Although linkages between poverty and disability are often noted, until recently they have not been systematically examined in Korea. Many people with disabilities tend to become poorer because they lack access to jobs. And income support programs are not sufficient. But more severe is people with disabilities in labor market tend to be poor. The purposes of this study were to explore the characteristics of working poor with disabilities and to identify the major determinants of poverty. For this, '2005 Survey on the Workers With Disabilities' was used. The data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, logistic regression. The results showed that gender, age, education level, marital status, region where they live, the number of the household member, the severity of disability, the onset of disability are significant predictors in determining their poverty status. Also employment status, occupation type, industry type, numbers of years in current job are major determinants of their poverty status. Finally, based on these results several policy implications were presented.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.351-374
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• 2005

This study examines dynamics of poverty in Korea, focusing on poverty duration and its determinants. Data come from Korean Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS), 1998-2003. KLIPS is a longitudinal survey of 5,000 families and their members which are representative of urban residents in Korea. Respondents of KLIPS annually report detailed information on their income, economic activities, and other socio-economic characteristics. This study use poverty exit probabilities to generate distributions of spell lengths, following Bane and Ellwood(1986)'s methodology. This study finds a high level of poverty exit rates in Korea. About three quarters of those beginning a poverty spell exit from poverty within two years. Only 14.3 percent of all the poverty spells consist of long spells which persists five years or more. Yet, a different picture emerges when spells of the poor persons at a given time are analysed. Persistent poor occupy a considerable share of all the poor. Almost 50 percent of those who would be in poverty at a given time are in the midst of poverty spells lasting five years or more. When repeat spells of poverty are also included in the analyses, the proportion of long-term poor increases further. 63 percent of persons poor at a given time are long-termers. The majority of long-term poor are members of families headed by the aged. They show both a low level of poverty exit rates and a high level of reentry rates, and thus are most likely to experience long-term poverty. In the first place, they occupy a substantial share of all the poor. The second who are likely to be poor longer is members of families headed by non-aged women. Researchers have recentlty paid much attention to the working poor who have increased since the economic crisis in 1997. Yet, it is very likely that families headed by non-aged male who largely consist of the working poor temporarily experience poverty. Findings for this study suggest that further studies and policy proposals addressing persistent poverty are necessary.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.28-33
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• 2022

This study aims to investigate factors that affect elderly poverty based on a comprehensive and universal perspective, suggesting some alternatives for improving the poverty rate of the elderly. The comprehensive and universal approach to the poverty of the aged that this study attempts can give a better understanding of the elderly poverty beyond the contribution of the existing literature, with the research model including individual, family, labor, and income factors as the causes of old-age poverty from the comprehensive and universal perspective on the causes of poverty of the elderly. In addition, the study attempts to input variants of variables into the equation for the causes of elderly poverty by using panel data from the 8th Korean Retirement and Income Study. This study employs decision tree analysis to determine the cause of the poverty of the elderly using CHAID. The decision tree analysis shows that the most vital variable affecting elderly poverty is making income. For the poor elderly without earned income, public pensions, educational careers, and residential areas influence elderly poverty, but for the poor elderly with earned income, wage earners and gender are variables that affect poverty. This study suggests some alternatives to improve the poverty rate of the aged. The government should create a better working environment such as senior re-employment for old people to be able to participate in economic activities, improve public pension or social security for workers with unfavorable conditions for public security of old age, and give companies that create employment of the aged diverse incentives.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.119-141
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• 2006

This study aims to explore the status and characteristics of the working poor and to identify the major determinants of their statistic status. For this, longitudinal panel data (from 2nd wave(1999) data to 7th wave(2004) data) from Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS), is used. The data is analyzed by adopting Hierarchical Generalized Linear Model (HGLM), which is known as an app.opriate data analysis method for the hierarchically structured data, to look at the factors that affect on the poverty status of the working people. The results show that 1) it is estimated that about 1 out of 10 working people (about 10.0%) are poor, and 2) sex, education level, marital status, region where they lives, employment status, occupation type, and industry type that they are working at are significant predictors in determining their poverty status. Unlike the results of the previous studies, however, the number of the household member, age are not influenced on their poverty status. Based on these results, several policy implications are presented at the end of this paper.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.55-77
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• 2008

After the economic crisis of Korea, the character of Korean Poverty has changed. Most notably, many people are working but poor. Therefore it is important to understand the characteristics of the working poor, especially the unstable work experiences of the working poor since one of the causes of poverty is that. Prior research about the working poor has not fully proven this issue. This study is to examine the job sequences of the working poor. Thus I utilized the KLIPS(Korea Labor and Income Study), and analyzed it by event sequence analysis and optimal matching methods. The job sequences are divided as follows: total years of working in the labor market, the number of gaps and the length of gaps in their careers, and the characteristics of experienced jobs since they have entered the labor market from age 15. As a result, there are no statistically significant in the total years of working in the labor market. And the number of gaps and the length of gaps in their careers, and the characteristics of experienced jobs show that working poor have been experiencing more unstable than non-poor. Thus, almost all of the male working poor has unstable jobs their whole lives, and the female working poor's job sequences show distinct features according to women's life course. These results can give political implications to the anti-poverty policy in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.143-169
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• 2007

The major purpose of this study was to offer a comprehensive analysis of the changing trends and causes of poverty among urban wage earners' households from 1995 to 2005. In order to do that, this study used the micro data of "Income and Expenditure Survey of Urban Households" by the National Statistical Office(NSO) and GEE(Generalized estimating equation) regression model which is know as an appropriate method for the longitudinal and clustering data. The results show that (1) the numbers of poverty rate and poverty gap in recent years are even getting seriously worse than those in the IMF crisis. (2) Main characteristics of poor are female headed, old aged, low educated households, and having atypical working position. (3) Major determinants of poverty are also related to the variables as mentioned the above. (4) However, poverty reduction effect of public transfer increased preferably in recent years.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.64 no.3
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• pp.257-279
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• 2012

This study examined how employment status changes affects poverty transition of workable youth using 3years panel data from KoWePS(Korea Welfare Panel Study, 2007-2009). Findings and implications of this study as follows. First, although relative poverty rate of aged 18-34 is lower than other age groups, significant amount of youth experienced poverty once in 2007-2009(14.59%). This means that there are some of youth suffering for poverty and the aspect of youth poverty is very dynamic. Second, much of workable poor of youth had high level of education(45.9% in 2009) and they were unemployed or inactive in labor market(55.3% in 2009). These findings consistent with previous studies of youth poverty or youth employment. Third, workable youth who had changed employment status from employed to unemployed or inactive in labor market were likely to enter poverty and less likely to exit from poverty. Moreover youth who were non-standard employed had more possibility to be poor and less possibility to be not poor. These show that employment instability makes youth vulnerable to economic hardship, poverty. The result of this study suggest that anti-poverty programs which are related with the work-related programs and active labor market policy, should consider workable youth who have high level of human capital comparing other ordinary working poor. Because of much of youth are not poor in fixed time point, they can't be supported from existing social assistance program, like National Basic Livelihood Protection Program. As youth who experienced poverty in changing time need social support to prevent long-term poverty, government should contemplate adopting assistance program for workable poor youth.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.1
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• pp.147-174
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• 2013

Until recently, self-employment workers are often excluded from labor market studies. Most relevant studies has focused on the determinants of entry into self-employment. However, the self-employment is highly exposed to poverty risk although they are working. Despite that, relatively little is known about the economic severity of the self-employed. This study uses data from the Korea Welfare Panel Study to examine the situation of the self-employed's in-work poverty and the determinants of in-work poverty among them. Major findings are as follows. First, self-employed people experience 3.5 times higher in-work poverty risk than employees. Especially, the ratio of own-account self-employed people living below the poverty line is similar with that of even precarious employees. Second, the extent of poverty of self-employment is more serious. Third, the proportion of self-employed among working poor is about 53% although self-employed workers are composed of only about 24% among working people. Fourth, temporary employees and self-employed people are more likely to be poor than full time employees according to logistic regression. It is statistically significant. It implies that it is desirable to regard the self-employed as the policy target group along with temporary employees. Fifth, the ratio of in-work poverty of self-employed aged 40-64 whose education level is low and the self-employed aged 40-64 who work in low-skilled service sector are higher than that of the other group. It implies that measures to alleviate their economic difficulties are urgently needed.