• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.199-237
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• 2006

The relationship between growth and distribution, which has been revealed through many empirical evidences, is that growth is distribution neutral on average and high asset inequality could be a hindrance of economic growth. The growth versus distribution dichotomy is false, as poverty reduction requires blending policy of growth and distribution both theoretically and empirically. At this present, the pro-poor growth policy, which has been recommended by the World Bank, should be urgently needed in Korea to achieve the reduction of absolute poverty through the harmony between growth and distribution. However, it is not easy to expect the reduction of absolute poverty if the Korean government, in means of reducing absolute inequality, pursues anti-polarization policy. Specifically, we cannot deny the existence of negative correlation between absolute poverty and absolute inequality on average.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.183-206
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• 2013

Using Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (wave 1~11) database, this study analyzed the poverty duration of the poor as a whole and by households' characteristics. For this purpose, I first estimated poverty exit rates and reentry rates applying discrete-time hazard model to the sample, and then calculated poverty duration combining these two probability rates. The results show that about a half of poor households are transitory (short-term) poor with 1~2 years of poverty duration. A quarter is chronic (long-term) poor lasting for 5 or more years of poverty duration. The remained quarter can be categorized as the recurrent or mid-term poor. The socioeconomic characteristics of households greatly affect poverty duration. Long-term poverty is prevalent among female-head households, elderly households, single households, or households headed by a person with a lower level of education. If households' heads do not work, or work as temporary or daily-employed workers, the poverty duration tends to be longer. The findings suggest that the poor consist of various social classes with different characteristics. Efficient anti-poverty policy should be based on thoroughly identifying the specific characteristics and needs of each class.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.19-29
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• 2016

This study analyzes life experiences and prospects of poverty/welfare exit of the poor with work ability utilizing Mixed methodology. Based on Sequential Exploratory Design, it qualitatively analyzes 3 waves of qualitative panel data linked to Korea Welfare Panel Study(KWPS) and presents life changes of 14 poor in the context of their prospects of welfare/poverty exit. Then it proposes hypotheses on the role of education, household economy expectation, self-esteem in the prospects of poverty/welfare exit following the sequential exploratory design to quantitatively test qualitative findings utilizing KWPS(7th). The outcomes of the Structural Equation Model(SEM) suggest that household economy expectation plays mediating role between education and the prospects of welfare/poverty exit. This implies that anti-poverty policy needs to consider a psychological approach to enhance household economy expectations of the poor as well as other material support.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.365-388
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• 2011

By analyzing 1998~2008 Korean Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS), this study examines socio-economic characteristics of people who become poor. The study also explores the reason why they are in the state of poverty. To find determinants affecting poverty entrance, discrete-time hazard models are applied. Major findings are as follows. The socio-economic characteristics driving people into poverty are in the middle way of the long-term poor and the non-poor, combining the characteristics of both groups. This implies that many cases of the newly poor tend to enter and exit from poverty repeatedly. Poverty entry rate was at a high level right after the economic crises, then was a downturn and remained fairly stable since 2000. However, the young, the high-educated, and even the professional are on the rise as a new poverty group. The major reason people become poor is temporary job loss. This factor is confirmed again by multi-variate analyses. In building anti-poverty policies, it is important to distinguish the long-term poor from the short-term poor. For the long-term poor, virtually the only affective policy will be income support. On the other hand, a labor-market strategy for jos security will be more effective for the short-term poor. The characteristics and determinants of poverty entry may affect poverty duration and exit in the future. Future research will be needed to investigate the relationship among these factors.

• 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 Studies
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.233-265
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• 2011

Material hardship measures have been used to supplement the traditional income-based poverty measures. Recently poverty researchers have increasingly used measure of material hardship to examine the well-being of low income families. Measuring the material hardship might be useful to a better understanding of the multi-dimensions of the poverty in Korea. Using the data of the Korea Welfare Panel Study(the fourth wave), I examine incidences of material hardship across quintiles of the income distributions and the factors that might affect the experience of material hardship among the poor families. Major findings are as follows. Descriptive results show that nearly one-fifth of all families had experienced at least one of the five material hardships in the year. Those in the bottom quintiles and the poor families are more likely to experience material hardship than the other quintiles and non-poor families. But, incidences of the material hardship in the middle income quintiles and low income families are not a few(18 percent and 37 percent). Logistic regression results show that family-consumption related variables, income other economic resources(asset and public assistance), and household's employment status affect the experience of material hardship among the poor families. But, material hardship among the poor families is not significantly related with family income. These results indicate that material hardship measures are the useful indicators to understanding the multi-dimensions of the poverty in Korea. And they suggest that an extensive reform of the public assistance policy is necessary to relieve the material hardships of the poor in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.263-293
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• 2011

There have been many studies on the relationship between welfare states and the poverty. Yet, only a few studies have been addressed the poverty alleviation effect of public pension using difference in difference(DID). This study aims to analyze poverty alleviation effect for the old aged of public pension in 10 OECD countries using DID considering welfare states regimes. The empirical analyses are based on panel data of individuals aged 50 and over from two sources: SHARE in Europe(wave I~II) and HRS in USA(2004~2006). As a result of simple DID, this study provides evidence that the poverty rate of the old aged who has not been received the pension is increased, while the poverty rate of pensioner is sharply decreased. The anti-poverty effect of public pension using DID is 45.6% which is bigger than that of pre/post approach. The policy impact used by pre/post approach in conservative welfare regime is underestimated while those in liberal and socialist regime are overestimated. In last, GDP growth rate has not significant while public pension contributes to poverty alleviation effects of the old aged. Poverty alleviation effects of public pension are also varied with welfare state regimes. The poverty alleviation effects of public pension in conservative welfare and social democratic welfare state regime are significantly bigger than that in liberal welfare state regime.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.68 no.3
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• pp.51-71
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to clarify macro causes influencing on the diversity of single-mother households poverty among OECD Countries including Korea. This study carried out pooled time series cross-section analysis applying unbalanced panel design on the period from 1981 to 2012. There is marked diversity on single-mother households poverty. GDP per capita does not contributes to reduce poverty, and female employment rate and % population 0-14 exacerbate poverty. Several factors contribute on poverty reduction including social spending, child cash spending, union density, employment protection on regular workers, proportional representation system, cumulative left cabinet, cumulative women seat. In Korea, it needs to overcome the limit of anti-poverty strategy mainly based on economic growth and labor market flexibility. And it needs to enlarge universal welfare institutions, child benefits, work-family reconciliation policy, and to design adjusted labor market institutions including union density and employment protection, to introduce consensus political model including proportional representation system to enhance left power and women's representation.

• 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.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.185-197
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• 1999

In the family life cycle, the most important task the families with school children should perform is ‘child education’ and ‘socialization’ However, economic stress on poor families with school children presents multiple problems through the shortage of resources necessary for child education and socialization, inappropriateness of family appraisal, and the insufficiency of the control channels for the efficient management of these confined resources and appropriate appraisal. The objectives of this article are : First, to report research on the actual conditions of the poor families in one area of Cheju and on the relevant health welfare policy, and to examine the appropriateness of the direction and the substance of this policy in terms of the intervention in economic stress on the poor families under the categories of resource management and control of appraisal. Second, to analyze qualitative data extracted from the memoirs of single-parent families living in several areas of Korea under the conceptual framework constructed by literature review in order to get a better understanding of the stress which poor families with school children have experienced. And third, to confirm the factors that can be risk factor but, at the same time, strength to these poor families from presented data and to use them as the basic data from which an intervention model can be developed, based on resource management and control of appraisal. The findings of this article are : First, while the number of absolute poor families in one area of Cheju is increasing and, as a result, the danger of the possibility that multiple problems will occur is also growing, the supporting level of the current policy is no more than a direct resource offer and there is no evidence that resource management is being professionally carried out. When it comes to control of appraisal, due to absence of the professional human resources in this matter, policy performances such as technical education training can have a negative impact. Second, a conceptual framework introduced in this article, ; Economic Pressure → Helplessness → Poor self-esteem → Marital Conflict → Parent-Child financial conflict → Inappropriate socialization → Poor child social competence : is partly verified. And third, judging from the results of the qualitative data, it is confirmed that the healing families, having overcome poverty, show several positive characteristics including : hope, strength, and social support. These findings are identified with the factors of resiliency considered above. According to these results, this article suggests the following. The anti -poverty policy in the future should focus not only on a direct resource offer but also on resource management and the control of appraisal that can magnify its effects. In particular, close attention should be paid to school children since they are in the most crucial period for socialization. Moreover, an emotional labor is such an essential resource for intervention that skilled nurses should play pivotal roles.