• 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.60 no.4
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• pp.205-230
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• 2008

This study analyzed the regional effects on the poverty status of households and the poverty difference between Metropolitan and Non-metropolitan area in Korea. The Korea Welfare Panel Study was used for the study, and the results are as follows. First, the poverty rate of Non-metropolitan area is higher than Metropolitan area, and the poverty rate of small-sized regions is the highest area among Non-metropolitan areas. It shows that the poverty of regions is deeply related with the development of region. Second, the people living in Non-metropolitan area have experienced more hardships than the people of Metropolitan area, even though they have similar socio-demographic characteristics. It implies that living in the Non-metropolitan area is to have much more risk of poverty. Third, the regional effects on the poverty are found, that is, living in Non-metropolitan areas is positively associated with the poverty probability. Lastly, regional effect, that is the differences of the poverty probability between Metro and Non-metropolitan areas, is estimated as $49.2{\sim}73.7%$ of total poverty differences. Results of this study suggest that regional poverty policies are necessary to solve the regional differences of poverty in Korea.