• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.1-15
• /
• 2017

Objectives: About for twenty years, immigrant women in South Korea have steadily increased due to economic growth and industrialization. According to previous studies in terms of immigrants, subjective socio-economic status(SES) as well as objective SES such as income, occupation and level of education predict health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine association between subjective social status and perceived health among immigrant women. Methods: We analyzed 12,531 participants from the 2012 National Survey of Multicultural Families. Study variables included subjective SES in Korea, subjective SES in community and perceived health. Control variables were age, household income, employment, education, marital status, ethnicity, language proficiency. For this study, descriptive analysis, Chi-square test, and multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed. Results: Among immigrant women, after adjusting for control variables, level of education in community was not associated with perceived health. Otherwise, subjective social status in Korea(low subjective social status reference group vs high subjective status : OR 2.056) was associated with perceived health. Conclusions: Immigrant women in Korea would be culturally affected by inherent characteristic rather than social economic status. Through this study, in order to improve health inequality among immigrant women, we should consider developing social supports and networks.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.19 no.7
• /
• pp.559-573
• /
• 2019

The aim of this study is to investigate how social welfare expenditure affects to economic growth in Northern European countries, and such implication might be compared with Korean episode. ARDL cointegration model is employed for emplrical analysis. The model is usefully utilized to analyze short-run and long-run relationships of the variables in general. The result suggests that private welfare expenditure is effective in Korea and Finland even though the magnitude of effectiveness is quite a small scale. On the other hand, public welfare expenditure is effective in Denmark and Norway. However, none of social welfare expenditures affects in economic growth in Sweden. And, therefore, it could be concluded that although social welfare expenditures contribute to improve income inequality, these hardly support income-led growth strategy.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.1-38
• /
• 2005

Our paper aims to estimate a household consumption function in the presence of liquidity constraints as well as household characteristics. Empirical findings from a Korean cross-sectional data (National Survey of Household Income and Expenditure) reveal that several family characteristics, such as household size, number of working members, children in school, and educational level and age of the household head, turn out to be critical determinants of household consumption. Especially, the influence of household size on consumption decision is shown to be highly significant, not only indirectly through its impact on household income, but also directly by affecting the household's preference for consumption itself. While, the other family characteristics primarily influences household income. Our paper distinguishes itself from existing literature in that it greatly improves the explanatory power of the estimated household consumption function by measuring the degree of the liquidity constraint rather than simply identifying its presence. Based on the assumption that the present value of human capital is a function of household characteristics, the degree of the liquidity constraint is represented by the underestimated portion of the human capital. Such a method of implementing the liquidity constraint is useful in treating various types of assets according to their liquidity. Finally, our estimated household consumption function is applied to decompose cross-sectional variances of consumption inequality. The analysis confirms that the overall alleviation in liquidity constraints in Korea after the 1997 currency crisis reduced consumption inequality despite the worsening of income inequality and changes in the demographic composition of family characteristics during the same period.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
• /
• v.44 no.2
• /
• pp.437-463
• /
• 2013

As polarization and class reproduction between generations are considered to be serious problems in Korean society, increasing number of assortative mating, which means marrying between homogeneous family background, income class, and educational background, is on the spotlight socially. Some worry that the increase of assortative mating can reinforce closure of social mobility so it deepens inequality and limits class mobility between generations. This research analyzes the effects of accomplishment characteristics of husbands and wives and ascriptive characteristics of parents which consist the concept of assortative mating, on income, consumption, and assets those represent economic status of a family. The purpose of this research is to suggest empirical understanding on the role of assortative mating that affect on inequality within generations and income mobility between generations in Korean society. In the result of multiple regression analysis on the effect of assortative mating on income, consumption, and assets, high educational background was the factor that increase income and consumption level as accomplishment characteristics of assortative mating. As ascriptive characteristics of assortative mating, educational homogeneous of fathers was the factor that increased asset level. While accomplishment characteristics affect income and consumption, ascriptive characteristics of homogeneous had significant effect on assets. Thus, it was found that transfer between generations had effects around asset rather than income. In particular, ascriptive characteristics in young husbands and wives aged 20s or 30s had significant effect only on the assets.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.673-689
• /
• 2011

It is a qualitative study based on a focus group with an aim to figure out elderly people's experiences in health inequality in vulnerable health zones in agriculture and fisheries areas. Of eups, myeons and dongs selected as 40 vulnerable areas where standardized death rates had continued to be high from 2004 to 2007 in 20 counties and cities in Gyeongsang-do, 15 agriculture and fisheries areas were randomly chosen to extract 8 to 10 elderly people. Explanations were given to study subjects, and 7 to 8 people who agreed to take part in the study joined a regional focus group. Contents of interviews were analyzed with a phenomenological method by Colaizzi (1978) in order to accurately describe pertinent phenomena. The study has found four categories including ecological environmental problems, insufficient services for local community & harmful environmental problems, worsening economic conditions and insufficient health care management in terms of health behavior.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.385-401
• /
• 2014

This research analyses spatial and temporal characteristics of the academic performances of high school students by using all 2,065,166 SAT scores for 3 years. The spatial inequalities in Seoul are analysed by DBMS and GIS. Based on three-year raw data of Korean SAT scores, the spatial and temporal characteristics of academic performances are scrutinized: 868,029 SAT scores cases of 2000 academic year on Novemver 17, 1999, 609,258 cases in 2005 academic year on November 17, 2004 and 587,890 cases in 2009 on November 13. The result shows that there are significant spatial disparities of the level of academic performance in Seoul by Gu level, also indicating that the disparities are getting wider over the course of time. The widening disparities by Gu level means that educational spatial inequality is intensified in spite of the increasing overall trend of academic performance of Seoul. It is also notable that disparities between regions are distinctive, while those in regions are not significant and sustained constant as time flows.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
• /
• v.8 no.6
• /
• pp.87-95
• /
• 2017

Purpose - The structural changes of Korean agriculture are complex due to heterogeneous production processes and farms' features. This study analyzed trends of dualism in Korean agriculture over the period 2000-15 based on farm-level data to clarify the specific trends of dualism in terms of farm income, farm-size, and farm operators' age. From the results of this study, we would be able to understand the features of structural changes in Korean agriculture more profoundly. Research design, data, and methodology - We incorporated farm-level data in South Korea: Agricultural census and Farm household economy survey. As measures of inequality, we used size-weighted quantiles, and normalized Gini coefficients as well as mean and conventional quantiles. The size-weighted quantiles are more robust to changes in the number of small farms, but they are more sensitive to changes in the distribution of farm-size. Thus, they would be more useful to identify trends of dualism of Korean agriculture. Results - The results show that the farmland distribution of crop farms became more skewed and dispersed. However, the herd distribution of livestock farms became more concentrated. To be specific, their mean and 1st quantile increases more rapidly than their size-weighted 2nd quantile and size-weighted 3rd quantile. Gini coefficients of livestock farms regarding their herd distribution decreased by 0.1 on average. In the case of income distribution, the results indicate that the polarization regarding farm household/agricultural/non-agricultural income became more severe. However, we also found that the distribution of transfer income became concentrated continuously. The results imply that transfer income including subsidies would decrease farm income polarization. Lastly, during the study periods, Korean farms were aging over time, and age distribution of them more concentrated. Conclusions - The structure of Korean agriculture has been changing, even though the absolute size of it decreased over time. Land (herd) distribution became more dispersed (concentrated). Inequality regarding agricultural income became more severe, and it made farm household income more polarized even though transfer income would decrease income gaps among farms. Lastly, farms continue to age regardless of farm types and this might affect the structural changes in Korean agriculture in the future.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.51 no.2
• /
• pp.83-91
• /
• 2018

Objectives: One of the main objectives of the Targeted Subsidies Law (TSL) in Iran was to improve equity in healthcare financing. This study aimed at measuring the effects of the TSL, which was implemented in Iran in 2010, on equity in healthcare financing. Methods: Segmented regression analysis was applied to assess the effects of TSL implementation on the Gini and Kakwani indices of outcome variables in Iranian households. Data for the years 1977-2014 were retrieved from formal databases. Changes in the levels and trends of the outcome variables before and after TSL implementation were assessed using Stata version 13. Results: In the 33 years before the implementation of the TSL, the Gini index decreased from 0.401 to 0.381. The Gini index and its intercept significantly decreased to 0.362 (p<0.001) 5 years after the implementation of the TSL. There was no statistically significant change in the gross domestic product or inflation rate after TSL implementation. The Kakwani index significantly increased from -0.020 to 0.007 (p<0.001) before the implementation of the TSL, while we observed no statistically significant change (p=0.81) in the Kakwani index after TSL implementation. Conclusions: The TSL reform, which was introduced as part of an economic development plan in Iran in 2010, led to a significant reduction in households' income inequality. However, the TSL did not significantly affect equity in healthcare financing. Hence, while measuring the long-term impact of TSL is paramount, healthcare decision-makers need to consider the efficacy of the TSL in order to develop plans for achieving the desired equity in healthcare financing.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
• /
• v.50
• /
• pp.131-172
• /
• 2018

It is noted that nowadays, the bride wealth custom takes an extremely distorted form in African society. Such a phenomenon is a result that the male-dominant culture, Western religions, and capitalist economic system have been negatively combined into dynamic factors seen as bride wealth. This means that the concept of bride wealth has been incessantly reconstructed in the middle of clash and conflict of tradition and modernity. There is also little doubt that the practice is inextricably tangled with the common and current ways of livelihood, early marriage, polygyny, kinship/family structure, poverty, and migration labor. Bride wealth has become an increasingly commercialized element under a capitalist economic system. Accordingly, its traditional symbolism is seen to be subsequently weakening, whereas a tendency towards the reification of women is strengthening more in modern society that embraces modern customs bent on the protection of women's human rights. Its commercialization has produced a result, which instigates the noted violations of women's basic human rights, gender inequality, and promotion of domestic violence. The ways that people perceive bride wealth vary according to their own sex, generation, stratification, and ethnic background. Those people who negatively recognize bride wealth will increase with the deepening of its commercialization due to the influence of capitalism. Its color and effect will deepen and depend on how its agents correspond to socioeconomic changes. They will constantly reinterpret and reconstruct it within their own environments, but the basic human rights efforts are constantly under review by concerned individuals seeking to promote equality for women as a global effort.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.147-156
• /
• 2011

Since the urbanization process has been taking place, negative outcomes such as environmental pollution and traffic congestion have produced as well. Reflecting the phenomenon, our study assumed that physical structure of urban form were implicit in relation to both economic performance and cost. It can be interpreted that as the urban space has been growing bigger, economic performances such as regional product output, economy of scale and the effect of agglomeration economies are increased. On the contrary, the negative effects such as environmental pollution and traffic congestion were incurred as economic loss and expenses. It means that even though economic performance can help increase regional product output, we should consider the loss on economic expenses which are paid for social problems such as environmental pollution and traffic congestion, which are caused by urbanization. Therefore, this study aims to statistically validate the relationship between traffic congestion as the most representative economy costs and physical characteristics of urban in a large city such as Seoul and to suggest its implications. As a result of model development for empirical analysis, GRDP(0.604), the population(0.582), employment GINI coefficients(0.296), population GINI coefficients(0.254) in order led to congestion cost. We can come to the conclusion that in case of scale factor such as the population, if the population tends to concentrate, urban becomes more crowded and that if GINI coefficients (the population, employment) which are variable on inequality according to region have the disparity with surrounding areas, congestion cost is caused a lot on account of movement related with employment. In addition, this phenomenon was caused if both the population and employment were geographically biased on one side.