• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.237-247
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effectiveness and efficiency of social security benefits to poverty alleviation. To this end, this study analyzed the poverty alleviation effect of public pension, basic pension, child-rearing allowance, disability allowance, basic living security subsidy, EITC, and other government subsidies using 2019 Household Financial Welfare Survey. The analysis results are as follows. First, social security benefits lowered the poverty rate by 6.8%p. Second, in terms of the poverty gap reduction effect, the public pension for the elderly male households, the basic pension for the elderly female householder, and the basic guarantee for the working female householder contributed the most. Finally, in terms of poverty alleviation efficiency, about 33% of social security benefits contribute to narrowing the poverty gap. Social security benefits for female heads of households were found to serve as a function of alleviating poverty gap and for male heads of households to supplement household income. Based on these results, this study suggested the discovery of various poverty states, expansion of basic security for the female elderly, and the connection between the purpose of social security benefits and key targets.

• 한국노년학
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.1559-1575
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• 2009

As the basic old-age pension system was enforced in 2008, the base for old-age income security was founded. However, due to the basic old-age pension played a minor role as assistant allowance, it did not reach to sufficient level to cover full income security system. It is estimated that the dependency on private transfer income among the elderly who are difficult to be economically independent is still high. Therefore the poverty rate of the elderly households, who are not economically active or who are not protected by old-age income security system, is more likely to be higher than that of non-elderly households. Based on the assumption that public transfer income system should become a central means of old-age life guarantee, this study examined the poverty mitigation effects among the elderly households by comparing the private transfer income and the public transfer income. For this purpose, we selected single-elderly-households who have been considered the most vulnerable to poverty. We used 2006- 2008 Household Income and Expenditure Survey dataset that contained single-elderly who were older than 65 years old. To understand the conditions of poverty among single-elderly-households and the degree of poverty-reducing effect originated from income transfer system, we compared the poverty rates of total households and the whole elderly households. Next, we analysed the poverty of the single-elderly-households by social demographic factors such as gender, age, and economic activity. Our major findings are as follows: First, the poverty rate of the whole elderly households were not reduced, even though the basic old-age pension and long-term care management system were enforced in 2008. Second, half of the elderly households including single-elderly-households belonged to the absolute poverty line. Relatively higher level of poverty among the single-elderly-households was found especially those who were female, unemployed, low-educated, older, and rural single-elderly-households. Third, the effect of the public transfer income on mitigating the single-elderly-households poverty showed a little progress. However, even greater poverty reducing effect was found by the private transfer income system. Fourth, in a group of the public transfer systems, the public assistance such as supporting living costs contributed more to reduce poverty of the elderly population than the public pension system did.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.62 no.4
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• pp.377-402
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• 2010

This study examines the effects and process of housing poverty on children's physical health, internalizing problems and academic achievement using the first Korea Welfare Panel Study. The results show that sub-minimum standard housing condition and housing expenditures have increased the housing instability, non-study activities, while harming parent's health and decreasing non-housing expenditures. And this process negatively affects children's internalizing problems and academic achievement. The findings of this study have value for controlling the confounding factors as income poverty, neighborhood poverty and characters of household. This research is significant in that it develops the theoretical model of housing poverty and suggests the necessity of interventions to alleviate housing poverty.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.57-78
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• 2004

The economic crisis in $1997{\sim}1998$ caused massive unemployment and unprecedentedly increased the number of the poor in Korea. As many unemployed families fell into poverty, the poverty rate skyrocketed to higher than 10 percent. Not later than 2000, unemployment late got back to normal and real average income among urban households approached to the income level prior to the economic crisis. Although the economic crisis has been passed through, poverty was not decreased to the low level prior to the crisis by 2000. Why does it remain high? This study attempts to provide an answer to this question by analysing the poverty trend over the 1990s. Data come from the National Survey of Household Income and Expenditures 1991, 1996, and 20001. Results show that poverty was rapidly reduced in the first half period of the 1990s. This reduction in poverty is largely explained by steady and rapid economic growth. Modest improvement in income inequality also contributed. In contrast, the poverty rate considerably increased in the latter half of the 1990s. Average income was not fully recovered to its prior level, which reflected the economic crisis and the subsequent economic stagnation. Worsened income inequality led to higher poverty rate too. In addition, demographic changes increased the share of economically vulnerable types of families, such as families headed by single parents and the elderly. The most significant factor in explaining the higher poverty rate was extended income differential among non-elderly adults, while the next was the increased number of the elderly families. Yet, findings a little differ depending on which concepts of poverty to adopt. In the analyses based on the concept of absolute poverty, economic growth the most significantly affected the poverty trends in the 1999s. Changes in income inequality played the most important role in explaining the trend in relative poverty. Adopting the concepts of quasi-absolute poverty, which is preferred in this study, results show that rapid economic growth significantly reduced poverty in the first half of the 1990s and both worsened income inequality and stagnated economic growth increased poverty in the latter 1990s.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.245-268
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to investigate the empirical relation between economic growth and poverty in Korea. Especially, the focus is put on exploring if there are any changes in the relation of economic growth and poverty. From 1982-2004 Korea Urban Household Survey, I constructed the annual data of poverty rate. I also obtained the annual data of the real GDP and the unemployment rate from the National Statistical Office. Using these annal data of the poverty rate and the macroeconomic performance, I analyzed the relation of them. As the result, I found that the macroeconomic growth have played very important role in reducing the poverty rate in Korea. Since 2000, the macroeconomic growth have still worked as an effective instrument for poverty reduction. However, there have been poverty increase that has not been explained by the macroeconomic growth since 2000. Based on these results, this paper suggests that the anti-poverty strategy in Korea should be changed from the old strategy emphasizing only economic growth to the new strategy pursuing both economic growth and social security simultaneously.

• Economic Analysis
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.37-66
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• 2021

This paper examines the potential impacts of COVID-19 on poverty in ASEAN countries. The first estimate, adopted from Summer et al. (2020) and Nonvide (2020), configures three scenarios of contractions in per capita household income or consumption; the impact of each scenario on poverty is calculated using poverty lines at different thresholds. In the second estimate, poverty impacts in 2020 and 2021 were projected using regression models controlling for unobserved country effects, unbalanced data, and endogeneity. COVID-19 has been shown to have negative impacts on poverty reduction in the ASEAN Member States. To reduce poverty, concerted efforts are needed to implement policies for reducing income inequality and promoting economic growth. Such efforts will not only speed up the countries' return to pre-pandemic poverty levels but also contribute to further accelerating poverty reduction.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.195-218
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to analyze the phenomenon of poverty among North Korean settlers in Korea in terms of its magnitude, the severity, and its determinants by comparing it with the South Korean poor. The data used for this analysis were the second Korean Social Welfare panel data for the South Koreans and the third longitudinal study on North Korean settlers in the South. The average household income of the North Korean settlers reached about 70% of the South Korean counterparts. The percentage of the North Korean households that earn 200% of the poverty line was about the same as the South Koreans, which indicates the improvement of the economic status of the long-term settlers in the South. However, the North Korean settlers below 100% of the poverty line were twice as much , and those under 50% of the poverty line were 8 times more than their South Korean counterparts. Despite the improved economic status of the long-term North Korean settlers in the South, those who still live below the poverty line tend to remain in poverty, which is chronic and severe. The determinants of the North Korean settlers' poverty were identified as age, number of household members in employment, alcohol problem and health satisfaction level. Policy implications were discussed in conclusion.

• Forest Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.192-203
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• 2018

This study analyzed the distribution of forest income and other variable sources of rural household income and considered their importance for the reduction of income inequality and poverty. We employed Gini decomposition to measure the contribution of forest income and other sources of income to income equality and assess whether they were inequality-increasing or inequality-decreasing in the 14 villages. The forest income Gini correlation with total income was very high, $R_k=0.6960$, and the forest income share of total rural household income was 35% ($S_k=0.3570$). If the income earned from forest activities was removed, the Gini index would increase by 10.3%. Thus, if people could not access forest resources because of vast deforestation, perhaps from the limitations of government-managed forestry, unplanned clearing of forest land for agriculture or the granting of ELCs, there would be an increase in income inequality and poverty among rural households. The findings suggest that policy makers should look beyond agriculture for rural development, as forest resources provide meaningful subsistence income and perhaps contribute to both preventing and reducing poverty and inequality in rural communities. The study found that non-farm activities were inequality-increasing sources of income. The share of non-farm income to the total rural household income was $S_k=0.1290$ and the Gini index of non-farm income was very high, $G_k=0.8780$, compared with forest and farm income. This disagrees with other studies which have reported that non-farm income was inequality-decreasing for the rural poor.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.7
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• pp.519-529
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• 2020

Livelihood capitals have a clear influence on livelihood development. As for the livelihood results, it has been pointed out in the analysis of the poor households that the ability of people to escape poverty depends especially on the access to livelihood capitals. This study aims to analyze the impacts of livelihood capital on poverty among mountain people who depend on forests through human capital, social capital, natural capital, physical capital and financial capital. This research employs the model of binary regression function. Independent variables x1, x2, …, xn are targets of livelihood strategy, vulnerability context, and livelihood capitals. These variables were selected to be included in the original model with dependent variable Y as poor and non-poor households. This study surveys households living in upland areas, near forests, and households of ethnic minorities. The results show that,out of the poor household rate, nearly 4% are newly-poor households or those falling back into poverty. Therefore, the government needs to pay more attention to this disadvantaged group and implements policies such as education and training policies, credit support policies, policies to support forest development, and payment for forest environmental services in the context of emerging countries like Vietnam.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.551-573
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• 2015

The rise of single living has been one of the most important demographic shifts of recent decades. The solo household is a little less than 40% in Europe areas and that of Tokyo is over 45%. Being impacted this figure, the formation of single economy is the key word in World Economic Forum(WEF) 2008. Seoul' single household is increasing rapidly. Between 2000 and 2005, the growth of single person is around 34%, the population of single person reached 700,000 people. Now 20% of total household in Seoul is Single household. Living alone or solo living is not exceptional or special in Seoul Metropolitan City. The rise in single living will create pressures towards poverty and inequality and so on. Seoul should develop and prepare the urban policy for single household. We figured out the four key trends which composed of single household in Seoul. Four types of single person are like below : Gold Mr and Miss, Reserved labor forces, depressed single and silver generation. Gold group is amonst people aged 30 and 40 who is working in the area of white collar and professional. They are usually elective single person household who have chosen solo living. Reserved labor forces group is usually among 20s people who have not get the regular hob. For this group, job acquiring is the most important issue. Depressed single person household group is among people aged late 30s and 40s. Its group is the result from the broken family. The silver group is among aged over 65 that is the main issue of the aged society. In this research, we stressed that people living alone can be split into two types - elective single person households who have chosen single living, and forced single person household who have been constrained to this lifestyle by circumstances. Except gold group, the rest of the group is the forced single household who are faced to poverty. The monthly income of single person household is almost under 2 million won. Single person household is usually working in the blue collar job and service area. So, except gold group that is the smallest part of single person household, almost single person is not the target of private market, but the object of public policy.