• 한국노년학
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.1225-1237
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• 2010

This study aims to analyze the factors affecting consumption inequality in the 10 years following the financial crisis, applying the cohort method on the data for the first to the eleventh wave of the Korean Labor and Income Study produced by the Korean Labor Institute. The study found that consumption inequality increased rapidly immediately following the financial crisis, and then decreased gradually until increasing again from 2005 onward. Analyzed in terms of age-time-cohort effects, there was a significant change in consumption inequality around the age of mid-forties, and the decrease in consumption inequality was smaller in the younger generations than in the older ones. This suggests that as the current younger generations age over time, consumption inequality may become greater. Also, when the factors in population-cohort-age effects from 1998 onward are analyzed, the age effect in consumption inequality becomes smaller, whereas the role of the rising average age due to demographic shifts seems to be increasing. This means that consumption inequality may become a serious problem in the rapidly aging society. Therefore, there is a need to consider ways to bolster social security and to provide further public assistance in the low-income retiree.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.51-83
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• 2018

This study examines whether the widening gap between income groups is worsening in the distribution of time use, similar to the worsening of income distribution after the IMF. To do this, we conducted multilevel analysis (HLM) on six countries including France, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and Korea. The results of the analysis are as follows. First, in all countries, low income groups have a longer paid working time and shorter leisure time. Second, the low income groups in Korea have the longest paid work time and the shortest leisure time, the lowest level of work-leisure balance, and this aspect has not recovered since the IMF. Third, as the result of multilevel analysis, the lower the household income, the more time paid labor increased and the work-leisure balance decreased. Fourth, while average annual working hours increase paid working time, the expansion of family policy expenditure, redistribution policy and income maintenance policy has reduced it. Fifth, the annual average working hours decreased the work-leisure balance, but the family policy expenditure, the redistribution policy and the income guarantee policy increased the work-leisure balance. The significance of this study is that after the IMF, not only the income distribution but also the inequality among the income class in time use has deepened. Based on the results of the research this study suggests the reinforcement of labor time regulation, the activation of parental leave system, the realization of the income replacement rate, the expansion of the policy related to income redistribution, and the complementary development of the income guarantee and the time guarantee policy as the policy intervention strategy that restructures time.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.157-179
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• 2017

In Korea, 'spoon class discourse' has attracted public attention in the press and among young people, which reflects that mass awareness that the class status structure is clearly rooted in the society becomes widespread. Although income distribution has been improved since late 2000s, it is interesting that Korean people's subjective perception concerning class mobility and social justice has been worsemed. By using the survey data on people's perception of opportunity inequality, this study finds that Korean people have by and large negative subjective awareness regarding socio-economic opportunity inequality, magnitude of opportunity inequality, and achievement by efforts, and that the degree of the negative perception is greater in accordance with the people's subjective identification. The regression analysis reveals that the social status of respondents and their parents(-), experience of discrimination(+), age(-), and high education of college and above (+) have consistent effect over socio-economic opportunity inequality, magnitude of opportunity inequality, and achievement by efforts with statistical significance. More concretely, as people have lower subjective status identification at the time of parent generation and their own generation, as they have the experience of discriminatory misconduct, and as they are young and highly educated, they have negative or pessimistic perception regarding opportuinity inequality. In addition, it is revealed that the unemployed and non-regular workers have significantly negative perception on socio-economic opportunity inequality, magnitude of opportunity inequality, while negative perception on the magnitude of opportunity inequality and achievement by efforts is noticeable among high and middle income households.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.11-19
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• 2020

This study aims to examine the relationship between the improvement of the income distribution index from the late 1980s to the 1990s and large-scale housing supply projects such as the 2 million housing construction project. Looking at Korea's economic development in terms of income growth and distribution, GDP has continuously increased since the establishment of the government, especially in the late 1980s. The Gini Index, a representative income inequality index, rapidly deteriorated in the early 1970s, and gradually improved from the late 1980s. The 2 million housing construction project, announced in 1988, supplied a third of the existing nationwide housing stock of 6.5 million units in three years. The project cost was 65 trillion won, equivalent to 50% of Korea's GDP at the time. This study questioned whether the ratio of the number of employed workers in the construction industry was a variable directly affecting the Gini Index. To verify this, the causal relationship between the proportion of employed workers in the construction and manufacturing industries and the Gini Index from 1979 to 2008 was statistically analyzed. For this, the ARIMA model was established for each variable, and the correlation of their residuals was verified. The 2 million housing construction project had the effect of improving income inequality in terms of rising wages for production workers and creating jobs for the low-educated and low-income class. During the project period, the number of middle-income earners increased sharply, and the income gap between the high-income and low-income earners greatly decreased. The expansion of the construction volume can be used as a powerful and direct policy tool for improving income distribution. However, the effect may be limited. When the proportion of workers exceeds the threshold, the effect is weakened.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.186-194
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• 2008

Objectives : This study describes trends in the socioeconomic disparities in breast cancer screening among US women aged 40 or over, from 2000 to 2005. We assessed 1) the disparities in each socioeconomic dimension; 2) the changes in screening mammography rates over time according to income, education, and race; and 3) the sizes and trends of the disparities over time. Methods : Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) from 2000 to 2005, we calculated the age-adjusted screening rate according to relative household income, education level, health insurance, and race. Odds ratios and the relative inequality index (RII) were also calculated, controlling for age. Results : Women in their 40s and those with lower relative incomes were less likely to undergo screening mammography. The disparity based on relative income was greater than that based on education or race (the RII among low-income women across the survey years was 3.00 to 3.48). The overall participation rate and absolute differences among socioeconomic groups changed little or decreased slightly across the survey years. However, the degree of each socioeconomic disparity and the relative inequality among socioeconomic positions remained quite consistent. Conclusions : These findings suggest that the trend of the disparity in breast cancer screening varied by socioeconomic dimension. Continued differences in breast cancer screening rates related to income level should be considered in future efforts to decrease the disparities in breast cancer among socioeconomic groups. More focused interventions, as well as the monitoring of trends in cancer screening participation by income and education, are needed in different social settings.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.196-213
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• 2019

This paper attempts to analyze the contribution of different socioeconomic factors such as income, age, gender, household composition, education and employment status etc. to the difference between the Capital and Non-Capital Regions in the net wealth inequality of household in Korea. To this end, a two-stage Oaxaca-Blinder type decomposition is employed regarding the regional gap in the inequality of net wealth based upon the Recentered Influence Function of the Gini index for 'the 2018 Household Finance and Living Conditions Survey.' Despite the shortcomings of the survey data on wealth, the findings reveal that regional differences in income, marriage status (divorce), job type (agriculture, forestry and fishery related, and technical and assembly), family type (multi-cultural) variables deepen the regional gap in the net-wealth inequality, but employment status (full-time), job type (administrative and specialized, and service sales), household size variables mitigate the gap, and that regional differences in life cycles play an offsetting role.

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

• 한국사회정책
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.17-47
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• 2016

This paper aims to analysis working-time of Korea focusing on "the difference and the distribution" by a stratum. Classifying working-time into four categories including marginal part-time, part-time work, standard-time work and long-time working, it compares the relative distribution by income quintile. The outcome is as following : 20% of low-ranking income quintile are (marginal) part-time working, 60% from income quintile 2 to 4 are in long-time working and 20% of top-ranking income quintile are in the standard-time working in overall. Working-time classes can be divided up into three: short time-low income of type 1, long time-medium income of type 2 and standard time-high income of type 3. Analysing working time type, the low wage-short time, medium wage-long time and high wage-standard time by the wage per month and low wage-very long time, medium wage-long time and high wage-standard time by the wage per hours are confirmed. Also, stratification of working-time has been intensified in terms of age, jobs and work status. Policy implication from this study is that the increase of minimum wage to the lowest income class and creation of employment by the reduction of working-time to the medium income class could be effective policies.

• Korea Real Estate Review
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.79-94
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• 2018

This study analyzed the factors associated with residential mobility based on the data from the 11th to the 19th wave of the Korean Labor & Income Panel Study (KLIPS). After grouping low-income households within the first to the fourth income bracket into households that exhibited no income bracket change and those with income bracket changes during the research period, this study examined the effects of the income situation of each group on residential mobility. According to the results of the analysis, in the group of households that showed no low-income bracket change, significant effects were found only in the age of the head of the household, housing cost, and rental deposit (Jeonse) and monthly rental of the household. In the group of households that showed low-income bracket changes, findings were generally in line with those of the whole household, where total income and the number of full-time employees in the household were the same as those of the whole household, indicating that it would be necessary to improve the employment stability of low-income households. Based on the findings of this study, housing inequality is intensifying within low-income households, and, thus, housing policies, based on continuing surveys, must be implemented to enhance income opportunities and stabilize the housing needs of low-income households.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.17-33
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• 2004

The present study attempts to examine the progressivity of health care financial sources based on the income approach, for which it decomposes redistributive effects into vertical, horizontal, and re-ranking components. The study data include Korean Household Expenditure Survey (2000) conducted every 5 year by Korea National Statistical Office. The data were sampled from the national population by the multistage probabilistic sampling method, and amounts to 23,270 households. For the better application of the income approach, the study employs household total expenditure in Korea instead of total income, because the former data source is more reliable and less fluctuated over time. Progressivity of health care financing was measured by Kakwani index. Aronson's decomposition equation was used in case of the analysis where differential treatment of health care expenditure needs to be considered. Despite the progressivity of Korea's governmental contributions, total expenditure of health care showed regressive pattern, which may largely be attributable to the higher regressivity in out-of-pocket money. With the result of negative Kakwani index, differential treatment increased income redistribution biased for better-off. It is worth to note that social insurance displays not only negative Kakwani index, but also horizontal inequality, suggesting that the first step of health care financing reform should be the revision of social insurance premium rates toward effective and equable way.