• Health Policy and Management
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.66-77
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• 2009

This study aims to examine the effect of socioeconomic status (hereafter, SES) on healthcare utilization of the patients with rare and incurable diseases. Information of 2,973 patients who were self-employed insured and utilized healthcare service in 2007 was drawn from the National Health Insurance (hereafter, NHI) claim data. SES was set as four groups based on the monthly contribution. Outcome variable was the expense for outpatient and in-hospital services, which was log-transformed and square-rooted in oder to obtain normal distribution. Covariates included age, gender, residence and diagnosis. To examine the effects after controlling for covariates, we employed generalized estimating equation model, since patients with the same diagnosis are likely to have similar characteristics of demographics and healthcare utilization. Univariate statistics showed that lower SES was associated with less utilization of healthcare services. After controlling for covariates, a significantly smaller amount of money was expended for the lowest SES group compared to the highest one. Rural residence was associated with less utilization, except that residents in Seoul significantly more utilized outpatient services in tertiary hospitals. Considering that there is a subsidy program for the low income patients, such differences in healthcare utilization according to SES seems to result from the burden of out-of-pocket payments for uncovered services of the NHI.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.92-108
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• 2009

This study suggests a model for continuing and comprehensive management of hypertension or Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Korea. Moreover, this paper computed the contribution cost of hypertension or T2DM management using the healthcare medical cost, which could have occurred from stroke, myocardial infarction (MI), and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) that were successfully prevented from the effective hypertension or T2DM management. Additionally, these costs were compared with the cost of implementing the hypertension or T2DM management model suggested in this study. This study used the medical fee summary of the health insurance claims submitted to National Health Insurance Corporation by medical facilities for services provided during the period from January 1st 1999 to December 31st 2006. The prevalence rate with treatment referred to cases in which patients submitted their medical claims at least once during the period, along with an accordant diagnosis. The incidence rate with treatment referred to cases in which patients who never submitted claims for the accordant disease during the five years from 1999 to 2003 submitted claims for the accordant disease in 2004 and 2005. The relative risk of the occurrence of stroke, MI and ESRD was 11.0, 13.6, and 30.3, respectively. The attributable risk of hypertension or T2DM for stroke was 0.730, and that for MI and ESRD were 0.773 and 0.888, respectively. Based on these, the contribution cost of hypertension or T2DM is estimated to be 986.3 billion Korean Won(KRW) for stroke patients, 330.5 billion KRW for MI patients, and 561.7 billion KRW for ESRD patients as in 2005. Hence, the total contribution cost of hypertension or T2DM to stroke, MI, and ESRD is 1.878 trillion KRW. The estimate for operational costs included an annual expenditure of 50,000 KRW per each recipient and an annual subsidy of 0.22 million KRW per person for the 1.6 million low.income individuals with hypertension or T2DM to cover their out.of.pocket medical expenses. Under this assumption, it took approximately 0.6 trillion KRW to manage 5 million high.risk patients in the low. and mid.income range, coverings up to 50% of costs. In conclusion, considering the potential benefits of preventing stroke, MI, and ESRD, the costs seems to be reasonable.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.135-149
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• 1990

Housing owners in Korea have a variety of tax advantages such as income tax exemption for the imputed rent of owner-occupied housing, exemption from the capital gains tax and deduction of the estate tax for one-house households. These tax reliefs for housing owners not only conflict with the principle of horizontal and vertical equity, but also lead to resource misallocation by distorting the housing market, and thus bring about regressive distribution effects. Particularly in the case of Korea with its imperfect capital market, these measures exacerbate the inter-class inequality of housing ownership as well as inequalities in wealth, by causing the affluent to demand needlessly large housing, while the poor and young experience difficulties in purchasing residential properties. Therefore, the Korean tax system must be altered as follows in order to disadvantage owner-occupiers, especially those owners of luxury housing. These alterations will promote housing-ownership, tax burden equity, efficiency of resource allocation, as well as the desirable distribution of income. First, income tax deductions for the rent payments of tenants are recommended. Ideally, the way of recovering the fiscal equivalence between the owner-occupiers and tenants is to levy an income tax on the former's imputed rents, and if necessary to give them tax credits. This, however, would be very difficult from a practical viewpoint, because the general public may perceive the concept of "imputed rent" as cumbersome. Computing the imputed rent also entails administrative costs, rendering quite reasonable, the continued exemption of imputed rent from taxation with the simultaneous deduction in the income tax for tenants. This would further enhance the administrative efficiency of income tax collection by easing assessment of the landlord's income. Second, a capital gains tax should be levied on the one-house household, except with the postponement of payments in the case that the seller purchases higher priced property. Exemption of the capital gains tax for the one-house household favors those who have more expensive housing, providing an incentive to the rich to hold even larger residences, and to the constructors to build more luxurious housing to meet the demand. So it is not desirable to sustain the current one-house household exemption while merely supplementing it with fastidious measures. Rather, the rule must be abolished completely with the concurrent reform of the deduction system and lowering of the tax rate, measures which the author believes will help optimize the capital gains tax incidence. Finally, discontinuation of the housing exemption for the heir is suggested. Consequent increases in the tax burden of the middle class could be mitigated by a reduction in the rate. This applies to the following specific exemptions as well, namely, for farm lands, meadows, woods, business fields-to foster horizontal equity, while denying speculation on land that leads to a loss in allocative efficiency. Moreover, imperfections in the Korean capital market have disallowed the provision of long term credit for housing seekers. Remedying these problems is essential to the promotion of greater housing ownership by the low and middle income classes. It is also certain that a government subsidy be focused on the poorest of the poor who cannot afford even to think of owning a housing.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.47-56
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• 1996

The pollution in the coastal sea is being aggravated because of frequent happening of red tide and oil leakage from tankers. The Exclusive Economic Zone is being drawn in the seas surrounding Korean Peninsula. Therefore, the fisheries in Korea is under a great change in their production base. On the other hand, the fisheries have been considered as a part of agriculture in policy making and financial support. The thesis compares agriculture with fisheries in the fund demands and financial supports. It tries to find a way in the efficient allocation of fund for the two industries. The fund demand of a typical fishing household is greater than that of a typical farm household. The fund used by a fishery household is more dependent on debt than that of a farm household. Therefore, the internal financing ability of a fishery household is weaker than that of a farm household. The repaying ability of a fishery household is weaker than that of a farm household because a fishery household's income is less than a farm household's. When we analyze the uses of fund, the fishing industry has some disadvantage in fund uses. The financial support for the fisheries' structural change is weaker than that for agriculture. The fishing industry has some disadvantage in the investment and subsidy rates. Also, the loan period for fisheries is shorter on average than that for agriculture. When we analyze the sources of the fund, the fisheries' banking sources are greater than the government's sources, which is relatively stable. Therefore, the fisheries will be more heavily affected by the liberalization of banking industry and system than the agriculture will. The government needs to change the shortcomings in the sources and uses of fund. First, it needs to use the fund, considering the characteristics of the industry and producers' financing ability. Second, it needs to adjust the sources of fund to the liberalization of financial system.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.108-117
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to analyze the blind spots of Korea's employment insurance system from a gender perspective. The data used for this study was derived from 12th (2009) and 20th (2017) years of the Korean Labor and Income Panel Studies. Logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the causes of the blind spot. As a result, the gender gap decreased by 5% in 2017 compared to that in 2009. In the coverage of employment insurance by gender, women are more likely to join when controlling for other demographic factors. If the conditions in the labor market are the same, then women's insurance coverage is likely to be higher than that of men. The policy suggestions are as follows. The current employment insurance system has a greater impact on the labor market characteristics than the difference in the participation rate according to gender itself. The results of this study show that bridging the gender gap in the labor market is an important way of bridging the gender gap in employment insurance coverage. In the short term, the social insurance subsidy program may be effective, but policy efforts are fundamentally needed to improve the employment environment of women and low-wage workers.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.101-120
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• 1999

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of agricultural polices on the change of regional structure based on the specialization during the productivism period. Analysis are carried on through the comparison of distribution in 1950s and 1997. Since the 1950s, governmental policy has played a leading role in shaping the pattern of farming in Great Britain. The range of British measures have also been employed in an attempt to improve the efficiency of agriculture and raise farm income. Three fairly distinct phase can be identified in the developing relationship between government policies and British agriculture in the postwar period. In the 1st phase, The Agricultural Act of 1947 laid the foundations for agricultural productivism in Great Britain until membership of the EC. This was to be achieved through the system of price support and guaranteed prices and the means of a series of grants and subsidies. Guaranteed prices encouraged farmenrs to intensify production and specialize in either cereal farming or milk-beef enterprise. The former favoured eastern areas, whereas the latter favoured western areas. Various grants and subsidies were made available to farmers during this period, again as a way of increasing efficiency and farm incomes. Many policies, such as Calf Subsidy and the Ploughing Grant, Hill cow and Hill Sheep Schemes and the Hill Farming and Livestock Rearing Grant was provided. Some of these policies favoured western uplands, whilst the others was biased towards the Lake District. Concentration of farms occured especially in near the London Metropolitan Area and south part of Scotland. In the 2nd stage after the membership of EC, very high guaranteed price created a relatively risk-free environment, so farmers intensified production and levels of self-sufficiency for most agriculture risen considerably. As farmers were being paid high prices for as much as they could produce, the policy favoured areas of larger-scale farming in eastern Britain. As a result of increasing regional disparities in agriculture, the CAP became more geographically sensitive in 1975 with the setting up of the Less Favoured Areas(LFAs). But they are biased towards the larger farms, because such farms have more crops and/or livestock, but small farms with low incomes are in most need of support. Specialization of cereals such wheat and barely was occured, but these two cereal crops have experienced rather different trend since 1950s. Under the CAP, farmers have been paid higher guaranteed prices for wheat than for barely because of the relative shortage of wheat in the EC. And more barely were cultivated as feedstuffs for livestock by home-grown cereals. In the 1950s dairying was already declining in what was to become the arable areas of southern and eastern England. By the mid-1980s, the pastral core had maintained its dominance, but the pastoral periphery had easily surpassed arable England as the second most important dairying district. Pig farming had become increasingly concentrated in intensive units in the main cereal areas of eastern England. These results show that the measure of agricultural policy induced the concentration and specialization implicitly. Measures for increasing demand, reducing supply or raising farm incomes are favoured by large scale farming. And price support induced specialization of farming. And technology for specialization are diffused and induced geographical specialization. This is the process of change of regional structure through the specialization.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.23
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• pp.263-301
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• 1992

In recent years, Korean public libraries, placed under changing circumstances, require that some new and positive financial policies be formulated for the improvement of their services. T he purpose of this study is to propose a scheme to ensure the revenues of Korean public libraries. The main contents of this study are as follows : (1) Public finance theory is applied to the question of why the public library is publicly supported. The public library does not contribute to stabilization, but it does playa role in each of the other public sector functions : allocation of resources and redistribution of income. In public finance terms there is justification for at least partial subsidy of public library services, which have the attributes of public goods, merit goods and externalities. (2) Public libraries in Korea find themselves suffering from limited budgets. They are neglected in national and local budgets. The lack of adequate funding for library collections prevents libraries from rendering efficient services. (3) In order to put the finances of the Korean public library system on a firm basis, the following proposals are made: 1) It is proposed that the parallel administration under which public libraries are organized be unified to be directly under the local governments. 2) It is proposed that the legislative and administrative system for public library finance be strengthened. (1) Library expenses should be itemized independently in the calculation of general grants-in-aid to local governments. (2) A fixed portion of the total municipal revenue should be appropriated for public library services. It can be executed by making provisions expressly in the annual guidelines for budgeting, municipal ordinances, or in the Library Promotion Law. The rate of allocation should be specified as a part of the national public library development plan. (3) Library tax as a local tax can be imposed. An indirect tax is preferable in order to avoid public misunderstanding and antagonism. 3) The augmentation of the specific grants-in-aid for the public library is proposed. The Library Promotion Law and the Law on Budget and Administration of Grants should be amended to oblige the central government to give financial assistance to local public libraries. 4) It is proposed that strategies to encourage private endowments be worked out. Revision of the Law on Tax Reduction and Exemption and the activation of an advisory library committee at each public library are recommended. 5) Funding and utilization of the envisioned Library Promotion Foundation is proposed. Government contributions, contributions from the Culture and Arts Foundation, and donations from individuals, corporations, and enterprises can be considered as the financial resources of the Foundation. 6) It is proposed that the structure of the Korean Library Association be consolidated to exercise greater influence over the formation of national policy on the public library system. 7) It is proposed as an ultimate guarantee of the health of the public libraries that the citizenry be educated to strongly support library services in responce to the active services provided by the public libraries.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.301-322
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• 1996

This study is first aimed at identifying the possibility of labour saving and production cost decreasing in rice production with respect to seed broad casting technology. Comparison of labour inputs and production costs of rice in-between USA and Korea and recommendation of policy guidelines for the continous rice cultivation are the second objective of this study. Under the WTO system, rice enterprice is the most vulnerable crop in the sense of labour productivity and price competitiveness in the international market. How to adapt labour saving technology and how to decrease production costs are the most imminent problems to be solved in rice production. To achieve the objectives, survey on nine rice enterprice farms were made in Daeho tidal farmland with respect to the size of farm, labour inputs, productivity, farm mechanization and farm land base development. The existing data on labour saving technology by seed broadcasting which had surveyed by Rural Development Administration were collected to compare the surveyed data from Daeho tidal farm land The study results and policy recommendation are summarized as follows; 1. Labour requirements per 10a for rice enterprise farms with seed broadcasting and with transplanting were estimated 11.4 and 18.5hours respectively. 'This above labour inputs were equivalent to 1/3-1/5 of the national average labour inputs of 53.6 hours which were included transplanting and harvesting by machinery. Considering the labour requirement of 1.7 hours per 10a for the USA rice production, Korea rice culture has possibility to decrease labour demand upto USA level of labour inputs. 2. Production cost of rice in Korea were estimated US$4,181 per ha which were higher than that of USA by 3.00 times and production costs per ton were shown as US$313 for USA rice and US$1,018 for Korean rice. 3. Land productivity of rice per 10a in America was reached to 4,325kg and the counterpart of Korea was about 4,181kg in recent year. In the sense of land productivity, both yields of rice were comparable. 4. The price of japonica type rice similar to Korean traditional rice in international market in 1994 was f.o.b US$466 per ton which was equivalent to import parity price of US$830 per ton in domestic market. The price of rice purchased by Korean G't and received by farmers were amounted to US$ 2,013 and US$ 1,663 respectively in the same year. Domestic prices mentioned above were higher than the import parity price as US$830 by 2.0-2.4 times. 5. American rice production competitive to Korean rice was equivalent to 17,012 thousand tons, 1.28% of the world production of rice in 1991 and consumption of rice in America was amounted to 2,633 thousand tons. Exportable quantity of USA rice were estimated as 4,379 thousand tons of which 52.3%, 2,300 thousand tons, were exported indeed in the same year. 6. The quantity of Korean rice produced in 1991 was estimated 1.00% of the world production. The world amount of rice exported in 1991 was reached to 2.45% of the world production of which 34.2% was occupied by USA The remaining quantities of world exported rice were dominated by Tiland, Pakistan and Vietnam where produced indica variety. 7. Under the given technology, labour inputs per 10a for rice production could be possible to save by 70% of the national average labour requirement of 53.6 hours through implmenting complete farm mechanization with land consolidation and on-farm development and improvement of fanning practices like seedbroad casting txchnology etc. On the other hand, prduction costs of rice could be decreased by 10% rather than 49% as target indicated in the Rural Development Counter Measures of Korean Government in 1994 owing to increasing farm mechanization cost and interest on land service with high price. Accordingly production cost of rice per kg could be decreased only by 10% of the 1994 production cost. 8. Rice policy of Korean government in the future should take into account the labour saving technology to solve labour shortage in rural area and to enhance off-farm incomes by creating job opportunities in agro-industrial zones and special production area. On account of the staple food and main energy source for people's health, rice production even encountered vulnerable economic settings should be continued without price distortion policies and discouraging farmer's intention to cultivate rice by importing institutionally the direct income subsidy system.