• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.51-69
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• 2023

Korea's population is aging at a faster pace than any other major country, and the adverse impact of this trend on the economy is predicted to be significant. This paper focuses on the macroeconomic effects of population aging with particular attention paid to the pace of aging in Korea. According to our analysis, it is difficult to offset the decline in the labor supply driven by rapid population aging, even if the labor force participation rate of the working-age population rises to a significantly high level. We suggest a re-orientation of policy directions to correspond to the behavioral changes of economic agents. Policies must focus on promoting labor force participation among the elderly while pushing towards human capital advancement and higher productivity.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.185-194
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• 2012

Population aging in Korea is in progress rapidly, though it isn't recognized as a critical situation now. Absolute scale of population will decrease since 2030 and that of 2050 will stay in 2005 levels. But most serious problem is that the core working age group, 25-54 ages will begin to decrease since 2012 because of low fertility and population aging. In these situation of population aging, we will face inevitably great amount of labor force shortages and we should build up policy alternatives for solving these problems. I proposed some policy alternatives. firstly, pronatalism policies including state-supported child-care system for preventing decreases of absolute scale of population. Second, facing up to labor shortages under population aging, I proposed policy alternatives for increasing labor market participation, measured by employmeny rate, of aged (or aging) people including wage-peak system of extending retiring ages and women including lowering opportunity costs of women labor market participation rates, given laboer forces. And to conclude, we should approach to the aging problems by steady state equilibrium ecnomic growth, under inevitable population aging.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.23 no.1_2
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• pp.193-231
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to clarify the real causes of gender wage differentials in Korea by analyzing changes over the period from 1984 to 1999. The participation rate of women in the Korean labor force has gradually increased since 1963, reaching 47.4 percent as of 1999. This increase can be attributed to more active participation by women of all ages, except those aged 15-19, as a result of their enrollment in higher level education. In particular, a remarkable rise in labor market participation was achieved by those aged 25-29. On the other hand, the ratio of female workers earnings to that of male workers has increased from 45.1 percent in 1972 to 63.1 percent in 1999. However, when the gender wage differentials are decomposed into various factors, it is found that discrimination components against female workers, compared to the skills or productivity characteristics, played a greater role for the 1994 to 1999 period.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.63 no.2
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• pp.233-260
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• 2011

This study intends to analyze the trend of employment rate of men aged 55~64 in 15 OECD countries from 1980 to 2005. Furthermore, this study means to examine the determinants of men aged 55~64 in 15 OECD countries to support the labor force participation among them. The analysis is based on the data of OECD, ILO and LIS. The analysis method is Arellano and Bond(1981)'s difference GMM which used instrumental variables by dynamic panel model which estimates state dependency of labor market participation and individual panel's heterogeneity. The main results from this analysis are summarized in three points. First, the employment rates of men aged 55~64 had decreased until the middle of the 1990s, while that has been increasing since 1995. Second, the sate dependency strongly worked in the employment rates of 55~64 men and positive period effect was observed for 1980~2005. This study cannot find the pull effect of public pension, while labor market push effect have negatively affected. Third, temporary work rates had contributed to increase the employment rate of men aged 55~64 for 1996~2005. The poverty has become the mechanism of the labor.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.204-229
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• 1988

This paper documents and discusses trends and differentials in youth's participation in the labor force and employment. Youth in this study is defined asthe young aged 15-29. Youth passes through a series of life-course transitions,which include school completion own family formation(marriage and childbirth) .mandatory service in the army (by males) , and their economic activities are affectedby those life-course events. Accordingly we show how and to what extent youth'slabor force participation and employment varies with age and how the age patternhas changed over time.Throughout the 1980's and 1990's, youth's labor force participation showeddifferent trends by age group Labor fDrce participation rate of the 15-19 agedsteeply decreased, while that of the 25-29 steadily increased during the twodecades, the rate fsr the 20-24 aged showing not much variation. The former is dueto the increased rate of school enrollment among the age group, while the lattercould be attributed, in part, to the young women s increased and more steadyparticipation in the labor force over time.While labor force participation could be considered as a result of one's choicesand preferences, employment opportunities are more or less restricted by labormarket structure and institutions . This study documents how the structuralconstraints have interacted with individual and group attributes to differentiateemployment opportunities between individuals (educational background) and groups(especially sex diffrences) . One of the most salient feature of youth's em[ploymentstructure is the recent high unemployment rate of the college graduates. We discusshow that is related to the'credential society'in which one's educational credentials and it's social status play major role in determining who gets what in terms of job opportunities. Also is discussed the discordance between school and labor marketsupply and demand system, which is apparent in the prolonged oversupply of thecollege graduates, which is due to the consistently high rate of college entranceobserved since the early 1980's. Theoretically the job market for college graduates isviewed not as the'neoclassical'wage competition market but as job competition market in which one's (good) job opportunity is determined by one s position in thejob queue, which is in turn heavily dependent on from which college one get shis/her college degree as well as one's sex.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.1-59
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• 2018

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a policy that supports low-income households financially as well as provides an economic incentive to participate in the labor market. Thus, estimating the causal effect of the policy on the labor force participation rate of low-income households is critical for the policy evaluation. In this paper, we exploit the variation in the eligibility to the EITC and the size of the benefit over several reforms of the EITC in South Korea since 2008 and estimate the impact on the participation in the labor market. Using data from four major household surveys, we find that the results are mixed; in some samples and specifications, we find that the effect is positive and statistically significant, while it is insignificant in others. The estimated effect is more likely to be positive and significant when we restrict the sample to the period before 2014. It is an important topic of future research whether the EITC's effect gets weaker because it is extended to cover the self-employed and beneficiaries of the National Basic Livelihood Security.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.151-158
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• 2022

Even after three decades of economic reforms, India's labor market is characterized by stark inter-gender differences in terms of both participation rate and working time. Identification of the causes is necessary to remove the disparity and unequal sharing of economic opportunities to make way for women's empowerment. This research attempts in that direction, examining the prevalence of these inequities in rural areas of North-East Indian states using unit-level data from the 2017-18 Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). The methodology for the estimation here is based on Blinder- Oaxaca decomposition method after correcting for sample bias forwarded by Heckman. The analysis shows that in both labor force participation and the wage gap, the females in the region lag behind their male counterparts by a huge margin. Further, the analysis shows that one of the main factors leading to the difference is the disparities in human capital assets. On top of female educational enrollment being low, there is also a huge lack of higher educational attainment, while males have accomplished much better in both the parameters. Moreover, the presence of social stigma against women working and discrimination put the female labor outcomes in a gloomy state.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.35-69
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• 2004

Using household survey data set during 1993~1998 period, this paper analyzes patterns and determinants of household stock market participation. The results shows that the age profile of stock market participation in Korean household is humped-shaped as in other developed countries. Also, households with a higher level and lower variability of income, bigger financial asset, and higher education level are more likely to be stockholders. The stock market participation rate of the self-employed is substantially lower than that of the employed. In Korea, the high proportion of self-employed among total labor force seems to lower the stock market participation rate.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.31-58
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• 2008

This study examines applying the elderly poverty labor hypothesis and skill-biased technological change hypothesis to labor force participation rate(LFPR) of older males in Korea. These hypotheses have hardly been examined on the this group. The analysis is based on the data "Summary of economically active population($1965{\sim}2007$)", "Population projection($1965{\sim}2007$)", "Report on wage structure survey($1993{\sim}2005$)" and "Korea Labor and Income Panel Study($1998{\sim}2006$)". The method employed for this study is logistic regression. The main results from this analysis are summarized in five points. Firstly, Korean older males' LFPR have been increasing since 1965 when industrialization was expanding at full steam. This trend has been different from the decreasing trend of industrialized countries. The second finding is that poor older males' LFPR is, on the average, 5.2% higher than that of non-poor older males from 1998 to 2005. The third result is that the non-elderly man has been increasingly positioned at higher grade occupations, while the elderly man has been held at lower grade occupations. The fourth is that labor demand for highly educated workers has exceeded the increased labor supply of the group, while the demand for low educated workers has decreased far beyond the declined labor supply. As a result, college premium has increased from 139% in 1993 to 157.8% in 2005. The final main implication of this study is that the industrialization theory and modernization hypothesis still holds for the LFPR of Korean older males. However, the elderly affluence hypothesis of the LFPR of older males are hardly persuasive in explaining Korean phenomenon. Especially, we find that the elderly poverty is the main mechanism in determining the Korean LFPR in old ages. This supports the elderly poverty labor hypothesis presented in this study. Skill-biased technological change hypothesis partially explains the LFPR of older man. However, we believe that other factors; human capital specially high school education rather than university education and skill required in less skill biased occupations or the poverty; also have taken effect.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.5-41
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• 1998

Over the past 30 years, Korea experienced demographic transition which typically substitutes quality(education) for quantity(number) of population. This paper decomposed labor supply into quantity and quality aspects and estimated the respective employment elasticities of economic growth in the past. Then, based on the assumptions about the future population (by age, sex and education) and labor force participation rates, the future labor supply(both quantity and quality) is projected and growth potential of the Korean economy is evaluated. The result shows that labor supply in Korea is relying gradually more on the qualitative rather than the quantitative aspect but since the increase in the former will not fully compensate the decrease in the latter, the potential growth rate of the Korean economy will be substantially reduced in the futrue.