• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.24 no.6 s.84
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• pp.177-193
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• 2006

This study analyzes marriage and fertility rates in Korea and makes recommendations for family policy. Based on the 'The Report of Marriage & Divorce Statistics in 2005' and data from the Korea Statistical Information System (KOSIS) of the National Statistics Organization, the trends, reasons for marriage rates changes, and future expectations were critically reviewed. In addition, the relationship between marriage and fertility rates was analyzed. The principle characteristics of marriage rates are as follows: 1) the M-shape of the longitudinal crude marriage rates; 2) the increased age of individuals entering their the first marriage; 3) the increase in remarriage rates; 4) the changes in the patterns of remarriage; 5) the increased in the age at which individuals remarry and; 6) the increase in marriage to non-Koreans. The marriage and fertility rates changes are a permanent normative shift because of 1) later marriage because of women's increased education and labor force participation 2) rational choices about birth control 3) reduced population because of the aging of baby boomers 4) structural changes in the marriage market and 5) egalitarian changes in women's attitudes toward marriage and family. The recommendations for future family policy were as follows: 1) the need for a realistic, long-term family policy because the current marriage patterns will continue; 2) the need to develop new statistics such as fertility rates that are based on marriage cohort or birth cohort because family behavior is a mixture of personal, social and political responses; 3) the need for impact analysis of current family policy about increasing fertility rates; 4) the need for a new family perspective that encompasses diverse marriage and family patterns; 5) the need to focus on men's role in families because of women's changing roles and family interaction patterns and; 6) the need for preventive family policies such as family life education.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.5508-5513
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• 2013

This paper seeks to empirically analyze the effect of WLFP on fertility in Korea using the 1985~2010 Korean Population and Housing Census 1% Sample data. The results show that except in year 1985(+0.336) WLFP had a significant negative effect on fertility rates in years 1990, 2000, 2005, 2010. The size of the negative effect increases from 1990(-0.611) to 2005(-2.273). In 2010(-0.793), however, the negative effect considerably decreases when compared with the 2005 result. This alleviation is partially due to policies that have promoted compatibility between work and family life. Policy makers should therefore focus on expansion of policies for the compatibility of work and family, and give more attention to increasing take-up rate for the current policies.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.41-50
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• 2024

Korea is facing a significant problem with historically low fertility rates, which is becoming a major social issue affecting the economy, labor force, and national security. This study analyzes the factors contributing to the regional gap in fertility rates and derives policy implications. The government and local authorities are implementing a range of policies to address the issue of low fertility. To establish an effective strategy, it is essential to identify the primary factors that contribute to regional disparities. This study identifies these factors and explores policy implications through machine learning and explainable artificial intelligence. The study also examines the influence of media and public opinion on childbirth in Korea by incorporating news and online community sentiment, as well as sentiment fear indices, as independent variables. To establish the relationship between regional fertility rates and factors, the study employs four machine learning models: multiple linear regression, XGBoost, Random Forest, and Support Vector Regression. Support Vector Regression, XGBoost, and Random Forest significantly outperform linear regression, highlighting the importance of machine learning models in explaining non-linear relationships with numerous variables. A factor analysis using SHAP is then conducted. The unemployment rate, Regional Gross Domestic Product per Capita, Women's Participation in Economic Activities, Number of Crimes Committed, Average Age of First Marriage, and Private Education Expenses significantly impact regional fertility rates. However, the degree of impact of the factors affecting fertility may vary by region, suggesting the need for policies tailored to the characteristics of each region, not just an overall ranking of factors.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1295-1301
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• 2015

Background: Cancer imposes a significant economic burden on individuals, families and society. The purpose of this study was to estimate the economic burden of cancer using the healthcare claims and cancer registry data in Korea in 2009. Materials and Methods: The economic burden of cancer was estimated using the prevalence data where patients were identified in the Korean Central Cancer Registry. We estimated the medical, non-medical, morbidity and mortality cost due to lost productivity. Medical costs were calculated using the healthcare claims data obtained from the Korean National Health Insurance (KNHI) Corporation. Non-medical costs included the cost of transportation to visit health providers, costs associated with caregiving for cancer patients, and costs for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Data acquired from the Korean National Statistics Office and Ministry of Labor were used to calculate the life expectancy at the time of death, age- and gender-specific wages on average, adjusted for unemployment and labor force participation rate. Sensitivity analysis was performed to derive the current value of foregone future earnings due to premature death, discounted at 3% and 5%. Results: In 2009, estimated total economic cost of cancer amounted to $17.3 billion at a 3% discount rate. Medical care accounted for 28.3% of total costs, followed by non-medical (17.2%), morbidity (24.2%) and mortality (30.3%) costs. Conclusions: Given that the direct medical cost sharply increased over the last decade, we must strive to construct a sustainable health care system that provides better care while lowering the cost. In addition, a comprehensive cancer survivorship policy aimed at lower caregiving cost and higher rate of return to work has become more important than previously considered.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.177-206
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• 2013

The Korean government has implemented the senior employment policy as a direct job creation policy since 2004. A realistic discussion of policy alternatives and orientation for this has been given little attention even though senior employment policy has been carried out for the last 10 years and it will be expanded next year. This study tries to examine active labor market policy especially focusing on direct job creation programs and policies for the disadvantaged low-income elderly in OECD countries, and then it suggests some developmental alternatives for senior employment policy based on the study's results. The main results from this analysis are summarized in two points. Firstly, except pension policies, employment policy for older workers in the OECD countries is highly proportional to the tackling of objective factors reducing the demand for older workers (wage subsidies, reduced social security contribution rate etc). And the strategies of improving employability have not been relatively important and direct job creation policy has been marginal. Secondly, employment support policies for the low-income elderly can be divided into three types: support for the low-income elderly, alleviating early retirement and support for full employment according to the criteria which are determined by policy objectives and the social economic index. Korea's employment support policies belong to the type of direct job creation among them. This seems to be due to the fact that the rate of elderly poverty is extremely high and an income security system has not been developed in Korea. However, the policy objective is still uncertain. Therefore, this policy needs to set up clear objectives and establish a proper system for the achievement of its goals. If we focus on the strength of its employment characteristics, we need to modify the policy's plan in the perspective of labor market policy. But if we intend to keep both of the current objectives, it is better for this policy to be divided into two parts: social participation and income supplements. Or it also may be a solution to transform the system into an employment service, a training system which supports participants to move into unsubsidized jobs such as SCSEP in the U. S.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.115-134
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• 1991

The role of pension plans in the macroeconomy has been a subject of much interest for some years. It has come to be recognized that pension plans may alter basic macroeconomic behavior patterns. The net effects on both savings and labor supply are thus matters for speculation. The aim of the present paper is to provide quantitative results which may be helpful in attaching orders of magnitude to some of the possible effects. We are not concerned with the providing empirical evidence relating to actual behavior, but rather with deriving the macroeconomic implications for a alternative possibilities. The pension plan interacts with the economy and the population in a number of ways. Demographic variables may thus affect both the economic burden of a national pension plan and the ability of the economy to sustain the burden. The tax transfer process associated with the pension plan may have implications for national patterns of saving and consumption. The existence of a pension plan may have implications also for the size of the labor force, inasmuch as labor force participation rates may be affected. Changes in technology and the associated changes in average productivity levels bear directly on the size of the national income, and hence on the pension contribution base. The vehicle for the analysis is a hypothetical but broadly realistic simulation model of an economic- demographic system into which is inserted a national pension plan. All income, expenditure, and related aggregates are in real terms. The economy is basically neoclassical; full employment is assumed, output is generated by a Cobb-Douglas production process, and factors receive their marginal products. The model was designed for use in computer simulation experiments. The simulation results suggest a number of general conclusions. These may be summarized as follows; - The introduction of a national pension plan (funded system) tends to increase the rate of economic growth until cost exceeds revenue. - A scheme with full wage indexing is more expensive than one in which pensions are merely price indexed. - The rate of technical progress is not a critical element in determining the economic burden of the pension scheme. - Raising the rate of benefits affects its economic burden, and raising the age of eligibility may decrease the burden substantially. - The level of fertility is an element in determining the long-run burden. A sustained low fertility rate increases the proportion of the aged in total population and increases the burden of the pension plan. High fertility has inverse effects.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.317-340
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• 2013

The modern society has undergone the fast change of the family structure and labor market. Particularly, the compatibility of work and family life became the era's agenda while the labor force participation rate of the women increased. However, the family-friendly organizational culture was not created and the job engagement of the married female workers was decreased. The married female workers complained of suffering due to the work and family conflict. This research was conducted to study a relationship between family-friendly organizational culture and job engagement of married female social workers, and secondly to investigate if family conflict affect the relationship. From the results of the study, it was known that family-friendly organizational culture has effect on the job engagement, and work and family conflict play an intermediary role between the organizational culture and job engagement. Therefore, it can be explained that family-friendly organizational culture enhances the job engagement of married female social workers, and the culture would be a good measure of the compatibility of work and family life. Based on the study, it is suggested that public relation and education need to be preceded for the spread of family-friendly organizational culture by national initiated programs. Secondly, in terms of welfare organization, related regulations and guidelines need to be prepared, and thirdly, in the view of individual respect, members of family should have their own rights to put forth an opinion grandly with firm faith of the compatibility of work and family life.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.115-168
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• 1995

It is a common wisdom that the long-term economic development of Korea chiefly depends not only on the steady increase of the capital formation but also on the stable increase of the national saving. And also it is a widely accepted opinion that household saving plays a significant role for the smooth supply of investment funds. For the empirical analysis on the determining factors of household saving, consumption function of the household of Korea was utilized indirectly. The reason is that consumption function is regarded as a stable function whereas saving function is considered to be an unstable function of the relevant independent variables. In order to carry out the regression process of the consumption functions, data on the family income and expenditure survey and the farm household economy survey was used. The regression result could be summarized as follows : Firstly, household income and the number of the employed in the household have the negative effect in determining the consumption ratio of the Korean households. On the other hand, ages and the educational attainment of the household heads as well as the number of the household members have the positive effect. During the early part of 21st century, the consumption ratio of the Korean households is expected to be decreased because of the increasing trend of household income, and the ever increasing number of the employed member of the household based on the increasing trend of the labor force participation rate of women and the decrease of the average size of the number of household members owing to widespread nuclear family system. On the other hand, the consumption ratio of the household of Korea is expected to be increased because of the continuous increase of the average ages of the household heads caused by the population aging phenomena and improvement of the educational attainment of the household heads. But on the whole, household saving ratio is expected to be increased owing to the secular downward trend of the consumption and therefore no significant difficulties are anticipated for the smooth provision of investment resources needed to have long-term economic progress of Korea.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.125-139
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• 1993

Korea has successfully achieved a lowered fertility level owing to the strong population control policy and effective family planning program. Along with fertility decline and decreased number of children in family, average number of household members has decreased and nontraditional households such as one person household and households composed of unrelated individuals have prolifirated, even though the absolute number of them are found minimal in Korea. However in recent years several data and survey results suggest that one person households are gradually in the increasing trend. The study aimed at investigating the real state of one person households in Korea and next analyzing the proportional distribution of one person households by a few socioeconomic characteristics, thus providing basic for eatablishing far-singhted population and social welfare policy in the future. Korea has experienced high growth rate of economy through government-led development plans starting from the 1960s. During the past three decades, Korea has shifted from the agricultural state to the industrialized one. In compliance with the economic growth, urbanization and industrialization have brought about rural-to-urban migration and a great bulk of young population migrated to urban areas, who are seeking for educational and job opportunities. Korean society has also been under drastic change in every aspect of life involving norms, tradition, and attitude, etc. Therefore, in spite of the prejudice on 'living alone' still remaining, young people gradually leave parents and home, and further form nontraditional households in urban areas. Current increase in the number of one person households is partly attributable to the increase in high female educational attainment and female participation in economic activities. As the industrial structure in Korea changes from primary into secondary and tertiary industries, job opportunities for service/sales and manufacturing are opened to young female labor force in the process of industrialization. Contrary to the formation of one person households by young people, the aged single households are composed when children in family leave one by one because of marriage, education, employment. In particular, a higher proportion of aged female single households occur in rural areas due to the mortality difference by sex. Based on the data released form the 1990 Population and Housing Census and National Fertility and Family Health Survey in 1985 and 1991, the study tried to examine the state of one person households in Korea. According to Census data, the number of one person households increased to 1, 021, 000 in 1990, comprising 9.0 percent of total households. And the survey reveal that among total 11, 540 households, 8.0 percent, 923 households, are composed of one person households. Generally, the proportion of female single households is greater than that of male ones, and a big proportion of one person households is concentrated in the 25-34 age bracket in urban areas and 65 years and more in rural areas. It is shown than one person householders in urban areas have higher educational attainment with 59.2 percent high schooling and over in 1991, Job seeking proved to be the main reason for leaving home and forming one person households. The number of young female single households with higher education and economic self-reliance are found nil and the study did not allow to analyze the causal realtionship between female education and employment and one person household formation. However more research and deep analysis on the causal facors on one person household formation using statistical method are believed to be necessary.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.145-173
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to verify that several theories explaining the determinants of welfare expenditure is applied to the family policy expenditure and to find out if there' re unique determinants of the family policy expenditure. We analyzed the data (OECD 14 countries for 1980~2005) by pooled time series analysis. As for industrialization theory, female labor force participation rate has positive effect on family policy expenditure while population under 15-year children has negative effect, which refers to the demand of family policies is that of female workers, not children's. Power resource theory is applied to the determinants of family policy expenditure as those of welfare expenditure. Women's political & economic empowerment has partly positive effects on family policy expenditure, which is the evidence of the effectiveness of feminist theory. In the institutional theory, we verified the effect of policy legacy but couldn't find out the crowding-out effect. The theoretical implication of this study is the empirical verification of the theories explaining the determinants of welfare expenditure being applied to the family policy expenditure. We also suggested the political and institutional foundation to effectively respond to the new social risks in spite of budget constraints, which can be a policy implication.