• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.379-388
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• 2022

Objectives: Throughout history, societies have been impacted by inequality. Many studies have been conducted on the topic more broadly, but only a few have investigated inequalities in out-of-pocket health payments (OHP). This study measures OHP inequality trends among the Iranian households. Methods: This study used data from the Iranian Statistics Center on Iranian household income and expenditures. The analysis included a total of 995 300 households during the 36 years from 1984 to 2019. The Gini coefficient, Atkinson index, and Theil index were calculated for Iranian OHP. Results: Average Iranian household OHP increased from 33 US dollar (USD) in 1984 to 47 USD in 2019. During this 36-year span, the average±standard deviation Gini coefficient for OHP was 0.73±0.04, and the Atkinson and Theil indexes were 0.68±0.05 and 1.14±0.29, respectively. The Gini coefficients for the subcategories of OHP of outpatient diagnostic services, medical assistant accessories, hospital inpatient services, and addiction cessation were 0.70, 0.61, 0.84, and 0.64, respectively. Conclusions: In this study, we scrutinized trends of inequality in the OHP of Iranian households. Inequality in OHP decreased slightly over the past four decades. An analysis of trends among different subgroups revealed that affluent households, such as households with insurance coverage and households in higher income deciles, experienced higher inequality. Therefore, lower inequality in health care expenditures may be related to restricted access to health care services in Iran.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.91-99
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• 2017

Objectives: As in many low-income and middle-income countries, out-of-pocket (OOP) payments by patients or their families are a key healthcare financing mechanism in Bangladesh that leads to economic burdens for households. The objective of this study was to identify whether and to what extent socioeconomic, demographic, and behavioral factors of the population had an impact on OOP expenditures in Bangladesh. Methods: A total of 12 400 patients who had paid to receive any type of healthcare services within the previous 30 days were analyzed from the Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey data, 2010. We employed regression analysis for identify factors influencing OOP health expenditures using the ordinary least square method. Results: The mean total OOP healthcare expenditures was US dollar (USD) 27.66; while, the cost of medicines (USD 16.98) was the highest cost driver (61% of total OOP healthcare expenditure). In addition, this study identified age, sex, marital status, place of residence, and family wealth as significant factors associated with higher OOP healthcare expenditures. In contrary, unemployment and not receiving financial social benefits were inversely associated with OOP expenditures. Conclusions: The findings of this study can help decision-makers by clarifying the determinants of OOP, discussing the mechanisms driving these determinants, and there by underscoring the need to develop policy options for building stronger financial protection mechanisms. The government should consider devoting more resources to providing free or subsidized care. In parallel with government action, the development of other prudential and sustainable risk-pooling mechanisms may help attract enthusiastic subscribers to community-based health insurance schemes.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.23-28
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• 2019

Purpose - With rapid population aging in Korea, changes in the population structure will result in a rise in the fiscal burden. This paper investigates the effects of population aging on fiscal spending based on Korea's province data and country panel data from the OECD. Research design, data, and methodology - We use province-level fiscal data from Local Finance Integrated Open System and the Korean Statistical Information Service and also collect country panel data from the OECD. To investigate the relationship between population aging and fiscal expenditures, our analysis uses the fixed effects model. Results - The empirical analysis based on Korean local finance and country panel data show that population aging has a positive impact on social welfare expenditures and it also has a positive impact on spending related to children and the elderly, implying that population aging may lead to an increase in fiscal spending via an increase in social welfare expenditures and spending related to children and the elderly. Conclusion - These empirical results suggest that countries like Korea that expect to experience rapid population aging need to pay more attention to prepare for the expected increase in age-related spending in the near future.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.70-76
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• 2020

This study examines whether there is a moderating effect of corporate social responsibility(CSR) on the relation between sales, general, and administrative(SG&A) expenditures and future corporate performance. SG&A expenditures are decomposed into maintenance and investment components and the latter component is focused. Using 968 Korean firm-year observations with CSR scores in the KOSPI market for the period of 2012-2017, this study investigates the relation between SG&A investment component and future corporate performance and then the moderate effect of CSR on its relation. Main results show that the SG&A investment component increases the future corporate performance and the moderate effect of CSR on its relation is more positively explicit. This finding implies that the effect of SG&A investment component on corporate performance is differentiated according to the level of CSR.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.390-398
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• 2016

Background: This study aims to analyze the impact of levels of health care coverage on the trajectory of self-rated health, comparing the near-poor which tends to be excluded in traditional health care systems with the upper middle class. Methods: The study participants were 3,687 people who sincerely responded questions regarding health care expenditures, unmet medical needs, and self-rated health in the Korea Health Panel data in 2009-2012. Results: The higher health care expenditures and the presence of unmet medical needs were significantly associated with the lower level of self-rated health. However, both factors did not significantly predict the steeper decline in the self-rated health. The results from multiple group analyses showed that health care expenditures and unmet medical needs had greater impact on the near-poor compared to their higher income counterparts. Conclusion: Public health care coverages need to be enhanced as well as reducing health care expenditures and unmet medical needs.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.50-67
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• 2007

This study investigated income elasticity of household health expenditures and differences by income level from 1998 through 2003. Data from Korean Labor and Income Panel Study was used for empirical analyses. To estimate the income effects on health expenditure, the two-part model was employed: a logistic regression for any health expenditure-first part-and a Ordinary Least Square regression for health expenditure conditional on any spending-second part. To estimate income elasticity, both health expenditure and income were log transformed in the second part. In addition, the random effects(RE) model was used for a longitudinal panel which was continuously followed from 1998 through 2003 to estimate income effects on health expenditures controlling for within and between unobservable household characteristics. Furthermore, difference in income effects on health expenditure across income level was investigated. Although income slightly increased odds of any health expenditure, there was not no table differences across income level. Income significantly increased health expenditures during study period(overall income elasticity: about 0.2) and the highest 20% income group presented higher income elasticity than the lowest 20% income group.

• 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 Legislative Studies
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.203-239
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• 2018

Responsible government can be achieved when social cleavages are institutionalized via political competition and social interests are represented by responsible parties. This paper aims to investigate the factors that determine welfare expenditures in Korean local governments by analyzing partisanship and political competition factors simultaneously in the same model. This paper also argues that the relationship between the political factors and welfare expenditures in local governments is not linearly increasing as the previous studies claim. This paper examines the welfare expenditures in Korean municipality-level local governments in 2007, 2011, and 2015. The primary findings are: 1) the partisanship of the head of local government and the party distribution of local assembly members have meaningful effect on the welfare expenditures and the divided governments do not show significantly different effect on welfare expenditures from unified governments, which is contrary to the extant studies, 2) the partisan effects of the head and the local assembly vary according to the levels of municipalities (Gu, Gun, and city), mainly due to the difference in types of revenues and expenditures and 3) the relationship between seats shares of progressive parties in local assembly and the welfare expenditure is not linearly increasing one. The effect of seats shares of progressive parties dramatically begins to increase when the seats shares are in 40%-60%. With these findings, this paper highlights the conservative nature of head of local governments with Hannara party (or Saenuri Party), the conservative leaning of independent candidates, and the conservative orientation of local assemblies in the regions dominated by Democratic Party (and its equivalents).

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.337-357
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• 2012

This study explores a changing social expenditure structure of welfare states on new social risks, using logistic regression analysis with Panel Corrected Standard Errors Model on panel data of 1997-2007 years from 27 OECD nations. The result of this study presents that social expenditure structures have been adjusted with new social risk structure due to trade openness, female employment rates, and child population rates. Greater trade openness, higher women's employment rates, and lower child population rates are, more social investment expenditures are than income security expenditures. Rates of employment in service industries and elderly population rates are not statistically significant on the change of social expenditure structure. This result does not imply a complete switch from demand-based to supply-based social policy, but somewhat reflects transitions of a social welfare system for changing economic and social environments in order to sustain welfare state economically.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.67-81
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• 2004

This research demonstrates clothing consumption values, fashion preferences of career women from the early 1920s to late 1930s. And having thorough understanding of values and preferences, allows us to establish marketing strategies for clothing companies. The main purpose of this study is (1) to formalize consumer group based upon the clothing consumption values, (2) to find for characteristics of consumer depending on classification of consumption value in clothing, (3) to understand the preferences of career women about fashion trends. Analyzing data was performed 292 copies, resulting factor analysis, Cluster analysis, X-test, Anova, Tukey test, t-test, frequency analysis, and reliability analysis. This paper showed 7 distinctive characteristics of career women about clothing consumption value. These characteristics can be listed as 1) value of brand image, 2) value of self-expression, 3) functional values, 4) epistemic values, 5) coordination values, 6) social values 7) psychological values. Importantly, brand image value became most significant aspects among 7 factors. Analyzing consumers based upon stated 7 factors, it was found that they are segregated into 4 groups; Self-expressive Group, Psychological Stability Group, Functional Group, Social Group. Secondly, for fashion trend preferences, self-expressive group, psychological stability group, and functional group favored Romantic Feminine Style respectively. Social Group showed preference in Nu-Basic'. The reason for such trend dealt with fabric materials and colors. Finally examining population statistics, younger generations showed more preferences in Nu-Basic', and consumers from ages of 26 to 28, 32 to 34 showed preferences in Romantic Feminine' regardless of their household income, clothing related expenditures, jobs, and education level. On the other hand, 'Modem Classic' was popular among college graduates and 'Paradise' was somewhat less popular among all ages except from ages of 32 to 34, consumers consumption 300,000Won to 400,000Won on clothing related expenditures. And 'Energy' seemed to attract more highly educated females, who had more than masters in degrees with over 300,000 to 400,000Won for clothing related expenditures.