The Effects of the National Basic Livelihood Security System on labor supply

국민기초생활보장제도의 노동공급 효과

The National Basic Livelihood Security System implemented from October 2000 has expanded cash assistance to cover the poor households that have work ability. The cash assistance for the households with work ability has positive aspects of providing basic livelihood security for all people, but many people have worried about its negative aspects such as the decrease of labor supply among the low-income people with work ability. However, there has been few study that evaluated the effects of the NBLS implementation on labor supply. One of the reason for this may be related with the difficulty of research methodology that there were neither program group nor control group, because NBLS was implemented for all the people at the same time. This study suggests alternative program groups and control groups based on work ability and education. Using wave1 to wave5 data of the Korean Labor and Income Survey, this study estimated the effects of the NBLS implementation on employment and work hours. A difference-in-difference approach was applied to these alternative program and control groups. I found that the implementation of NBLS did not have any statistically significant effects on employment an work hours. It is too early to conclude from this result that cash assistance for the poor households with work ability does not induce any labor supply decrease in Korea. Rather, I interpret this result as reflecting that the NBLS system was too limited to induce any sizable decrease of labor supply or that the work requirement imposed on the recipients with work ability was effective in deterring work disincentive among the low-income population. Future research need to explore better program and control groups and investigate long-term effects.

2000년 10월부터 시행된 국민기초생활보장제도는 기존에 근로무능력 빈곤가구에게만 제한되어 지급되던 현금지원을 근로능력 빈곤가구에게로 확대하였다. 근로능력가구에 대한 현금지원은 전국민에게 기초보장을 제공한다는 긍정적 측면에도 불구하고 저소득층들의 노동공급을 감소시킬 것이라는 우려를 야기하여 왔다. 본 연구는 한국노동패널 1-5차 자료를 이용하여 국민기초생활보장제도의 영향을 받을 프로그램집단으로 근로능력가구의 저학력자를 설정하고 이중차이모델(difference-in-difference model)을 이용하여 국민기초생활보장제도의 노동공급에 대한 영향을 분석하였다. 분석 결과 국민기초생활보장제도는 취업과 근로시간에 통계적으로 유의한 영향을 미치지 않는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 결과는 우리나라에서는 근로능력자에 대한 현금지원이 노동공급에 영향을 미치지 않는다는 것을 제시한다기보다는, 오히려 제도내용이나 실시기간의 제한성 또는 조건부수급제도의 영향 등을 반영한 것으로 보여진다.