• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.97-122
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• 2011

After global economic crisis, most countries increased the welfare expenditure as a part of stimulus package. As a However welfare expenditure was decreased radically as the crisis was transmitted into the financial crisis. Which turning point is the welfare state going through now? Although the need for the welfare and the role of the state to take responsibility of public welfare has increased because of poverty and polarization, responses of the state against the crisis had focused on the aid to the financial industry and cutting taxes and showed limitations in coordination. Financial limitation of welfare expenditure, political individualism, the change of class politics and the mixture of the welfare institutions and financial institutions make have a pessimistic prospect of the retrenchment to the minimalist welfare state. As neoliberal state is continued cash benefits mainly for the middle class is being decreased. As a result, the direction the welfare states pursue is prospected to win over the poor by strengthening selectivity in welfare provision rather than class coordination.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.369-378
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• 2024

The aim of this study is to conduct a comparative study on the sustainability of the public pension. While the mainstream view on the sustainability of the public pension presupposes financial sustainability, the original purpose of guaranteeing retirement income has been overlooked. The sustainability of the public pension needs to consider not only financial sustainability, but also various factors such as demographic structure, labor productivity, industrial structure, life cycle of working households, government spending on public pensions, economic growth, and social consensus. With this awareness of the problem, this study conducted a fuzzy set qualitative comparative study in 44 countries, including Korea. As a result of the analysis, it was found that Korea had high financial sustainability for a single year, but relatively low integration related to social consultation and public pension operation, and adequacy such as the degree of guarantee and linkage with other pension systems was also relatively low. The sustainability of the broader public pension should be emphasized not only for financial sustainability, but also for adequacy and integration.

• Journal of Teachers' Pension
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• v.2
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• pp.243-274
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• 2017

최근 우리나라는 유례를 찾아볼 수 없을 정도로 고령화 진행속도가 빠른 나라로 공적 연금재정과 연금제도의 지속가능성에 대한 관심이 증가하고 있는 상황이다. 따라서 사회보장제도 개혁에 성공한 국가로 잘 알려진 스웨덴 사례를 통해 사학연금제도의 유지 및 장기적 재정안정화에 시사하는 바를 찾고자 한다. 스웨덴 정부는 인구고령화에 따른 위험에 상대적으로 안전한 '명목확정기여(Notional Defined Contribution)'방식을 도입하여, 개인의 연금계좌에 연금보험료를 적립하여 수급시점에 본인이 부담한 보험료 상당액을 연금으로 돌려받을 수 있도록 운영하고 있다. 또한 경제상황이 예상 수준보다 침체되고 연금 재정수지가 악화될 경우 이와 연계하여 자동으로 연금가입자의 부담금을 높이고, 지출되는 급여액을 감소시키는 '자동재정균형장치(Automatic Balancing System)'를 도입하였다. 상기와 같이 기여와 급여를 명확하게 연계시키는 스웨덴의 명목확정기여 방식의 연금제도는 장기적 재정안정은 물론이고 안정적인 연금 급여를 제공한다고 평가되고 있다. 스웨덴은 연금개혁 후 확정기여(DC)제도로 전환하여 장기적인 제도 안정성을 추구하지만 사학연금은 확정급여(DB)제도를 유지하면서 급여수준의 하향조정과 보험료율을 점진적으로 상향시켜 재정안정성을 확보하는 것이 가장 큰 차이점이다. 스웨덴의 연금제도와 같이 공적연금의 틀을 유지하면서 사적연금의 장점을 최대로 수용한 명목확정기여 방식의 연금제도를 도입한다면 급격한 재정부담 없이 장기적으로 지속가능한 연금재정 안정화에 기여할 수 있을 것이다. 일견 스웨덴의 정치, 경제상황 및 문화적 특성 차이로 인해 스웨덴의 연금제도 방식을 획일적으로 사학연금제도에 적용하는 것은 불가능하다. 경제상황을 고려한 기여와 급여의 연계 강화를 개혁의 기본방향으로 설정한 스웨덴의 사례를 벤치마킹하여 사학연금 또한 거시경제상황과 조화를 이루는 제도개선 및 자동안정장치를 마련해 보는 것도 고려해 봄직 하다. 지속적으로 스웨덴 및 연금제도 선진 국가들의 연금개혁안을 재검토하여 사학연금제도에 현실적으로 적용할 수 있는 방안과 시사점들을 찾는 노력이 필요할 것이다.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.173-218
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• 2018

This study focuses on the healthcare sector in Vietnam which is promoting universal health insurance for the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) under Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristics of the reform process of the health care system and the law on health insurance through the historical and cultural contexts and its implications from the perspective of development. Based on the three dimensions of UHC - extension of protection for population, provision of various medical services, and financial protection, the current status of the Vietnam healthcare sector is summarized respectively as follows. First, according to the revised Health Insurance law which came into effect in 2015, the mandatory health insurance premiums are calculated based on household units. Second, there is a medical network that can provide preventive and healthcare services centered on primary health care facilities, for example commune health stations (trạm y $t{\hat{e}}$ $X{\tilde{a}}$). Third, out-of-pocket expenditure is still a large proportion although public spending has increased and private spending has decreased since the enforcement of the health insurance law and various schemes. Vietnam is currently striving towards a universal health care system. The development of institutions and systems should be designed in a way that is appropriate for the members of the society rather than efficiency. This article findings shed light on the role of social values, family culture, and informal institutions.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.66 no.3
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• pp.231-251
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• 2014

Recently, Korean government documented the plan to cope with the situation related to rich pensioners of Basic old-age pension. The purpose of this paper is to verify that how many rich pensioners are existing and to evaluate government reform plan's validity and effect. Main results are as follows; firstly, if the definition of rich pensioners is on the top 10%, the proportion of them would form 2.9% of total. And then, an amount of expenditure for them is only 2.6% of total. Secondly, in terms of disposable income, debt, and transfer income from child, the household who would be applied by government's plan is not richer than other household who is in the same living standard. And then, if the government's plan enforced, the effect might be very small. Lastly, the plan of government will discriminate against persons who support their parent. As a result, Basic old-age pension will be worsen. This paper should underline that the government's reform is only the 'hidden' retrenchment strategy in order to introduce a standard of the obligation to support own parent in the state without scientific prediction and serious discussion of negative public opinion. That is why, this is the same as the 'Trojan Horse'.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.77-115
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to present empirical evidence for discussion of financing social welfare via estimating optimal tax burden in the main member countries of the OECD by using Hausman-Taylor method considering endogeneity of explanatory variables. Also, the author produced an international tax comparison index reflecting theoretical hypotheses on revenue-expenditure nexus within a model to compare real tax burden by countries and to examine feasibility of tax increase in Korea. As a result of the analysis, the higher the level of tax burden was, the higher the level of welfare expenditure was, indicating the connection between high burden and high welfare from the aspect of scale. The results also indicated that the subject countries recently entered into the state of low tax burden. Meanwhile, Korea had maintained low burden until the late 1990s but the tax burden soared up since the financial crisis related to the IMF. However, due to the impact of foreign economy and the tax reduction policy, it reentered into the low-burden state after 2009. On the other hand, the degree of social welfare expenditure's reducing tax burden has been gradually enhanced since the crisis. In this context, the current optimal tax burden ratio of Korea as of 2010 may be 25.8%~26.5% of GDP based on input of welfare expenditure variables, a percent that Korea was investigated to be a 'high tax burden-low ITC' country whose tax increase of 0.7~1.4%p may be feasible and that the success of tax system reform for tax increase might be higher probability when compare to others. However, measures of increasing social security contributions and consumption tax were analyzed to be improper from the aspect of managing finance when compared to increase in other tax items, considering the relatively higher ITC. Tax increase is not necessarily required though there may be room for tax increase; the optimal tax burden ratio can be understood as the level that may be achieved on average when compared to other nations, not as the "proper" level. Thus, discussion of tax increase should be accompanied with comprehensive understanding of models of economic developmental difference from nations and institutional & historical attributes included in specific tax mix.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.170-186
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• 2013

As the population is getting older, medical expenses amount of the whole is keep increasing. So, the pressure of the finances, Health Insurance, Medical Care Assistance Act and etc, is getting higher. The share of healthcare-expense is increasing due to elderly illness. And it became a social problem; we analysed present state of senior healthcare in South Korea-looked into current laws and policies, and found problems. We tried to suggest improvements that drew from the current state of foreign country senior healthcare of those problems. For the result, we found the problem in relevant-law system of senior healthcare guarantee. In this study, we proposed the ways to qualitatively upgrade of medical standard that considered on elderly' features: the strengthened guarantee for healthcare, financial secure for long-term convalescence benefit, linking and functional reinforcement for elderly welfare and long-term convalescence insurance, the solution for overlapped laws about convalescence in long-term convalescence insurance and elderly welfare, a betterment of grading, and a home service consolidation. We need to secure right amount of emergency medical service budget, and effective management system for the improved level of senior severely emergency medical service. Furthermore, we suggested that South Korea needs to legislate [The Law for Senior Medical Secure] to respond to rapidly increasing senior healthcare fee.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.71-130
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• 2008

Using data from the Korean Labor & Income Panel Study (KLIPS), this study investigates private income transfers in Korea, where adult children have undertaken the most responsibility of supporting their elderly parents without well-established social safety net for the elderly. According to the KLIPS data, three out of five households provided some type of support for their aged parents and two out of five households of the elderly received financial support from their adult children on a regular base. However, the private income transfers in Korea are not enough to alleviate the impact of the fall in the earned income of those who retired and are approaching an age of needing financial assistance from external source. The monthly income of those at least the age of 75, even with the earning of their spouses, is below the staggering amount of 450,000 won, which indicates that the elderly in Korea are at high risk of poverty. In order to analyze microeconomic factors affecting the private income transfers to the elderly parents, the following three samples extracted from the KLIPS data are used: a sample of respondents of age 50 or older with detailed information on their financial status; a five-year household panel sample in which their unobserved family-specific and time-invariant characteristics can be controlled by the fixed-effects model; and a sample of the younger split-off household in which characteristics of both the elderly household and their adult children household can be controlled simultaneously. The results of estimating private income transfer models using these samples can be summarized as follows. First, the dominant motive lies on the children-to-parent altruistic relationship. Additionally, another is based on exchange motive, which is paid to the elderly parents who take care of their grandchildren. Second, the amount of private income transfers has negative correlation with the income of the elderly parents, while being positively correlated with the income of the adult children. However, its income elasticity is not that high. Third, the amount of private income transfers shows a pattern of reaching the highest level when the elderly parents are in the age of 75 years old, following a decreasing pattern thereafter. Fourth, public assistance, such as the National Basic Livelihood Security benefit, appears to crowd out private transfers. Private transfers have fared better than public transfers in alleviating elderly poverty, but the role of public transfers has been increasing rapidly since the welfare expansion after the financial crisis in the late 1990s, so that one of four elderly people depends on public transfers as their main income source in 2003. As of the same year, however, there existed and occupied 12% of the elderly households those who seemed eligible for the National Basic Livelihood benefit but did not receive any public assistance. To remove elderly poverty, government may need to improve welfare delivery system as well as to increase welfare budget for the poor. In the face of persistent elderly poverty and increasing demand for public support for the elderly, which will lead to increasing government debt, welfare policy needs targeting toward the neediest rather than expanding universal benefits that have less effect of income redistribution and heavier cost. Identifying every disadvantaged elderly in dire need for economic support and providing them with the basic livelihood security would be the most important and imminent responsibility that we all should assume to prepare for the growing aged population, and this also should accompany measures to utilize the elderly workforce with enough capability and strong will to work.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.99-128
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• 2008

Nearly all Koreans are insured through National Health Insurance(NHI). While NHI coverage is nearly universal, it is not complete. Coverage is largely limited to minimal level of hospital and physician expenses, and copayments are required in each case. As a result, Korea's public insurance system covers roughly 50% of overall individual health expenditures, and the remaining 50% consists of copayments for basic services, spending on services that are either not covered or poorly covered by the public system. In response to these gaps in the public system, 64% of the Korean population has supplemental private health insurance. Expansion of private health insurance raises negative externality issue. Like public financing schemes in other countries, the Korean system imposes cost-sharing on patients as a strategy for controlling utilization. Because most insurance policies reimburse patients for their out-of-pocket payments, supplemental insurance is likely to negate the impact of the policy, raising both total and public sector health spending. So far, most empirical analysis of supplemental health insurance to date has focused on the US Medigap programme. It is found that those with supplements apparently consume more health care. Two reasons for higher health care consumption by those with supplements suggest themselves. One is the moral hazard effect: by eliminating copayments and deductibles, supplements reduce the marginal price of care and induce additional consumption. The other explanation is that supplements are purchased by those who anticipate high health expenditures - adverse effect. The main issue addressed has been the separation of the moral hazard effect from the adverse selection one. The general conclusion is that the evidence on adverse selection based on observable variables is mixed. This article investigates the extent to which private supplementary insurance affect use of health care services by public health insurance enrollees, using Korean administrative data and private supplements related data collected through all relevant private insurance companies. I applied a multivariate two-part model to analyze the effects of various types of supplements on the likelihood and level of public health insurance spending and estimated marginal effects of supplements. Separate models were estimated for inpatients and outpatients in public insurance spending. The first part of the model estimated the likelihood of positive spending using probit regression, and the second part estimated the log of spending for those with positive spending. Use of a detailed information of individuals' public health insurance from administration data and of private insurance status from insurance companies made it possible to control for health status, the types of supplemental insurance owned by theses individuals, and other factors that explain spending variations across supplemental insurance categories in isolating the effects of supplemental insurance. Data from 2004 to 2006 were used, and this study found that private insurance increased the probability of a physician visit by less than 1 percent and a hospital admission by about 1 percent. However, supplemental insurance was not found to be associated with a bigger health care service utilization. Two-part models of health care utilization and expenditures showed that those without supplemental insurance had higher inpatient and outpatient expenditures than those with supplements, even after controlling for observable differences.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-44
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• 1973

Needless to say, the management of national forest in all countries is very important in view of the national mission and management purposes. Korean national forest is also in particular significant in promoting national economy for the continuous increasing of the demand for wood, conservation of the land and social welfare. But there's no denying the fact that the leading aim of the Korean forest policy has been based upon the conservation of forest resources and recovery of land conservation function instead of improvement of the forest productive capacity. Therefore, the management of national forest should be aimed as an industry in the chain of the Korean national economy. And the increment of the forest productive capacity based on rationalized forest management is also urgently needed. Not only the increment of the timber production but also the establishment of the good forest in quality and quantity are to bring naturally many functions of conservation and other public benefits. In 1908 Korean national forest was historically established for the first time as a result of the notification for ownership, and was divided into two kinds in 1911-1924, such as indisposable national forest for land conservation, forest management, scientific research and public welfare, and the other national forest to be disposed. Indisposable forest is mostly under the jurisdiction of national forest stations (Chungbu, Tongbu, Nambu), and the tother national forests are under custody of respective cities and provinces, and under custody of the other government authorities. As of the end of 1971, national forest land is 19.5% (1,297,708 ha) of the total forest land area, but growing stock is 50.1% ($35,406,079m^3$) of the total forest growing stock, and timber production of national forest is 23.6% ($205,959m^3$) of the year production of total timber in Korea. Accordingly, it is the important fact that national forest occupies the major part of Korean forestry. The author positively affirms that success or failure of the management of national forest controls rise or fall of forestry in Korea. All functions of forest are very important, but among others the function of timber production is most important especially in Korea, that unavoidably imports a large quantity of foreign wood every year (in 1971 import of foreign wood-$3,756,000m^3$, 160,995,000 dollars). So, Korea urgently needs the improvement of forest productive capacity in national forest. But it is difficult that wood production meets the rapid increase of demand for wood to the development of economy, because production term of forestry is long, so national forest management should be rationalized by the effective investment and development of forestry techniques in the long view. Although Korean national forest business has many difficulties in the budget, techniques and the lack of labour due to outflow of rural village labour by development of national economy, and the increase of labour wages and administrative expenses etc. the development of national forest depends on adoption of the suitable forest techniques and management adapted for social and economical development. In this view point the writer has investigated and analyzed the status of the management of national forest in Korea to examine the irrational problems and suggest an improvement plan. The national forestry statistics cited in this study is based on the basic statistics and the statistics of the forest business as of the end of 1971 published by Office of Forestry, Republic of Korea, and the other depended on the data presented by the national forest stations. The writer wants to propose as follows (seemed to be helpful in improvement of Korean national forest management). 1) In the organization of national forest management, more national forest stations should be established to manage intensively, and the staff of working plan officials should be strengthened because of the importance of working plan. 2) By increasing the staff of protection officials, forest area assigned for each protection official should be decreased to 1,000-2,000 ha. 3) The frequent personnel changes of supervisor of national forest station(the responsible person on-the-spot) obstructs to accomplish the consistent management plan. 4) In the working plan drafting for national forest, basic investigations should be carefully practiced with sufficient expenditure and staff not to draft unreal working plan. 5) The area of working-unit should be decreased to less than 2,000 ha on the average for intensive management and the principle of a working-unit in a forest station should be realized as soon as possible. 6) Reforestation on open land should be completed in a short time with a debt of the special fund(a long term loan), and the land on which growing hardwood stands should be changed with conifers to increase productivity per unit area, and at the same time techical utilization method of hardwood should be developed. 7) Expenses of reforestation should be saved by mechanization and use of chemicals for reforestation and tree nursery operation providing against the lack of labour in future. 8) In forest protection, forest fire damage is enormous in comparison with foreign countries, accordingly prevention system and equipment should be improved, and also the minimum necessary budget should be counted up for establishment and manintenance of fire-lines. 9) Manufacture production should be enlarged to systematize protection, processing and circulation of forest business, and, by doing this, mich benefit is naturally given for rural people. 10) Establishment and arrangement of forest road networks and erosion control work are indispensable for the future development of national forest itself and local development. Therefore, these works should be promoted by the responsibility of general accounting instead of special accounting. 11) Mechanization of forest works should be realized for exploiting hinterlands to meet the demand for timber increased and for solving lack of labour, consequently it should promote import of forest machines, home production, training for operaters and careful adminitration. 12) Situation of labour in future will grow worse. Therefore, the countermeasure to maintain forest labourers and pay attention to public welfare facilities and works should be considered. 13) Although the condition of income and expenditure grows worse because of economical change, the regular expenditure should be fixed. So part of the surplus fund, as of the end of 1971, should be established for the fund, and used for enlarging reforestation and forest road networks(preceding investment in national forest).