• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.87-120
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• 2011

This paper examines how the levy-grant system for on-the-job training affects individual workers' training level and the subsequent wage growth. Some notable results include: (i) the workers at the firms facing high net benefits (i.e., grant minus levy) receive more firm training indeed, and (ii) training provision raises post-training earnings substantially. All these results are found to be robust to changes in firm size and estimation method.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.31-60
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• 2017

This paper aims to reveal the background and issues of the current reform proposals for social insurance in Germany and to draw their implications for Korea. The essence of the German social insurance crisis is that of normality of industrial society on which it has been based, revealing itself by the dual crisis of finance and dualization. Reform proposals are regarded as diverse responses to the crisis of the normality within individual social insurance schemes. They are searching for transforming health insurance into citizen's insurance, pension insurance into various alternatives including all worker's insurance and citizen's pension, unemployment insurance into employment insurance. One of the commonalities of the them is that they attempt to reconstruct the old normality. However, due to the economic recovery, the historical experiences of improving social insurance, and high satisfaction, they are expected to struggle with the gradual improvements rather than radical shift from their tradition. In Korea, where the maturity of social insurance is low, it is necessary to mark the crisis faced by German social insurance as a teacher. We need to go back to the fundamental spirit of social policy and redraw the blue prints of social policy by opening minds to plentiful alternatives in the eyes of normality reconstruction.

• Journal of Practical Engineering Education
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.187-202
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• 2020

Can job training be considered a social right? Who must bear the costs of individual job training? This paper studies these two issues by examining the Korean Individual Learning Accounts (ILA) revised in 2020 and proposes future policy directions. Although there is no explicit legal provision stipulating job training as a lawful right in Korea, such absence does not negate the government's role of providing vulnerable people, etc with necessary training. Korean ILA heavily depends on the Skills Development Scheme under the Employment Insurance System which succeeded the past mandatory training levy system and it becomes harder to maintain principle of insurance because of sizable volume of atypical workers who are not insured. For future policy directions, it is desirable to increase the burden of general budget and self-financing as they are below 30% combined and the coverage of the ILA needs to be steadily expanded to all economically active people. Also, labor-management should step up joint efforts to stimulate the use of already existing policies such as paid training leave and request for reduction of working hours.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.1-24
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• 2014

This paper examines the changes in early reemployment bonus system in Korea and investigates its effects on job finding rates of the unemployed and on their reemployment outcomes. The analysis on the characteristics of the recipients reveals that, after the policy change, the probability of receiving the bonus increases among female, older, and less educated job seekers. This paper also shows that exit hazard from unemployment has not changed significantly while the stability of the subsequent jobs has been substantially improved.

• The Safety technology
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• no.188
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• pp.24-26
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• 2013

유해 위험화학물질로 인한 화재, 폭발, 누출 등의 대형사고가 지난해 연말부터 연이어 발생했다. 이에 따라 안전에 대한 국민적인 관심은 그 어느 때보다 높은 상황이다. 고용노동부, 환경부 등 관련부처에서는 안전관리를 강화하기 위해 관련 제도와 법을 제 개정하는데 박차를 가하고 있고, 안전행정부에서는 전국적인 안전문화운동을 활발하게 전개하기 위해 만반의 준비를 다하고 있는 이유가 바로 여기에 있는 것이다. 이 같은 상황에서 한국화재보험협회(이사장 이기영) 부설 방재시험연구원은 남다른 주목을 받고 있다. 국내에서 손에 꼽히는 화재전문 시험연구기관이기 때문이다. 이곳은 지난 1986년 4월 국내 최초의 민간 방재시험연구기관으로 탄생했다. 그 명성은 지금까지 계속 이어지고 있다. 특히 지난 1995년 국내 최초로 화재안전분야 국제공인시험기관(KOLAS)으로 인정을 받은 것은 물론 현재는 400여 종의 첨단 시험연구 장비를 구축하고 있는 등 그동안 화재안전점검 기술력 향상에 큰 기여를 한 것으로 평가받고 있다. 지난 27년 동안 꾸준하게 대국민 화재안전 서비스를 제공한 방재시험연구원을 찾아가 봤다.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.261-304
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• 2013

This article is aiming intensively to analyze the polarizing tendency of labour market and social integration. The polarization of labour market is being regarded as one of the hottest issues not less important than those problems of economic growth, employment, income distribution and national security etc. in the national policy. In this article, we will first follow up the important phenomena of labour market polarization and the background as well as its consequence. Especially, it asks if the present labour policy in the new government which is now being concentrated on the improvement of employment rate(from the present 63% to the 70% in the future) could deserve to diminish the polarization of labour market in korea. At one side, this article makes the special attention on the diversifying tendency of labour market and the various phenomena of fragmentation and segmentation in the labour market according to the forms and types of employment and according to the employee's status as much as the company's size. At the other side, it emphasizes that to overcome the polarization of labour market should require the wide reform from the legal measure to the improvement of the wage system, and the qualification system and the social investment as well as the human resource development. Furthermore, this article stresses the importance of integrative approach between the active market policy and the social policy instead of choosing each policy option, seperatively.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.69-96
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• 2013

This paper is to critically review the economic reasoning of non-sustainability of welfare state due to its intrinsic incentive problems and to see how the nordic welfare state responds to them. The welfare state as a political design of state to pursue equality has social insurance as its main economic function. It survives market failure of private insurance to contribute to human capital investment and industrial restructuring. The universal tax-financed welfare state, however, has the problem of tragedy of commons such as reduced work incentive and work ethics. But, the existing nordic welfare state overcomes it through employment-focused policy arrangements, maintenance of work ethics and benefits moral, incentive mechanism of wage-compression, public educational investment and its complementation with social security. The Nordic model shows that problems of incentive and moral are not about those of theory and reasoning, but about their reality which policies and institutions could respond to.

• Industry Promotion Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.79-86
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• 2021

Due to the change in the demographic structure, the problem of low birth rate and aging population leads to a serious decrease in human resources, and the necessity of introducing foreign workers is increasing. This study believes that the introduction of foreign workforce is the most effective to expand the working-age population in the era of low birthrate and aging, when demographic changes begin in earnest, and to this end, it sought to devise measures to improve the legal system for migrant workers. As a result of this study, first, the legal system for migrant workers should be unified and improved. It is necessary to establish or unify management agencies so that the 「Immigration Control Act」 and the 「Labor Act」 can establish a cooperative relationship. Second, the 「Immigration Control Act」 should be revised to make it easier for migrant workers to find employment. It is necessary to positively review the employment permit system and acquisition of nationality. Third, there should be no equity or discrimination against migrant workers. Under the principle of mutual benefit, employers and migrant workers should not be equally discriminated against. Fourth, the social insurance system must be added to the legal system of migrant workers. Therefore, the legal system should be reorganized so that migrant workers are not discriminated against in various insurance systems including the four major social insurance systems. In conclusion, the problem of low birthrate and aging population has become a serious social problem due to changes in the demographic structure, and the decrease in the possible generation population has reached a level of concern. The importance of migrant workers' employment and work environment is increasing. Nevertheless, related legal and institutional problems still exist, and measures to improve the legal system for migrant workers are needed.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.169-197
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• 2012

It is often argued that the parental leave should be extended in order to help employees achieve the balance of work and family life. However, one should be careful in designing the parental leave since there is a tradeoff between the continuity of employment after childbearing and the depreciation of human capital due to the time off the work. The paper investigates whether the parental leave payment introduced in Korea in 2001 helped women's take-up of the leave and employment after giving birth. The results are as follows. First, the increase in the payment indeed raised the female take-up of the leave. Second, women returned to labor market less often after giving birth in the short run, but the size of the effect tends to decrease in the long run. However, the negative effect on returning to the same workplace after the birth remains significant in the long run. Lastly, there is no evidence that the share of women of childbearing age at workplace changed due to the increase in the parental leave payment. Although there is a limitation in that the analysis is based only on the employment covered by the Employment Insurance, these findings imply that the increase in the parental leave payment may not be an effective policy tool for promoting female labor market participation. On the other hand, it should be noted that it is necessary to pay attention to child development as well as female employment as an objective in order to make an overall judgement on the parental leave policy.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.195-229
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• 2018

This study has examined how the welfare system has changed as it has passed through the most controversial period in Korean modern history. The welfare system has changed in a way that adapts to the need for export-led economic growth. Industrialization centered on light industry, which started in the mid-1960s, absorbed the labor force that existed in the rural areas and commodified them, thereby creating a momentum for Korean society to get out of poverty. However, the public de-commodification, ie social security system, adapted to the commodification of the labor force has been institutionalized only in a very limited area and people. Indeed, the de-commodification system was confined to the area directly linked to the reproduction of the labor force. Even so, the target was very limited in the abundance of labor in rural areas. Compulsory medical insurance was rejected because of corporate burden, and industrial accidents insurance was introduced centering on large-scale workplaces. As the Korean economy began to move from the light industry to the heavy industry in the 1970s, the commodificated labor force changed from a low skilled labor force to a skilled male labor force. It is at this time that dual structures have begun to be created between workers employed in export-oriented large enterprises and workers employed in domestic-oriented SMEs. Therefore, the system of de-commodification that supports the reproduction of labor power in response to social risks has also been institutionalized centering on large-scale workplaces.