• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.117-138
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• 2004

The purpose of this article is to show a model on enhancing labor market flexibility and to compare labor market flexibility, considering that the model on labor market flexibility, universally acceptable, are not found. The writer classified the scope of labor market flexibility into three parts such as indirect adjustment, direct adjustment and policy adjustment. The writer further classified the contents of labor market flexibility into eleven sub-parts. This kind of classification regarding labor market flexibility is unique and comprehensive. Based on this classification, the writer measured the degree of labor market flexibility of four countries such as USA, Japan, Germany, and Korea. According to the results, the ranks of labor market flexibility are USA, Japan, Korea, Germany.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.129-159
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• 2018

The foremost aim of the paper is to evaluate the flexibility and stability of the Korean labor market through a cross-country comparison with OECD countries. Evaluating by the OECD Employment Protection Legislation Index, the flexibility of permanent job layoff in Korea is close to the average of OECD countries. Employment of temporary workers appears to be relatively flexible allowing for effective indicators such as the proportion of temporary workers among paid employees. As regards security, the levels of job security, income security and combination security are all far below the OECD average. A panel data analysis of OECD countries reveals that labor productivity increases as regulations on permanent job layoff become looser and regulations on temporary employment become more rigorous.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.475-509
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• 2011

Taking 195 Korean businesses and sorting them out according to the unit types, this study looks into how flexibility strategy in labor market, which consists of numerical flexibility and functional flexibility, takes effect on the organization's outcome variable, which in turn consists of productivity, labor-management cooperation, and job security. In addition, the present study analyzes the role of labor union's moderating effect on the relationship among labor market flexibility, labor-management cooperation, and job security. It is found out as a result that numerical flexibility has no meaningful relation with productivity, labor-management cooperation, and job security, while functional flexibility has a considerably positive relation with them. This result confirms the importance of functional flexibility of business strategy in labor market. The West has continuously insisted the importance of functional flexibility, pointing out problems of numerical flexibility. On the other hand, considering that this study has confirmed functional flexibility's meaningful relation, while it has not found out numerical flexibility's negative relation, it is necessary to study further on the relationship between these two kinds of flexibility. The result of analysis on the role of union power's moderating effect confirms only the union power's interaction effect in the relation between numerical flexibility and labor-management cooperation. The possibility of union's opportunistic behavior can be detected in this result.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.23-58
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• 2008

본 연구는 한국노동연구원에서 실시한 "일과 가족 양립 지원제도 운영실태조사" 원자료를 활용하여 우리나라 기업의 유연근로제도에 대한 수용성 정도를 실증분석한 것이다. 유연근로제도를 포함한 가족친화 경영의 기업수용성은 출산과 양육친화단계에서는 높지만, 가족친화적 경영수준으로는 확장되지 않고 있음을 발견할 수 있었다. 기존의 연구와 달리 기업 특성을 성(gender)과 시장(market) 가치에 따라 구분하여 유연근로제도의 수용성이 어떤 영역에서 높게 나타나는지를 분석한 결과 여성친화적-고시장성 기업일수록 보다 높은 수용성을 가지는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 다변량분석을 활용하여 유연근로제도에 대한 기업의 수용성 결정요인을 도출하였는데 여기에서는 비정규직 활용과 유연근로제도가 대체관계에 있는 것으로 분석되었다. 따라서 현재 우리나라 노동시장에서 큰 이슈가 되고 있는 비정규직의 무분별한 활용과 증가를 억제할 수 있는 대안 중의 하나로 유연근로제도를 활성화하는 방안을 제안할 수 있으며, 이는 기업의 효율적인 인력운영과 함께 일자리의 질도 제고시킬 수 있어 기업과 근로자가 모두 윈윈(win-win)하는 전략이 될 수 있음을 시사한다고 하겠다.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.83-112
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• 1998

The unemployment rate in Korea increased sharply since the deep economic depression. The rapid increase of unemployment rate is attributed, in part, to economic shock, but more basically to the structural problem of labor market. Moreover over 2-3 years later, the labor market perspective looks dismal. To overcome the labor market crisis, the fundamental reforms aimed at improving the labor market function is required. Thus the focus of policy should shift from reducing unemployment to increasing employment.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.25-46
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• 2010

The outstanding performance of some nations in Central and Northern Europe such as Denmark and the Netherlands in the labor market is much indebted to their policy to help labor flexicurity. In this study, the possibility of replicating the Dutch or Danish performance in the labor market is explored in case of adopting such policy in the 22 OECD countries. If implementing the flexicurity policy in the 22 member countries of the OECD leads to strong performance in the labor market, this policy can be globally shared as universal labor policy to provide a win-win situation among the labor, management and the authorities on the matter, paving the way for replacing the Anglo-Saxon policy characterized by high flexibility and low security, or the European alternative with a lower level of flexibility and a higher level of security. According to findings from our research, flexicurity policy can not produce any tangible accomplishments in the labor market by only itself. Therefore, we may safely reach the conclusion that flexicurity policy has a limited positive influence on the labor market of some northern or central European countries. Given the striking difference in inherent conditions between such European countries and OECD countries, it is not sensible for OECD nations to adopt labor policy in the direction of flexicurity.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.325-350
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• 2011

This article examines part-time work in the UK in terms of its characteristics and institutional contexts. Part-time jobs developed early due to the UK's liberal market institution and low level of public support for female employment. A large proportion of the employed women (about 40 percent) work part-time. Part-time work has been largely for married women. The expansion of part-time work in the UK was primarily market-driven and led by employers. Married women have worked part-time work primarily to accommodate their family responsibilities. There have been significant changes in labor market regulation in the UK since 1997. The Labor government legislated the Part-time Workers Regluations in 2000 to protect part-time workers. The government has also changed and newly implemented various laws and policies for work-life balance. There has been a real progress in improving the quality of part-time work overall. Nevertheless, we have not seen qualitatively different results in terms of female employment patterns and the qualify of part-time work so far. It has been largely constrained by the government's liberal orienation and voluntarism of labor relations in the UK.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.161-182
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• 2002

The self-employment can provide work time flexibility. Work time flexibility would be a critical factor for married females' labor supply considering allocation of their time to market work and household work. This study used the 1998 and 2000 Korea Labor and Income Panel Survey for the empirical analyses. Applying the bivariate probit model with partial observability, this study analyzed factors related to the choice of participation in labor market and choice of self-employment. Also, this study examined the effects of marriage and the presence of younger children on changes in decisions related to labor supply using the multinomial logit model: exit from the labor market, increasing and decreasing work hours. The presence of the younger children showed a significantly negative effect on the participation in labor market while positive, but insignificant, effect on self-employment. Compared with females working for others, self-employers without employees and unpaid family workers are less likely to exit labor market rather than increasing work hours. The self-employment would be a good alternative to evade females' career interruption and therefore to enhance the potential human resources.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.21 no.3_4
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• pp.105-146
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• 1999

1997년 말 외환위기 이후 한국의 노동시장은 빠르게 변화하고 있다. 외환위기에서 2년이 경과한 현재 실업률이 빠르게 하락하고 임금수준은 위기 이전으로 회복되었으나, 고용수준은 아직 회복되지 않은 상황이다. 현재의 상황에서 우려되는 것은 1970년대 이후 유럽에서 발생한 것처럼 고실업이 지속되는 현상이다. 본고에서는 여러 가지 분석을 통하여 이러한 우려가 현실로 나타날 수 있는 가능성에 대하여 경고하고 있다. 향후 고용 및 실업정책의 최우선 목표는 본원적인 일자리 창출을 통해 구조적 실업률을 저하시키기 위한 종합적인 정책의 시행에 두어져야 한다고 판단된다. 이는 실업과 분배문제를 동시에 해결할 수 있는 기초라 여겨지기 때문이다. 이를 위해서는 일자리의 창출을 위하여 수십년 동안 경험을 축적한 OECD국가의 경험을 참고할 필요가 있을 것이다. 현재 OECD국가에서는 일자리의 창출을 위하여 개별기업의 상황에 맞게 임금결정구조의 분권화를 지속적으로 추구하고 있으며, 임금상승률의 결정은 과거의 물가상승률이나 생산성 증가 등의 지수화에 의존하던 정책을 포기하고 미래지향적으로 물가상승의 예측치만큼 설정한 후 그 변동분은 사후적으로 고려하는 소득정책협약(income policy agreements)을 추구하고 있다. 이는 일자리 창출을 통해 경제의 성과를 기존의 취업자 외에 실업자와 신규근로자에게 분배하기 위한 수단으로 사용하고 있음을 의미한다. 한편 노동시장 유연성 제고를 통한 일자리의 창출은 소득분배를 악화시키는 경향이었다는 점이 유럽과 미국에서 발견된 경험 중의 하나이다. 따라서 일자리의 창출과 분배의 상충관계(trade-off)를 염두에 둘 필요는 있으나, 일자리의 창출은 일자리를 가짐으로써 불평등도를 개선하는 고용효과(employment effect)가 임금격차의 발생으로 불평등도를 확대시키는 임금효과(income effect)를 상쇄할 경우 오히려 분배구조를 개선시킬 수도 있다.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.79-112
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• 2000

This study was focused on the contrasting pattern of part-time employment between Japan and Taiwan where the environments are similar in terms of expanding service industries and increasing flexibility of labor. In Japan, the expansion of part-time employment and its feminization have occurred, whereas they have not at all in Taiwan. The purpose of this study was to examine the reasons behind this phenomena, and to explore what relations they might have with the supply of women\`s labor in each country. Data analysis showed the following results. First, when the phenomena of part-time employment in Japan and Taiwan are summarized as \`active\` and \`inactive\` models, the difference could be explained by a structure-oriented approach rather than an individual-oriented approach. In other words, the difference between the two countries is mainly because of the structural characteristics of the labor market. a combination of capitalism and patriarchy, and an effect of state welfare and family policies rather than a \`voluntaristic choice\` due tn household work and child rearing. In light of this. the labor market segmentation and flexibility of labor theory in particular provided a useful frame for explanation. Second, with regard to the supply of women\`s labor, the difference between Japan and Taiwan could be found in the structure of the labor market and in family response strategies. The large corporation-oriented and strictly divided labor market structure in Japan activated part-time employment and its feminization, whereas, the small family-oriented businesses and less divided labor market in Taiwan supported the continuity of full-time employment of married women. There was also a room for informal employment in Taiwan which made part-time employment unnecessary. This study showed that even within similar environments of expanding service industry and pursuing flexibility of labor different measures and adaptations were possible. The case of Taiwan in particular, showed the significance of an informal labor market which was a part of industrialization process and a strategy of producing various products through a subcontracting network.