• 한국사회정책
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.3-43
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• 2018

The digital revolution has brought about both positive expectations and negative concerns. Many experts predict that the current technological revolution, so-called "Fourth Industrial Revolution", which is expected to increase productivity in a disruptive way, has significant implications on employment and the labor market. In subsequence, the possible demise of the traditional employment system could markedly undermine the comtemporary welfare state. As a result, basic income has emerged as an alternative. However, little welfare state research has conducted the systematic review on the impact of the present technological revolution on employment and welfare states. In this paper, we will start to review the gist of the digital revolution and critically review recent studies on its effects on employment and welfare states together with actual case studies. In particular, we will investigate the experiences of platform economies of Uber and Amazon Mechanical Turk, and the German experience from 'Work 4.0'. Finally, we will discuss key issues of future welfare state reforms. This research argues that the effects of the technological revolution on employment and welfare state policies would be enormous, but they will be most likely to be mediated by domestic political and policy institutions. It emphasizes the importance of high-quality social investment that would enable individuals to flexibly adapt technological changes and support creative human capital resource. But, high-quality social investment could not be sustained without the decent social protection system that universally provides security to people.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.321-343
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• 2018

This paper aims to apply the convergence theory into the minimum income guarantee which forms the moral foundation of the welfare state. The research question of this paper is if the level of minimum income guarantee among EU member states (EU-15) gradually converging into a certain level. For this purpose, Chapter 2 describes the convergence and diversion of welfare states since the Second World War, and chapter 3 explains the historical development of the EU social policies since the Rome Treaty (1957). Chapter 4, which is the main body of this paper, analyzes if the level of minimum income guarantees of EU member states is converging by the coefficient of variation analysis and regression analysis. However, converging trend of the level of basic income guarantee among EU member states has not been proved. In other words, social policy arena still remains strongly in the realm of national sovereign states, irrespective of growing pressure from the supra-national governing body like the EU. It is in line with the Abram de Swaan's argument that "welfare states is nation states" (1994: 110).

• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.111-127
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• 2011

The study aims to analyse whether Korea and Taiwan have reduced the elderly poverty effectively through income transfer system in a comparative perspective. It covers 12 Western welfare states and 2 East Asian welfare states(korea and Taiwan). Utilising Luxembourg Income Study(LIS) datasets, empirical analyses focus on old-age income mix and poverty reduction effects of income transfer. Major findings are as follows. Frist, whilst public transfer income takes a major part in old-age income mix in Western welfare states, Korea and Taiwan reveal genuine mixed states - i.e., the relative proportion of private transfers and market income are high. Secondly, public transfers have effectively reduced the old-age poverty in Western welfare state. However, thirdly, those effects are still limited in Korea and Taiwan. Rather, the poverty reduction effects of private transfers are relatively high. Based on the empirical findings, the study suggests future research agendas and policy implications.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.185-222
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of labor market policy on fiscal soundness of welfare state. The analysis was carried out using cross-sectional panel data regression analysis, stepwise mediating effect analysis and system GMM designed by Baron and Kenny(1986) based on the data from 1985 to 2015 for 20 OECD countries. In setting up the analysis model, this study considers the interaction effect between active and passive labor market policies as well as the time sequence of the outcomes which have been overlooked in the previous studies. The result shows that labor market policies have significant impacts on the fiscal condition of welfare states, which is measured as the levels of national debt in this study. Especially the expenditure on active labor market programs has a positive effect on improving the fiscal soundness of welfare states by promoting the employment rate. In contrast, passive labor market programs expenditure is negatively associated with employment rate growth and it exacerbates the burden of national debt in the short-term. However, when active labor market programs and passive labor market programs are combined, the negative impacts by passive pabor market policies on the fiscal soundness of welfare states are off-set. Therefore this study addresses that although the expansion of the labor market policies can be inimical to the fiscal soundness of welfare states in the short-term, in the long run, they can have effective roles in securing and promoting the fiscal soundness of the welfare states by promoting the employment rate.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.517-529
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• 1999

영국과 같은 서구 복지국가들은 최근 공공복지분야에서 많은 변화를 경험하고 있다. 특히 ‘신관리주의’에 근거한 ‘자치위임(devolution)’은 변화하는 복지국가의 중요한 특징 중의 하나이다. 영국에서 자치위임은 교육분야에서 가장 잘 진행되고 있다. 1988년의 교육법 개정 이후 영국의 초등학교들은 이전에 가지지 못했던 자치권을 지역관할교육청(LEA)으로부터 위임받았다. 특히 LEA로 부터의 학교재정에 관한 자치위임은 매우 중요하게 인식되고 있다. 지리적인 관점에서 이와 같은 공공복지분야에서의 변화들이 공간적으로 불균등하게 진행되고 있다는 점을 인식하는 것은 매우 중요하며 ‘자치위임’의 공간적 특성도 예외는 아니다. 본 연구를 통하여 영국 남부 사우스햄톤시의 초등학교의 자치위임은 지역적으로 매우 불균등하게 진행되고 있다는 것을 알 수 있으며 특히 이러한 불균등한 진행은 지역의 사회경제적 특성에 의해 크게 영향받고 있는 것으로 나타났다.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.69 no.3
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• pp.289-315
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• 2017

Debate on basic income expanded worldwide as well as in South Korea. However, the expansion of these discussion has led to vigorous arguments for and against the various claims of basic income. In order to introduce basic income in Korea, discussing on the picture of Korean welfare state which includes basic income is important. In this study, 'Ideal Model of Korean Basic Income (and Welfare State)'is discussed and theoretically constructed using fuzzy-set ideal type approach, and feasible paths in realizing Korean basic income are suggested. This study attempts to contribute to a practical discussion on taking feasible and reasonable path to realize full basic income in Korean welfare state.

• Korea Real Estate Review
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.105-120
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• 2014

This research is to examine the impacts of the on-going global financial crisis on the housing systems of welfare states. Four developed economies in the Western Europe were selected for the analysis, and the qualitative research employed in-depth interviews with scholars in the fields of housing market and social policy in order to meet the research goal. The major findings indicate that the global economic crisis embedded into the liberalization of housing finance and the inadequacy of regulatory measures caused the vicissitude of housing markets, and its scale and magnitude could be determined by the resilience of each state's housing system. While the globalization of housing finance markets rendered easy borrowing for homeownership, intensive competition for excessive lending among financial institutions backed by heavy reliance on inter-bank and overall bank triggered market volatility, and further worsened household and public debts. It's clearly evident that a housing system with varied safety nets becomes a greater cushion to bear the risks of the financial crisis and to weather the economic storm.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.69 no.1
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• pp.103-123
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• 2017

This article examines the existing literature on the intersection of care and migration in Europe and the potential contributions of the Korean case. The paper reviews the three bodies of research: care, migration and their intersections. When defined as social reproductive labour, the concept of care not only captures individual/family level of experiences but it can also be an effective tool to analyse the diversity of the welfare state and the path of its evolution. Furthermore, in the context of globalisation and international migration, the concept of care can help overcome so-called 'the methodological nationalism' in the welfare state research. Accumulated evidence shows that only by applying a transnational perspective to the relationship between such social realities as class, gender and race, can we properly examine the dynamics of care distribution. Existing care-migration nexus research has found a widely observed trend of the 'migrantisation of care' in European welfare states; however, the actual modality of care-migration intersection varies reflecting historical and institutional contexts. This is why care-migration nexus research must go beyond the well-known welfare regime types. The Korean case can expand the geographical coverage and theoretical applicability of the intersection research by including a new welfare state regime type (productivist or developmental welfare states) and new patterns of migration (co-ethnic migration and marriage migration) which were rarely dealt with in this scholarship.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.31-54
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• 2011

This study investigates the nature of the welfare state under the Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun regime focusing on participatory democracy in the policy decision making procedure for the National Health Insurance. Participatory democracy was introduced not for the qualitative development of Korean democracy but for securing political legitimacy to change the Korean economic structure after the IMF financial crisis. Although participatory democracy played the positive role in winning higher benefit level in National Health Insurance. an index for the development of the welfare state, in 2007 A policy of higher benefit level ended in failure because of the pursuit of the neoliberal ideology, lack of government's responsibility for public finance, and thwarting policy holders' substantial participation in the decision-making process. Like those of past welfare systems, participatory democracy under the Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun regime was introduced for securing political legitimacy. But it was managed under restrictions imposed by pro-economic-growth ideology. Nevertheless, the Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun governments are different from the former welfare states because of the fact that participatory democracy system is not 'service' system but 'political structure' and the fact that the grant of powers by participatory democracy played positive roles in the development of welfare state through request of higher benefit level policy.

• Survey Research
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.87-105
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• 2010

This study purports to empirically examine the potential effect of the level of social trust on their welfare consciousness level. Although previous studies in the field have focused on socio-economic or class-oriented variables, the accumulated results have shown that the effects were inconsistent at best in Korean context. In order to overcome the limits of theoretical assumptions from mainstream Marxists and institutionalists, this study suggests the relative autonomy of social consciousness and its independent effect on welfare consciousness. The analysis shows that both foundational variables, income levels and labor market participation, and the level of social trust have significant impacts upon the respondents' level of welfare consciousness.