• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.163-196
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• 2001

This paper is a critical assessment of 'productive welfare policy' of the Kim Dae-jung adminstration and I tried to make several recommendations as alternatives. Quite contrary to concept of 'productive' welfare, which promotes less government intervention and more market-friendly approach, the Kim Dae-jung adminstration seems to have been moving in the opposite direction. As alternatives, I suggested i) work-fare rather than cash assistance, ii ) Employment Insurance Account to cover non-regular workers, iii) Medical Savings Account for minor medical services to reform medical insurance, and iv) enhancement of labor market flexibility by abolishing mandated retirement allowances in Korea I finally proposed the tuition and fellowship support program to the low-income group to enhance their economic status in a knowledge-based society.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.279-303
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• 2018

Since the introduction of the Riester Pension Scheme, the controversy has continued in the policy studies and the political debates. This study evaluates the achievements and limitations of the German Riester pension scheme and tries to derive policy implications for South Korea. As a result of the analysis, the most worthwhile achievement of the Riester Pension is to strengthen the role of the private pension schemes. Unlike other private pension schemes, it included a large part of lower income households. It also opened a new perspective of utilizing private pension schemes to accomplish the goals of the family policy. Despite these attainments, it does not reach the promised coverage rate. It also was revealed that the higher income households have concluded more Riester Pension Contracts than the targeted lower-income households. Due to high administration fee and incomplete information problems, benefit levels are supposed to be much lower than expected. It concludes, above all, despite some achievements, the Riester Pension Scheme will not fill completely the gap of old age income security caused by the reduction of the public pension system. The German case provides fruitful lessons for Korea. The introduction of a subsidized personal pension scheme in South Korea can be realized only when some prerequisites would be satisfied such as the consolidation and maturing of public pension schemes and the strengthening of the transparency in the private pension market.

• 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'.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.7
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• pp.59-66
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• 2013

Insurance has been preferential treatment than other financial products for risk ensure as a original function in tax law. However, the recent insurance products is being released in a variety of ways combined with investment and savings, as well as risk ensure. In addition, as the insurer's sales approach including to tax avoidance, tax saving strategies, tax policy associated with the tax-free savings-type insurance has been criticized. The government amended Article 25 of the Enforcement Decree of the Income Tax Act 2013 in order to prevent tax avoidance and equity among other financial instruments, but there are still many problems exist. this study looks for the validity of the tax policies of savings-type insurance In terms of the Enforcement Decree of the Income Tax Act as amended in 2013, and derived for ways to improve.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.95-123
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• 2016

As Korean society grows rapidly older, a systematic analysis of the determinants of labor supply behavior among the elderly becomes a prerequisite for designing more effective senior employment policies and income security regime for the elderly. Literatures review shows that a majority of previous researches have been ignoring the problem of "endogenous predictor" especially when it comes to the estimation of the effects of the two key variables, education and non-labor income, on labor supply decisions among older people. They have failed to take into consideration the unobserved heterogeneities which might affect both labor supply decisions of the elderly and their levels of education and non-labor income, which means, according to some econometric literatures, that the estimated coefficients of the two predictors can be inconsistent. The paper tries to redress the endogeneity problem by employing a panel logit model with data from the 1st. to 4th. wave of the KLoSA(Korean Longitudinal Survey of Ageing) to estimate the effects of key predictors on the probability of getting jobs among older people(ages of 60 or older). Both a random effects and a fixed effects model reaffirms that non-labor income has a negative effect on the chances of being employed. And a random effects model shows that the effect of education is also negative, as has frequently been reported by previous studies. That means the effects of education and non-labor income on elderly employment remain negative after the effect of unobserved heterogeneities is controled for and the problem of endogenous predictors is redressed through an appropriate panel data analysis. These findings mean, in turn, that when Korean baby-boomers, who had acquired an unprecedentedly higher level of education and were expected to enjoy ever-larger amount of non-labor income than their preceding generations, retires in near future, their incentives to work will become much weaker and the lack of labor-force and the burden of financing increased public pension expenditure will become more troublesome. The paper concludes with recommending some policy initiatives helpful to solve these expected problems.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.63-69
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• 2018

This study is to examine the determinants of the elderly poverty by using the Decision-tree analysis. In line with this perspective, this study includes individual characteristics, family characteristics, working characteristics, and periodic income characteristics after retirement as determinants for senior poverty. The study uses data from the Korean Retirement and Income Study based on panel survey and employs the Decision-tree analysis to explain the causes of the elderly poverty. As the result of analysis, earned wage has the greatest effect on the elderly poverty. Depending on status of the earned wage, there are 2 different variable groups. One with no earned wage includes public pension, education, and residence, paid employee and gender in the other with earned wage. Based on the analytical results, the study suggests measures to address the elderly poverty.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.161-194
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that interrupt the use of social security of elderly North Korean refugees. As a result of qualitative content analysis using interview data, it is found that the elderly North Korean defectors have a lower access to the social security system. The main reason for hindering the use of social security system is low awareness due to limited information channels, psychological distance to South Korean society and residents. Moreover, this psychological distance is a factor that reduces the geographical accessibility of elderly North Korean defectors by preferring to use services in specific institutions for North Korean, while South Korean elderly people can use the service elsewhere. In addition, there are many cases in which the elderly in North Korean defectors do not receive sufficient social security due to low income. On the other hand, social security systems with high accessibility of older North Korean refugees are characterized by the fact that they are provided by experts who have formed sufficient rapport with North Korean refugees. Therefore, it seems possible to improve the accessibility of elderly defectors' friendly system by professional workers with cultural competence. In addition, a multidimensional approach is needed to fully cope with the complex desires of elderly North Korean defectors and a mechanism should be set up to reflect their opinion in system operation.

• 한국노년학
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.835-852
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating effects of social support on material hardship of low-income elderly people that have been excluded from the National Basic Livelihood Security System. For this research, data of 255 persons aged 65 and over were collected using a survey conducted in 2014 by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea on the minimum living cost of low-income household. Data analysis was performed through descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis with STATA13. According to the results, the average level of material hardship in low-income elderly people was 1.45 out of 6, with the most hardship shown in heating and health care. The results of multiple regression analysis showed that when low-income elderly people became excluded from the system, they suffered more than the recipients. They also showed that the social support system of low-income elderly people brought a negative impact on their material hardship when they were connected by the strong social support system. In other words, social support system reduced their material hardship caused by exclusion. Based on the results, this study suggests some practical and political means to reduce material hardship of low-income elderly people.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.37
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• pp.89-118
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• 1999

The goal of this paper is to define the distinguishing characteristics of Korea's National Pension Scheme compared to the National Pension types of other countries and sees if those characteristics are significant enough in order to warrant calling these the "Korean Model". Also, another point to consider is, if this "Korean Model" does indeed exist, whether it is a 'sustainable' model or not. The National Pension Scheme, which was implemented in 1988, is similar to the public pension system formerly used in Japan. The National Pension Scheme broke away from this 'Japanese Model' in 1995 with implementation of the Farmers and Fishermen Pension, and the unique "Korean Model National Pension" was completed in 1998 with revision of the National Pension Law. The characteristics of the Korean National Pension can be defined as being balanced equally on ability and equality, possessing strong intergenerational income redistribution, having a nationally integrated structure, an incomplete funded method financial neutralism of the government and also as being a Monroe-oriented pension system. There are several limits to the sustainable development of this Korean Model National Pension, though. Even though the precondition of "the income determination problem of self-employed persons", which has strong intra-generational income redistribution. in actuality there are still many policy issues to be confronted such as the structure which 'transfers the burden to the future generation', the 'inter-generational inequity' of the incomplete funded system, persons excluded from coverage under the national integrated structure, 'compulsory loaning of the public sector by the National Pension Fund' under the government's principle of finance neutralism, the separate existence of the 'Monroe-oriented National Pension' from other pensions, etc.,. Therefore, it need to reform of NPS once again to sustainable development of KMNP.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.177-206
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• 2013

The Korean government has implemented the senior employment policy as a direct job creation policy since 2004. A realistic discussion of policy alternatives and orientation for this has been given little attention even though senior employment policy has been carried out for the last 10 years and it will be expanded next year. This study tries to examine active labor market policy especially focusing on direct job creation programs and policies for the disadvantaged low-income elderly in OECD countries, and then it suggests some developmental alternatives for senior employment policy based on the study's results. The main results from this analysis are summarized in two points. Firstly, except pension policies, employment policy for older workers in the OECD countries is highly proportional to the tackling of objective factors reducing the demand for older workers (wage subsidies, reduced social security contribution rate etc). And the strategies of improving employability have not been relatively important and direct job creation policy has been marginal. Secondly, employment support policies for the low-income elderly can be divided into three types: support for the low-income elderly, alleviating early retirement and support for full employment according to the criteria which are determined by policy objectives and the social economic index. Korea's employment support policies belong to the type of direct job creation among them. This seems to be due to the fact that the rate of elderly poverty is extremely high and an income security system has not been developed in Korea. However, the policy objective is still uncertain. Therefore, this policy needs to set up clear objectives and establish a proper system for the achievement of its goals. If we focus on the strength of its employment characteristics, we need to modify the policy's plan in the perspective of labor market policy. But if we intend to keep both of the current objectives, it is better for this policy to be divided into two parts: social participation and income supplements. Or it also may be a solution to transform the system into an employment service, a training system which supports participants to move into unsubsidized jobs such as SCSEP in the U. S.