• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.257-289
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• 2002

In this study we analyse how the tobacco prices have an effect on the national health. The level of tobacco price will fluctuate its consumers demand and eventually affect the national health status. We estimate tobacco consumption function as well as households'demand system in which tobacco and health expenditure functions are included. Demand elasticities are estimated and evaluated in order to find future policies to improve the national health by controlling the national tobacco consumption There are two econometric approaches app1ied in this study. The lent tobacco demand analysis method is mm tobacco consumption function model. Using national indices of tobacco price, tobacco consumption and other related variables, tobacco consumption function is estimated. The other is micro demand system analysis by using Korean urban households expenditure data during the period of 1991 to 1999. The own price elasticity which is estimated from national tobacco demand per capita is -0.19 for all people and -0.176 for the adults over 18, which means 100% price increase will cause decease of tobacco demand at 19% and 17.6% per each The cross vice elasticity which is estimated between tobacco and health expenditure of urban households demand system is -0.2328, which implies 100% of tobacco price increase will decrease 23.28% of health expenditure. The low price elasticities imply that tobacco price increase will increase total tobacco sales volume. 100% of tobacco price increase will bring about 79% increase of total tobacco sales volume according to our scenario. Korea's tobacco demand is negatively responsive to fluctuations in its price. The health expenditure is also negatively relatedto the tobacco price fluctuation. These empirical outputs could be utilized as the basis of government's tax policy to control national tobacco consumption in the future.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.33-50
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• 2002

This study examines cross-national patterns of asymmetry of marriage tables with respect to educational level and tries to measure the degree of gender inequality across nations. A Primary assumption of the study is that gender inequality inhibits symmetric marriage between men and women. As men and women differ more in status, the rate of symmetric marriage between them declines thus producing asymmetric marriage with respect to social status. More specifically, the main object of the study is to develop statistical models and index with which to assess the patterns and degree of asymmetric marriage. Additionally, it is intended to assess the appropriateness of several theoretical perspectives for explaining these variations identified by the statistical models. Two most important such perspectives are industrialism and theory of politics and culture. To answer these questions, this study relies on twenty-seven marriage tables with respect to educational level, some from published tables, and some extracted from other sources. The main findings of the study are: (1) compared to less industrialized countries, more industrialized countries have lower degrees of asymmetric marriage(gender inequality) with respect to educational level, and (2) other things being equal, differences in politics and culture seem to have the some impact on marriage pattern; for instance, social democracy and state socialism reduce the degree of asymmetric marriage while the high emphasis on gender-based hierarchy in Asian countries seems to increase it In short, these results suggest a weaker or modified version of industrialists That is, while with economic growth most nations show a decline in the degrees of asymmetric marriage with respect to social status, for some nations the degrees of asymmetric marriage are affected by their specific politics or cultures.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.25-50
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• 2009

Using the Korean labor and Income Panel Study, this study examines the impact of educational attainment on first marriage formation in Korea. In particular, this study examines whether higher education is associated primarily with delayed marriage or with a higher likelihood of never marrying. The results show that the trend toward later and less marriage is occurring at all levels of educational attainment in Korea. The data also indicated that educational attainment showed differential effects on the risk of first marriage formation for Korean men and women. For those born before 1970, both highly educated men and women delayed marriage but caught up by marrying at higher rates at later ages. However, for those born after 1970, highly educated women were increasingly more likely to show the trend toward later and less marriage, while highly educated men were more likely to delay marriage but caught up by marrying at higher rates at later ages. Overall the evidence in this study is consistent with the argument that gender divisions make it difficult for women to balance work and family in Korea.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.137-163
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• 2010

This study examines how individual, familial, and social factors are associated with persistent very low fertility in Busan Metropolitan City and contemplates family-friendly environments and social strategies for fertility increase. Fertility decline in Busan Metropolitan City recorded the lowest birth rate nationwide recent years among metropolitan cities and provinces in Korea. Birthrates are low partly because of multiple factors such as high age at childbearing and at marriage, decline in marriage, high divorce rate, the phenomena of marriage avoidance among unmarried women, traditional gender role attitude of men, low domestic work participation of husbands among dual career couples, low marital satisfaction and family life satisfaction, abortion, and more broader attiributes such as family policy, availability of childcare, education expenses, and family-friendlyness of a society. In addition, women of dual career couples in Busan strained from domestic work overload under traditional norms of gender role, and marital satisfaction recorded below average nationwide along with espeacially low marital satisfaction of wives compared to that of husbands. Major aspects of implications and considerations for higher birth rate and family friendly policy in Busan are discussed.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.113-136
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• 2010

Low fertility has become quite commonplace worldwide, and Europe has experienced below replacement fertility for several decades. In addition, lowest-low fertility, defined as period total fertility rate below 1.3, has rapidly spread in Europe during the 1990s and is likely to expand further. After the turn of century, lowest-low fertility started spreading in Eastern Asia. Korea's TFR of 1.19 in 2008 is lower than most European countries, although it is higher than the Hongkong(1.02) and Taiwan(1.09). The purpose of this paper is to examine the socioeconomic determinants of lowest-low fertility in Korea. In doing so, this paper discusses the effects of female labour force participation, labour instability on family formation and fertility. The data includes female labour force participation rate, unemployment rate, age at first marriage, and total fertility rate from 1980 to 2008. First, the economic recession hindered young people's economic independence and propensity to marry. Married couples were also depressed with uncertainty toward the future and avoided to have children. Second, the growth in female labor force participation had a negative impact on fertility, under the low level of compatibility between women's work and childrearing. Moreover, this paper argues that the rising cost of children including public and private educational costs is thought to be the main reason of the recent low fertility in Korea. Policy implications and some comments on population policies are also presented in the final section.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.85-111
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• 2010

South Korea has experienced a rapid fertility decline and notable mortality improvement. As the drop in TFR was quicker and greater in terms of tempo and magnitude, it cast a new challenge of population projection - how to improve the forecasting accuracy in the country with a super-low fertility pattern. This study begin with the current status of the national population projection as implemented by Statistics Korea by comparing the 2009 interim projection with the 2006 official national population projection. Secondly, this study compare the population projection system including projection agencies, projection horizons, projection intervals, the number of projection scenarios, and the number of assumptions on fertility, mortality and international migration among super-low fertility countries. Thirdly we illustrate a stochastic population projection for Korea by transforming the population rates into one parameter series. Finally we describe the future challenges of the national population projection, and propose the projection scenarios for the 2011 official population projection. To enhance the accuracy, we suggest that Statistics Korea should update population projections more frequently or distinguish them into short-term and long-term projections. Adding more than four projection scenarios including additional types of "low-variant"fertility could show a variety of future changes. We also expect Statistics Korea topay more attention to the determination of a base population that should include both national and non-national populations. Finally we hope that Statistics Korea will find a wise way to incorporate the ideas underlying the system of stochastic population projection as part of the official national population projection.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.139-164
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• 2009

The first demographic transition refers to the historical decline in mortality and fertility, as shown from the 18th Century in several European populations, and continuing present in most developing countries. The end point of the first demographic transition(FDT) was supposed to be a stationary and stable population corresponding with replacement fertility and zero population growth. In addition, households in all parts of the world would converge toward the nuclear and conjugal types, composed of married couples and their offspring. The second demographic transition(SDT), on the other hand, sees no such equilibrium as the end-point. Rather, new developments bring sub-replacement fertility, a multitude of living arrangements other than marriage, and the disconnection between marriage and procreation. Populations would face declining sizes if not complemented by new migrants. Over the last decades birth rates have been on the decline in all countries of the world, and it is estimated that already more than half of he world's population has below replacement level fertility. Measured in terms of the Total Fertility Rate (TFR), currently 34 countries have fertility levels of 1.5 or less. Similarly, Korea has been below lowest-low fertility for eight consecutive years since 2001 and below the replacement level for more than twenty years. In explaining the low fertility in Korea, some researchers explain the low fertility as revenge against a male-dominated society and institution, while others focus the impact of the employment instability. These studies share the basic ideas (spread of individualism, delayed marriage and childbearing, high divorce rate etc.) of a second demographic transition in order to explain the low fertility in Korea.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.61-84
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• 2010

The goals of the study were to examine if and how exposure to suicidal factors in social relationships affects suicidal ideation and behaviors and also analyze how family factors are associated with suicidal ideation and behavior. Data drawn from Korean General Social Survey(KGSS) collected in 2009 were analyzed. The findings show that exposure to the suicidal factors have statistically significant effects on suicidal ideation and behaviors. In the findings, respondents who have experiences of which socially close persons have suicidal ideation or completed suicide are more likely to have suicidal ideation and suicidal plan even in the models for which demographic factors and depressive symptoms are controlled. Also, family factors have significant effects on suicidal ideation and suicidal behaviors. Family stress increases suicidal ideation and behaviors whereas expectation on family support reduces the likelihood of having suicidal ideation and behaviors. This study shows that there might be possibility of behavioral contagion in terms of suicide through social connections and family has both positive and negative aspects on suicidal ideation and behaviors. Our study suggests policy implications for people who were exposure to suicide.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.33-59
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• 2010

This paper intends to find the determinants of the occupational aspirations of college students in Korea. According to Wisconsin model, the occupational aspiration of youth has a statistically significant influence on his or her actual education level and occupation choice implying that the more motivated with high-level occupational aspiration will obtain the higher level of occupation. The analysis for this study is based on the survey of undergraduate students' perception, attitude and lifestyle in Korea 2004, which was conducted against 1,947 respondents, and multiple regression model was utilized. The dependent variable for occupational aspirations was measured by the Standard International Occupational Prestige Scale (SIOPS) of Donald J. Treiman. Independent variables include social capital and cultural capital as well as demographic variables, socio-economic status, and human capital variables. Social capital variable was measured by the position generator scale of Nan Lin and Mary Dumin, and cultural capital variable was done to our original index. This study shows that social and cultural capitals are factors having significant influence on occupational aspiration, in addition to the well-known factors such as gender, human capital and the occupation of father.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.1-31
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• 2010

As increasing numbers of married women enter the labor force, scholars pay attentions to work-to-family and family-to-work spillover. So accumulating empirical research has been done to examine negative and positive spillover between two life areas. But existing research focuses only on this negative or positive spillover and do not combine these two interdependent aspects of spillover. But individuals experience the negative and positive spillover everyday. Therefore scholars point out the need of research to represent this reality of married men and women. Using data from a sample of 721 male and 359 female married workers, this study try to examine the 'global' measures of spillover between work and family. In particular, this study focuses on gender differences in this global measures and some potential factors influencing levels of global spillover. I find that while women and men do not differ in global work-to-family spillover, they do differ in global family-to-work spillover. It is found that four out of ten wives belong to 'high' in negative family-to-work spillover and 'low' in positive family-to-work spillover and only one out of ten wives belong to 'low' in negative family-to-work spillover and 'high' in positive family-to-work spillover. It is well documented that women do the bulk of family responsibilities such as housework and childrearing and consider home as their second workplace. The findings in this paper may represent unequal gender realities.