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Private Income Transfers and Old-Age Income Security (사적소득이전과 노후소득보장)

  • Kim, Hisam
    • KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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    • v.30 no.1
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    • pp.71-130
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    • 2008
  • Using data from the Korean Labor & Income Panel Study (KLIPS), this study investigates private income transfers in Korea, where adult children have undertaken the most responsibility of supporting their elderly parents without well-established social safety net for the elderly. According to the KLIPS data, three out of five households provided some type of support for their aged parents and two out of five households of the elderly received financial support from their adult children on a regular base. However, the private income transfers in Korea are not enough to alleviate the impact of the fall in the earned income of those who retired and are approaching an age of needing financial assistance from external source. The monthly income of those at least the age of 75, even with the earning of their spouses, is below the staggering amount of 450,000 won, which indicates that the elderly in Korea are at high risk of poverty. In order to analyze microeconomic factors affecting the private income transfers to the elderly parents, the following three samples extracted from the KLIPS data are used: a sample of respondents of age 50 or older with detailed information on their financial status; a five-year household panel sample in which their unobserved family-specific and time-invariant characteristics can be controlled by the fixed-effects model; and a sample of the younger split-off household in which characteristics of both the elderly household and their adult children household can be controlled simultaneously. The results of estimating private income transfer models using these samples can be summarized as follows. First, the dominant motive lies on the children-to-parent altruistic relationship. Additionally, another is based on exchange motive, which is paid to the elderly parents who take care of their grandchildren. Second, the amount of private income transfers has negative correlation with the income of the elderly parents, while being positively correlated with the income of the adult children. However, its income elasticity is not that high. Third, the amount of private income transfers shows a pattern of reaching the highest level when the elderly parents are in the age of 75 years old, following a decreasing pattern thereafter. Fourth, public assistance, such as the National Basic Livelihood Security benefit, appears to crowd out private transfers. Private transfers have fared better than public transfers in alleviating elderly poverty, but the role of public transfers has been increasing rapidly since the welfare expansion after the financial crisis in the late 1990s, so that one of four elderly people depends on public transfers as their main income source in 2003. As of the same year, however, there existed and occupied 12% of the elderly households those who seemed eligible for the National Basic Livelihood benefit but did not receive any public assistance. To remove elderly poverty, government may need to improve welfare delivery system as well as to increase welfare budget for the poor. In the face of persistent elderly poverty and increasing demand for public support for the elderly, which will lead to increasing government debt, welfare policy needs targeting toward the neediest rather than expanding universal benefits that have less effect of income redistribution and heavier cost. Identifying every disadvantaged elderly in dire need for economic support and providing them with the basic livelihood security would be the most important and imminent responsibility that we all should assume to prepare for the growing aged population, and this also should accompany measures to utilize the elderly workforce with enough capability and strong will to work.

A Study on Organizational Effectiveness of Administrative Personnel in Hospitals (병원 행정직원의 조직효과성 수준)

  • Lee, Duk-Gu;Park, Eun-Cheol;Yu, Seung-Hum;Sohn, Tae-Yong
    • Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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    • v.7 no.2
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    • pp.52-79
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    • 2002
  • The hospital is characterized by it's remarkable labor industry and human resources input by unit. Recently, the administrative personnel are recognized as an important staff to provide a hospital guidance to consumer and also easiness for consumer's visit to hospital. The purpose of this study is to find the organizational effectiveness of the administrative personnel in hospitals. The survey data involved in the study was derived from 229 personnels working in 3 medium and small sized hospitals and 1 university hospital in Inchon area. The major finding are as follows; 1. The organizational efficiency in accordance with the general characteristics of subjects in order of over 31 years of age, university graduates, long-term tenure and high position is higher, whereas, in as much as wage and well trained personnels in are higher, general hospital's organizational efficiency is higher in comparison with those of university hospital. 2. The organizational efficiency in accordance with satisfaction and the psychological motive contributional factors is higher as much as the high satisfactory level in every hospitals in general. 3. The organizational efficiency in accordance with the factors of job characteristics is higher in as much as difficulty of the jobs is lesser, however there was not statically significance. In as much as job standard level is higher and the more job responsibility the higher organizational efficiency. It was obvious that the higher professional expertise as well as the training and application level are improving the organizational efficiency. 4. The organizational efficiency in accordance with the factors of structural characteristics was higher in as much as the intercommunication was smooth and the structural formalization level are higher, however there was not statically significance between the participation level of decision making and the organizational efficiency. 5. In as much as older age, management of organization and the job level are satisfied, the higher structural formalization level, the smooth intercommunication have affected as major influence factors of organizational efficiency. 6. In the university hospitals is satisfied in the management and job level of hospital organization as there are no difficult jobs while the level of hospital's organizational formality is high and the intercommunication is smooth, which are improving the organizational efficiency. In the general hospitals is also satisfied the management and job level of hospital organization and psychological motive contributional factors is higher, it was apparent that the organizational efficiency is higher in as much as the level of job standardization is high and the intercommunication is smooth. As a result of this study, in order for improving the organizational efficiency of administrative personnel in hospitals, the management and job level as well as personal relation are preferably satisfied, whereas formalization of organization, intercommunication and etc. should be satisfied, and, therefore, it is advisable to buildup discriminated organizational management and environment for different division on the basis above factors. Since this study is carried on four hospitals in Inchon area, there is a certain limit to generalize its result to all domestic hospitals, nevertheless the gallop poll was made by developing the questionnaires with reasonability and reliability. Especially. as the study was carried by analyzing the comparison of influence factors' difference of organizational efficiency in accordance with the divisional characteristics of the university and general hospitals.

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A Study on the Administrative Enhancement for Health Center Activities (보건소(保健所) 행정(行政)의 기선을 위(爲)한 연구(硏究))

  • Moon, Ok-Ryun
    • Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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    • v.3 no.1
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    • pp.97-110
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    • 1970
  • This survey was conducted to evaluate not only the present status of health center directors-their personal histories, their will to private practice in the future, their responses to governmental policies, -but also the distribution of doctorless myons, budget and subsidy, and director's opinions to the enhancement of health center activities. This survey questioned 116 health center directors and 16 health personnel from August to October of 1970 and obtained the following results; 1) The average ages of directors of kun, city, and total health centers were $43.2{\pm}7.8,\;42.1{\pm}7.7,\;and\;42.9{\pm}10.3$ respectively. 2) The average family sizes of directors of kun, city, and total health centers were $5.6{\pm}2.7,\;5.6{\pm}2.1,\;and\;5.6{\pm}2.6$ respectively. 3) Directors holding M. D. degrees were 79.3%, those holding qualified M. D. degrees ('approved director') were 20.7%. 4) M. P. H., M. S., and Ph. D. holders were 6.0%, 6.1%, and 4.3% respectively. 5) The average duration of present directorship in kun and city were 30.2 months and 20.4 months respectively. 6) The majority of directors had been employed in related fields before assuming current position : directorship at other health center 26.7%, army 22.4%, health subcenter 21.6%, private practice 19.0%. 7) Average length of directorship is 41.8 months. Average length of public health career, including health subcenter and present position, is 56.5 months. 8) Both rural and urban experience in health centers for regular directors is 16.3% and for approved directors, 12,5%. A total of 15.5% of all survey directors had experience in both rural and urban health center. 9) A total of 70.7% of health center directorships were staffed by local doctors. 10) Nearly 40% wanted to quit the directorships within 3 years and 60.3% had already experienced private practice. 11) Of the regular directors 17.4% felt strongly about devoting their lives to public health fields, but only 4.1% of the approved approved directors felt so. 12) There wire 432 doctorless myons among 996 respondent myons and 4.5 doctorless myons per kun. 13) The percentage of doctorless myon by Province are as follows, Cholla buk-do 57.2%, Cholla nam-de 55.0%, Kyungsang nam-do 52.0%, Kyungsang buk-do 49.7%, Chungchong but-do 42.4%, Kyonggi-do 32.9%. Cheju-do 30.8%, Kangwon-do 25.8%. 14) Two thirds of health critters have experienced the abscence of the director for a certain period since 1966 and the average span of the abscence was 18.2 months. 15) The percentage of doctorless myons increased proportionally with the span of the director's abscence. 16) The average budgets of health centers, kun, city and ku, were $W15.03\;million{\pm}W4.5\;million,\;W22.03\;million{\pm}W17.80\;million,\;W13.10\;million{\pm}W7.9\;million$ respectively. 17) Chunju city had the highest health budget per capita(W344) while Pusan Seo ku had the lowest(W19). 18) Director's medical subsidies are W30,000-50,000 in kun, and roughly W20,000 in city. 19) The older of priority in health center activities is T.B. control(31.1%), Family Planning and M. C. H.(28.0%), prevention of acute communicable disease and endemic disease (18.2%) and clinical care of patients(14.3%). 20) Nearly 32% opposed in principle the governmental policy of prohibiting medical doctors from going abroad. 21) Suggestions for immediate enhancing the position of director of health centers and subcenters: (1) Raise the base subsidy (48.2%), (2) Provide more opportunities for promotion (20.7%), (3) Exemption from army services(12.1%), (4) Full scholarship to medical students for this purpose only (7.8%). 22) A newly established medical school was opposed by 56.9% of the directors, however 33.6% of them approved. 23) Pertaining to the division of labor in Medicine and Pharmacy, the largest portion (31.9%) urged the immediate partial division of antibiotics and some addictive drugs to be given only by prescription. 24) More than half wanted a W70,000 level for the director's medical subsidies, white 36.2% stated W50,000. 25) Urgently needed skills in the kun are clinical pathologist (38.6%) and doctor (health center director) (25.5%); while in the city nurse (37.1%), doctors(clinical)(31.4%) and health educators(14.4%) are needed. 26) Essential treatment for the better health center administration; raising the base subsidy (22.7%), obtaining the power of personal management (19.3%) and the establishment of a Board of Health (14.3%). etc.

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Analysis of Maternal and Neonatal Transport by the 1339 Emergency Medical Information Center in Busan Area (부산 지역 응급의료정보센터를 통한 산모와 신생아 전원에 대한 연구)

  • Kim, Mi-Jin;Lee, Myung-Chul;Yoo, Jae-Ho;Kim, Myo-Jing
    • Neonatal Medicine
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.137-142
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    • 2011
  • Purpose: In relation to perinatal healthcare, medical institutions and resources are limitative and also are in a state of flux due to the therapeutic specialty. We analyzed requests for interhospital transfers received by Busan 1339 Emergency Medical Information Center (EMIC) to grasp the state of perinatal healthcare delivery system. Methods: This study was conducted on the basis of data inputted into the computing system of Busan 1339 EMIC, between January 1 and December 31, 2009. In connection with 378 pregnant women and 136 newborns who were required to transfer, retrospective analyses were made of the success rate of transfer (SR), the number of contacted hospitals, the time required for transfer and the reason of transfer and refusal. Results: In the case of pregnant women, the SR were 65.5%. They came in contact with 2.7 hospitals, and it took 24.4 minutes. As for the reason of transfer, preterm labor accounted for the highest proportion. In the case of newborns, the SR were 71.3%. They came in contact with 2.4 hospitals, and it took 15.6 minutes. The most common reason of transfer were respiratory symptoms. In the reason of refusal with pregnant women and newborn, the lack of medical staff, medical equipments and wards accounted for great. Conclusion: Many pregnant women and newborns have been transferred to hospitals by EMIC, but the SR has not been higher yet. Accordingly, there is a need to evaluate the propriety of perinatal treatment system, as well as to set up effective perinatal healthcare delivery system.

Limitations on Exclusive Rights of Authors for Library Reprography : A Comparative Examination of the Draft Revision of Korean Copyright Law with the New American Copyright Act of 1976 (저작권법에 준한 도서관봉사에 관한 연구 -미국과 한국의 저자재산권의 제한규정을 중시으로-)

  • 김향신
    • Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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    • v.11
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    • pp.69-99
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    • 1984
  • A dramatic development in the new technology of copying materials has presented us with massive problems on reconciling the conflicts between copyright owners and potential users of copyrighted materials. The adaptation to this changing condition led some countries to revise their copyright laws such as in the U. S. in 1976 and in Korea in 1984 for merging with the international or universal copyright conventions in the future. Copyright defined as exclusive rights given to copyright owners aims to secure a fair return for an author's creative labor and to stimulate artistic creativity for the general public good. The exclusive rights on copyrightable matters, generally for reproduction, preparation of derivative works, public distribution, public performance, and public display, are limited by fair use for scholarship and criticism and by library reproduction for its preservation and interlibrary loan. These limitations on the exclusive rights are concerned with all aspects of library services and cause a great burden on librarian's daily duty to provide balance between the rights of creators and the needs of library patrons. The fair use as one of the limitations on it has been coupled with enormous growth of a new technology and extended from xerography to online database systems. The implementation of the fair use and library reprography in Korean law to the local practices is examined on the basis of the new American copyright act of 1976. Under the draft revision of Korean law, librarians will face many potential problems as summarized below. 1. Because the new provision of 'life time plus 50 years' will tie up substantial bodies of material longer than the old law, until that date librarians would need permissions from the owners and should pay attention to the author's death date. 2. Because the copyright can be sold, distributed, given to the heirs, donated, as a whole or a part, librarians should chase down the heirs and other second owners. In case of a derivative work, this is a real problem. 3. Since a work has its protection from the moment of its creation, the coverage of copyrightable matter would be extended to the published or the unpublished works and librarian's work load would be heavier. Without copyright registration, no one can be certain that a work is in the public domain. Therefore, librarians will need to check with an authority. 4. For implementation of limitations on exclusive rights, fair use and library reproduction for interlibrary loan, there can be no substantial aggregate use and there can be no systematic distribution of multicopies. Therefore, librarians should not substitute reproductions for subscriptions or purchases. 5. For the interlibrary loan by photocopying, librarians should understand the procedure of royalty payment. 6. Compulsory licenses should be understood by librarians. 7. Because the draft revision of Korean law is a reciprocal treaty, librarians should take care of other countries' copyright law to protect foreign authors from Korean law. In order to solve the above problems, some suggestions are presented below. 1. That copyright clearinghouse or central agency as a centralized royalty payment mechanism be established. 2. That the Korean Library Association establish a committee on copyright. 3. That the Korean Library Association propose guidelines for each occasion, e.g. for interlibrary loan, books and periodicals and music, etc. 4. That the Korean government establish a copyright office or an official organization for copyright control other than the copyright committee already organized by the government. 5. That the Korean Library Association establish educational programs on copyright for librarians through seminars or articles written in its magazines. 6. That individual libraries provide librarian's copyright kits. 7. That school libraries distribute subject bibliographies on copyright law to teachers. However, librarians should keep in mind that limitations on exclusive rights are not for an exemption from library reprography but as a convenient access to library resources.

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Review of 2019 Major Medical Decisions (2019년 주요 의료판결 분석)

  • Yoo, Hyun Jung;Park, Noh Min;Jeong, Hye Seung;Lee, Dong Pil;Lee, Jung Sun;Park, Tae Shin
    • The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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    • v.21 no.1
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    • pp.107-152
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    • 2020
  • During the main ruling in 2019, a number of rulings that were of interest or meaningful were handed down, such as just because the complication of medical practice has occurred, there is no presumption of negligence, a case involving a fall accident in which a lot of culpability has recently been made. the death of a well-known singer that caused a sensation, a case about damages caused by MERS in 2015, which is more meaningful in connection with damages caused by COVID-19, an infectious disease that has recently hit the world, including Korea. In preaching the principles of the law, just because there has been a complication caused by medical practice, there is no presumption of negligence, 'The scope of the complication without presumption of negligence' was determined differently by the court, the court was not able to specify the criteria. Specific circumstances were presented to limit the responsibility of the medical institution while acknowledging the malpractice of the medical institution in relation to the fall accident. In relation to the scope of damages, judgment was made on issues related to the calculation of lost profits of medical malpractice; criteria for determining celebrities' daily income, criteria for determining daily income in case of receiving survivor's pension due to medical accident, an incident in which the daily income is denied if the labor capacity is already lost at the time of a medical accident. But, it seems that judgments should be made based on clearer and more reasonable standards. Related to Medical Advertise, specific logic of judgment was presented as to whether it was interpreted as being in accordance with the specific prohibition listed in Article 27 paragraph 3 of the Medical Law, which is the criterion for violation of the Medical Law, or if it constitutes a significant harm to the order of the medical market. In response to the prohibition of operating the multiple medical institutions, the Constitutional Court decided that it was constitutional because it did not violate the regulations on excessive funding, and rationally limited the scope of the prohibited 'redundant operation'. The Supreme Court ruled for the first time that even a medical institution established and operated in violation of the Medical Service Act did not make it impossible to receive all medical care benefits implemented by a medical institution under the National Health Insurance Act. Significant rulings were finalized that recognized the existence of specific protection obligations for the people of the country in the management of infectious diseases.

A Study on the Successful Case of Brand Renewal through American National Brand 'C' Company's Marketing Strategy (미국(美國) 내셔널브랜드 C사(社)의 마케팅전략(戰略)을 통한 브랜드리뉴얼 성공사례(成功事例) 연구(硏究))

  • Koh, Hee-Sook
    • Journal of Fashion Business
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    • v.6 no.1
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    • pp.137-154
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    • 2002
  • It's not easy to renew old brand of over 50 years history to the tastes of new consumer of our time. Most of national brands that has a history of some 20 years in Korea have strove for continuation and growth of brand to no avails, which can be taken as a good example of current situation. For instance, C company, one of the National brand of US which has a history of 51 years, has made its position secure as a fashion group and based itself on a sound foundation by establishing new marketing strategy and completing successful brand renewal in the process of strategic M&A with Italian company. Those successful marketing strategies are as follows. 1) they regarded both market and consumer oriented marketing activity as company's highest priority strategy and put great emphasis upon concentration on target market and reestablishment of brand image of business casual wear. 2) Setting up and operating planning team composed of merchandizer alone in Milano, they set the direction of plan on the basis of concentrated research on potential item in market according to thorough market research done by buying office in Korea, branch office in Hong Kong and buyer in US prior to blueprint planning for season. 3) Great emphasis was placed on business which focused on intensive presentation of basic key item for apparel career women who are main consumer group in the midium-low prices market in US and on supplementation of size and color. they named this line 'collectibles' and helped their customer develop their own clothes plan without worrying about the change of color and fabric by supporting same fabric and color throughout the year and enabled them to add variation easily by supplementing new trend item. 4) Company set black as a main color that lots of apparel career women find easy to care and to express their own image and presented them with pebble which belongs to navy and beige and added fashion color such as wine and brown etc as season goes by. They constructed basic line in order for their customers to coordinate purchased item with new one or to add them to present collection, and to achieve efficient sale by setting up strategy which allows this cross coordination and changing pattern occasionally. 5) Though basic jacket for 99$, short slim skirt for 49$ are products within midium-low prices range, in the material planning stage aiming at production of item that has both resonable function appealing to consumer and is fashionable, synthetic material had to be used as a main source due to price competitiveness. Despite this situation, considering comfortable sense of fit and refined drape of silhouette that has no sign of cheap material, whole collectible line was divided into two items, which contributed to reduction of cost. In case of material that is composed of triacetate and polyester in 70 to 30 ratio, was used up to 4 million yard, which allowed drastic curtailment of cost accompanied by concentration. In case of 'collectibles' line, using Korean material mainly, C company chose to have their product sewed in Southeast Asian countries where transportation is well developed and both productivity and quality verified by operating global production system which aiming at cutdown of cost through outsourcing production from the country where labor cost is low and getting finished product. Polarization between present consumers telling us that consumers with the mind of middle classes in the past no longer exists between consumers who seek after only fine article of highest quality and wise consumers who are sensible enough to judge bubble on correlation between price and quality. To cope with this change in new consumer mind, apparel makes changing their policy so as to produce item that has reasonable quality and falls within affordable price range anywhere in the world. and they're striving to get out of difficult situation by operating global marketing strategy which stresses separation of planning, production and sale and sensibility of fashion shared worldwide. The marketing strategy of C company can be exemplified as a successful one.

The Effects of Female Wage on Fertility in Korea (여성의 임금수준이 출산율에 미치는 영향 분석)

  • Kim, Jungho
    • KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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    • v.31 no.1
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    • pp.105-138
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    • 2009
  • Although the decline in fertility rate is generally observed along the history of economic development throughout the world, the continuing decline hitting below the replacement level in Korea over the recent years gathered serious social concerns on the ground that it accelerates the process of population aging. The total fertility rate in Koreareached 2.08 in 1983, and gradually fell to the levels of 1.08 in 2005 and 1.26 in 2007. The policy debate over the role of the government has been focused mainly on the level of theoretical discussion without substantial basis on firm empirical evidence and the determinants of fertility. The objective of the paper is to empirically investigate the fertility effect of the female wage, which is understood as one of the most important determinants of fertility in Koreasince 1980 focusing on one aspect of fertility, namely birth spacing. Using the Korean National Fertility Survey conducted in 2006, I estimate a duration model of first and second births taking into account individual heterogeneity, which turned out to be an important factor to control for. Compared with previous studies in the literature on the Korean fertility, the study has an advantage of using the complete pregnancy history of women in a more representative sample. Unlike the previous studies, the analysis also deals with the endogeneity of marriage by treating a certain age, rather than age at marriage, as the time in which a woman becomes exposed to the risk of pregnancy. The study shares the common problem in the literature on birth spacing of lacking relevant wage information for respondents in a retrospective survey. I estimate the wage series as a function of the basic characteristics using the annual Wage Structure Survey from 1980 to 2005, which is considered as a nationally representative sample for wage information of employees. The results suggest that the increase in female wage by 10 percent leads to a decrease in second birth hazard by 0.56~0.92 percentage points and that the increase in spouse's wage by the equal amount is accompanied by the increase in second birth hazard by 0.36~1.13 percentage points. These estimates are more precisely estimated and of smaller magnitude than those presented by the previous studies. The results are robust to the different specifications of the wage equation. The simulation analysis based on the predicted values shows that about 17% of the change in the second birth hazard over the period 1980 to 2005 was due to the change in the female wage. Although there is some limitation in data, the results can be viewed as one estimate of the role of female wage on the recent fertility decline in Korea. The question raised by the paper is not a normative one of whether a government should promote childbearing but a positive one thatexplains fertility decline. Therefore, if there is a wide consensus on promoting childbearing, the finding suggests that the policies designed to reduce the opportunity cost of women in the labor market would be effective. The recent movement of implementing a wide range of family-friendly policies including child care support, maternity leave, parental leave and tax benefit in developed countries should be understood in this context.

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The Change in Quality of the Labor Force and Its Effect on the Economic Growth of Korea (한국 노동력의 질적향상이 경제발전에 미치는 영향)

  • Song, Wi-sup
    • Korea journal of population studies
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.159-184
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    • 1988
  • Race and ethnicity are important factors which influence the elderIy's residential adjustment behaviors, although it is unclear whether this reflects influences unrelated to race and ethnlcity. Culturally, the norm of family supportoften obseved among various minority ethnic groups is likely to provide flexible family suppof for the elderIy. Economically, the life-long hardship ofminority groups is likely to force them to maintain extended family living arrangements simply to reduce expenses via economies of scale. Thecontroversy about the economic need versus the cultural prescription forextended living arrangements remains unresoIved because it fails to articulatethe meaning of family supports among many disadvantaged groups.This study aims to test previous economic and cultural arguments, byexamining ethnic differences iu the eiderIy's responsiveness to their health andeconomic problems. Two hypotheses about cultural influences on the elderly's resideutiai adjustment are examined. First, do elderly minorities receive famiiysupporis for longer periods when they are poor if economic and health status\ulcorner Second, do elderiy minorities receive family supports more often when their health status declines\ulcorner Using the Longitudinal Suvey on Aging from 1984 to 1990. this study employs Markovian multi-state life tables, and discrete and contonuous competing hazard analyses for the transition in living arrangements. The main results provide substantial evidence against the cultural resource thesis. Elderly minorities experience more frequent transition between living alone and living with relatives than white elderly persons when group differences in the extent of mortality and insititutionalization are controlled. The shorter timf of living alone among elderly monorities stems from their greater likehood of joining relatives as well as greater mortality and attrition rates than elderly whites. Coresidence of elderly whites with their relatives is more likely to occur in response to their needs for health care than of elderly whites. it implies that instability. not flezibility. characterrizes elderly minorities living arrangements.

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Is Fertility Rate Proportional to the Quality of Life? An Exploratory Analysis of the Relationship between Better Life Index (BLI) and Fertility Rate in OECD Countries (출산율은 삶의 질과 비례하는가? OECD 국가의 삶의 질 요인과 출산율의 관계에 관한 추이분석)

  • Kim, KyungHee;Ryu, SeoungHo;Chung, HeeTae;Gim, HyeYeong;Park, HeongJoon
    • International Area Studies Review
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.215-235
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    • 2018
  • Policy concerns related to raising fertility rates are not only common interests among the OECD countries, but they are also issues of great concern to South Korea whose fertility rate is the lowest in the world. The fertility rate in South Korea continues to decline, even though most of the national budget has been spent on measures to address this and many studies have been conducted on the increase in the fertility rates. In this regard, this study aims to verify the effectiveness of the detailed factors affecting the fertility rate that have been discussed in the previous studies on fertility rates, and to investigate the overall trend toward enhancing the quality of life and increasing the fertility rate through macroscopic and structural studies under the recognition of problems related to the policy approaches through the case studies of the European countries. Toward this end, this study investigated if a high quality of life in advanced countries contributes to the increase in the fertility rate, which country serves as a state model that has a high quality of life and a high fertility rate, and what kind of social and policy environment does the country have with regard to childbirth. The analysis of the OECD Better Life Index (BLI) and CIA fertility rate data showed that the countries whose people enjoy a high quality of life do not necessarily have high fertility rates. In addition, under the recognition that a country with a high quality of life and a high birth rate serves as a state model that South Korea should aim for, the social characteristics of Iceland, Ireland, and New Zealand, which turned out to have both a high quality of life and a high fertility rate, were compared with those of Germany, which showed a high quality of life but a low fertility rate. According to the comparison results, the three countries that were mentioned showed higher awareness of gender equality; therefore, the gender wage gap was small. It was also confirmed that the governments of these countries support various policies that promote both parents sharing the care of their children. In Germany, on the other hand, the gender wage gap was large and the fertility rate was low. In a related move, however, the German government has made active efforts to a paradigm shift toward gender equality. The fertility rate increases when the synergy lies in the relationship between parents and children; therefore, awareness about gender equality should be firmly established both at home and in the labor market. For this reason, the government is required to provide support for the childbirth and rearing environment through appropriate family policies, and exert greater efforts to enhance the effectiveness of the relevant systems rather than simply promoting a system construction. Furthermore, it is necessary to help people in making their own childbearing decisions during the process of creating a better society by changing the national goal from 'raising the fertility rate' to 'creating a healthy society made of happy families'