• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.37-51
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• 2022

This study examines the relationship between flexible work and workers' work-life balance using data from the 23rd Korean Labor and Income Panel Study, with a focus on the impact of working from home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the analysis, WFH was found to have a positive effect on the happiness of workers, satisfaction with family relationships, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction related to job security for women. In addition, we looked at the changes in time use of WFH workers and non-WFH workers before and after COVID-19, with a particular focus on aspects such as time spent sleeping and on self-development, childcare, housework, exercise, and social gatherings. Compared to non-WFH workers, WFH workers increased the time spent on housework and childcare after COVID-19, with this trend more pronounced among women. The results of this study suggest that the effect of utilizing WFH may be halved for workers who have to take care of children and work at the same time, and that this effect may be greater for women. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen social support measures so that WFH workers who face a work-life conflict due to childcare can maintain work productivity and realize a work-life balance, and to ensure that the flexible work arrangement should not be a medium that reinforces traditional gender roles. Active policy efforts will be required to make sure this happens.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.65-78
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• 1993

In this study, the significant and enduring concentration of federal R&D spending in metro-scale clusters across the nation is treated as evidence of the operation of a distinct industrial infrastructure defined by the ability of R&D performers to attract external funding and pursue the sophisticated project work demanded. It follows, then, that the agglomerative potential of these R&D concentrations -- performers and their support infrastructures -- requires a search for economic impacts guided by a different stimulative effects attributable to federal R&D spending may be that substantial subnational economic impacts are routinely obscured and diluted by research designs that seek to discover impacts either at the level of nation-scale economic aggregates or on firms or specific industries organized spatially. Therefore, this study proceeds by seeking to link the locational clustering of federal contract R&D spending to more localized economic impacts. It tests a series of models(X-IV) designed to trace federal contract R&D spending flows to economic impacts registered at the level of metro-regional economies. By shifting the focus from funding sources to recipient types and then to sector-specific impacts, the patterns of consistent results become increasingly compelling. In general, these results indicated that federal R&D spending does indeed nurture the development of an important nation-spanning advanced industrial production and R&D infrastructure anchored primarily by two dozed or so metro-regions. However, dominated as it is by a strong defense-industrial orientation, federal contract R&D spending would appear to constitute a relatively inefficient national economic development policy, at least as registered on conventional indicators. Federal contract R&D destined for the support of nondefense/civilian(Model I), nonprofit(Model II), and educational/research(Mode III) R&D agendas is associated with substantially greater regional employment and income impacts than is R&D funding disbursed by the Department of Defense. While federal R&D support from DOD(Model I) and for-profit(Model II) and industrial performer(Model III) contract R&D agendas are associated with positive regional economic impacts, they are substantially smaller than those associated with performers operating outside the defense industrial base. Moreover, evidence that the large-business sector mediates a small business sector(Model VI) justifies closer scrutiny of the relative contribution to economic growth and development made by these two sectors, as well as of the primacy typically accorded employment change as a conventional economic performance indicator. Ultimately, those regions receiving federal R&D spending have experienced measurable employment and income gains as a result. However, whether or not those gains could be improved by changing the composition -- and therefore the primary missions -- of federal R&D spending cannot be decided by merely citing evidence of its economic impacts of the kind reported here. Rather, that decision turns on a prior public choice relating to the trade-offs deemed acceptable between conventional employment and income gains, the strength of a nation's industrial base not reflected in such indicators, and the reigning conception of what constitutes national security -- military might or a competitive civilian economy.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.131-170
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• 2008

Korea's public assistance system, represented by NBLS(National Basic livelihood Security), has disclosed critical problems despite the rapid increase in its budget, such as decreasing work incentive and deepening welfare trap. These typical problems of classical welfare system have been commonly witnessed in many other advanced countries. Therefore a number of efforts have been exerted to correct these problems by transferring the existing welfare system into a welfare-to-work(or workfare) system, and the most common one of such efforts is introducing the EITC(Earned Income Tax Credit)-type programs. They have already been implemented in many countries such as the USA, the UK and France, also Korean government decided to launch EITC program in 2009. This paper aims to propose some measures to improve Korean EITC program. For this, an optimization problem is constructed from the government's viewpoint. Optimal EITC program is defined to be a solution to the problem - a combination of phase-in rate, phase-out rate, and maximum credit that maximizes labor supply increase under a exogenously given budget constraint. Using a mechanism design analysis, we derive and characterize the optimal EITC program. Analysis results implies that Korean EITC structure needs to be modified so that phase-in rate is larger than phase-out rate and the upper limit of phase-out range becomes larger. Comparative static analysis results show that the feature of the optimal EITC program is sensitive to the change of income distribution, suggesting that if beneficiaries are categorized into different income groups, then it is desirable to apply distinctive EITC programs to each group.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2009

Objectives: This study was conducted to estimate the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) using EuroQoL-5 Dimension (EQ-5D) and to identify its related factors among urban-dwelling adults. Methods: The data for this study were obtained from 1,134 subjects aged $20\sim91$, who participated in 'Survey on the health status and demand for health' in two cities of Korea (Dong-gu, Gwangju and Suncheon-si, Jeollanamdo). The HRQOL was measured using the EQ-5D instrument and EQ-5D index scores were calculated by two Korean valuation study model using time trade-off method. Results: The mean EQ-5D index scores for all subjects were $0.865{\pm}0.218$ (model A), and $0.921{\pm}0.170$ (model B). The EQ-5D index score was significantly different according to demographic and socioeconomic characteristics (gender, age, marital status, education, occupation, income, and health security system), self-rated health condition, health-related psychological assessments (enough sleep, fatigue rate, stress rate, and degree of satisfaction on the residence). The results of multiple linear regression showed that age, marital status, income, coverage of medical insurance, self-rated health condition, and fatigue rate were significantly related common statistical factors of HRQOL in two Korean valuation study model. Conclusion: Among the adults residing in urban environment, the HRQOL was significantly lower on the subjects with following conditions: higher age, being alone without a spouse as a result of death, divorce or separation, low income, medical aid program, poor self-rated health condition, and chronic fatigue. In order to improve the urban adults' quality of life, healthcare policy and health promotion program must be developed with considerations to factors related to the HRQOL.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.87-95
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• 2016

Housing benefits service that was implemented according to the National Basic Livelihood Security Act in 2002 has been changed with the enactment of "Housing benefits Law"(2014.1.24). Though the service was conducted for 13 years to improve the living environment of recipient households and create self-supporting jobs for low-income, there was a limit to ensure the efficiency due to variations in the administrative act and implementation in local governments. For that reason, the sales account and the profits of self-supporting enterprises and their cooperative in housing welfare sector that played a pivotal role had gone through many ups and downs and that is why the national coalition of self-supporting enterprises that were newly formed are forced to take self-effort and play a leading role for the improvement of future beneficiaries' satisfaction, namely to develop the level of service to keep the decent jobs consistent for low-income while responding institutional policy change and the demands for improving the home-amelioration system. Accordingly, this article has attempted to supplement existing research on housing-benefits service and determine how the field can keep pace with the new institutional environment. As a result, first, Central self-supporting enterprises provide high specialized-quality services to low-income families, second, central self-supporting enterprises induce to transition customized service agencies for improving the quality of residential housing benefits, Third, Housing self-supporting enterprises should correspondence with institutional change through the provision of explicit guidelines in relating to housing-service amelioration, the last, business practical process shall be accompanied by a consistent basis for innovative and procedural standards.

• 한국노년학
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.759-776
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• 2012

This study analysed the income-related health inequality of the aged in Korea applied to EQ-5D. Two decompositions were used in analysis. One was the decomposition of income-related health inequality into six different dimensions of EQ-5D, and the other was to decompose it by sub-group such as sex, region, existence of spouse. The results are summarized as follows. First, the health concentration index(CI) of the aged was .0254, which meant that there were pro-rich inequality in elderly people's health levels. The same patterns were also seen in the analysis of different dimensions of EQ-5D such as mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression. Second, mobility accounted for 35.8% of total EQ-5D score, most contributing to CI of the dimensions of EQ-5D. The CIs by the dimensions ranged from .0091 for mobility to .0013 for self-care. Third, The decompositions by sub-groups showed that the contributions of sex, region, and existence of spouse to health inequality was similar to each other, all of three sub-groups accounted for 10 % of inequality respectively. Fourth, the inequality within group was higher in female group, rural area, and the aged without spouse. The average health level of these groups was lower than that of the other ones, too. These facts indicated that old women, the aged without spouse, and the elderly in rural area were the most vulnerable groups in health problems. Therefore, it is necessary to pay more attention to health problems of these groups in the policy making of health security and social welfare services.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.23-43
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• 2004

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of New Deal under the New Labour government in Britain and examines the nature of New Deal with respect to workfare. The time difference of five years after the New Deal was put into effect shows that New Deal has contributed not only to include the socially excluded groups such as the young unemployed, the long-term unemployed, single parents, and the disabled into the labour market, but also to decrease the amount of income-based benefits providing for working generation. It can be said that the nature of New Deal under the New Labour is near to human capital development model rather than labour force attachment model. New Deal provides the opportunity of policy learning for the countries which pursue the reform of social security system to moving welfare beneficiaries being able to work into jobs. Policy learning can be summed up as follows. First, imposing mutual responsibility and obligations on unemployed person should be accompanied by implementing active labour market programmes of education and job training. Second, the delivery system which administrates workfare programmes should be decentralized in a local society. The cooperation between local government and enterprisers will be critical in implementing various employment programmes and moving unemployed person into jobs. Third, the case management for individual participating in workfare programme is necessary. The personal adviser should continue to provide employment services for the unemployed until he or she get a job and enter the state of self-reliance. Finally, the workfare programme should be firmly backed by the political leadership in order to overcome the oppositions of beneficiary groups under the existing social security system.

• Strategy21
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• s.37
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• pp.104-143
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• 2015

China's new grand strategy, the "One Belt, One Road Initiative" (also Belt Road Initiative, or BRI) has two primary components: Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the "Silk Road Economic Belt" in September 2013 during a visit to Kazakhstan, and the "21^st Century Maritime Silk Route Economic Belt" in a speech to the Indonesian parliament the following month. The BRI is intended to supply China with energy and new markets, and also to integrate the countries of Central Asia, the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN), and the Indian Ocean Region - though not Northeast Asia - into the "Chinese Dream". The project will be supported by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), due to open in 2016 with 57 founding members from all around the world, and China has already promised US$ 50 billion in seed funding. China's vision includes networks of energy pipelines, railways, sea port facilities and logistics hubs; these will have obvious commercial benefits, but also huge geopolitical significance. China seems to have two distinct aims: externally, to restore its historical sphere of influence; and internally, to cope with income inequalities by creating middle-class jobs through enhanced trade and the broader development of its economy. In South Korea, opinion on the BRI is sharply polarized. Economic and industrial interests, including Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL), support South Korean involvement in the BRI and closer economic interactions with China. They see how the BRI fits nicely with President Park Geun-hye's Eurasia Initiative, and anticipate significant commercial benefits for South Korea from better connections to energy-rich Russia and the consumer markets of Europe and Central Asia. They welcome the prospect of reduced trade barriers between China and South Korea, and of improved transport infrastructure, and perceive the political risks as manageable. But some ardently pro-US pundits worry that the political risks of the BRI are too high. They cast doubt on the feasibility of implementing the BRI, and warn that although it has been portrayed primarily in economic terms, it actually reveals a crucial Chinese geopolitical strategy. They are fearful of China's growing regional dominance, and worried that the BRI is ultimately a means to supplant the prevailing US-led regional security structure and restore the Middle Kingdom order, with China as the only power that matters in the region. According to this view, once China has complete control of the regional logistics hubs and sea ports, this will severely limit the autonomy of China's neighbors, including South Korea, who will have to toe the Chinese line, both economically and politically, or risk their own peace and prosperity.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.135-168
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• 2006

This study reviewed pension reform's overall characteristic and(anticipated) positive negative effect in OECD countries's and then analysed middle-old age's retirement transition and determinants of full/gradual retirement through the $3{\sim}7th$ Korea Labor and Income Panel considering that Korea has been aging society quickly and it is necessary to suggest not only solution of early retirement and working age reduction but also pension reform. As a result of this study, about 1/4 of 50 years and older have been continuing to work through various pathways after retirement and 98% among fully retired older who passed by re-employment step of occupational status including retirement are still searching for jobs. This showed that it is also inappropriate to typical retirement concept itself on the lines of labour market participation in Korea and part-time/temporary work or self-employment have been used by means of alternatives of maintaining works for middle-old ages. However, the duration of changed occupational status of gradual retirees is mostly only $1{\sim}2$ years. Therefore it is necessary to support the gradual retirement to minimize a term of income insecurity and promote the work of the old ages who have will and capacity of work. Most of all, partial pension system which is main program of gradual retirement, should make the rules that beneficiaries are those who age less than pensionable age and benefit levels should be actuarial fairness together with pension system and provide substantial help. But, the introduction of partial pension system is not the only way to solve and needs overall social economic approach. Especially guarantee the increase of quantitative qualitative employment for middle-old ages linking labor market policy and supporting gradual retirement not ought to be abused to force the part time works and early retirement route against their own will.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.225-232
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• 2017

This study aimed to identify worker groups that are to accidents and to track the changes in their socioeconomic status there after. We analyzed the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) database(2001-2006) were recorded according to the participant's economic activity status at the beginning of follow-up, and economic activity status was. During the follow-up period, the unemployed group experienced more accidents that resulted in disability than the economically active group. Interestingly, the unemployed group also had the highest industrial accident rate. Among the employed, daily and unpaid family workers were more vulnerable to disabilities. After the accidents, the participants tended to become economically inactive or unemployed. Compared to other worker groups, the economically inactive, unemployed, and daily and unpaid family workers experienced higher rates of accidents and faced graver conditions as a result. Although they constitute a significantly large part of society, these vulnerable workers are not currently covered by any social security measures, such as accident surveillance, training, and accident insurance. Social policy should therefore be directed toward protecting these vulnerable worker groups.