• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.1-44
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• 2018

This paper studies the macroeconomic effects of an enhancement in unemployment benefits in Korea. In particular, I quantify the welfare effect of two specific policy chances which have been mainly discussed among policymakers in recent years: increasing wage replacement rates by 10%p and extending maximum benefit durations by one month. To this end, I build and calibrate an overlapping generation model which reflects the heterogeneity of the unemployed and the specificity of the unemployment insurance (UI) system in Korea. The quantitative analysis conducted here shows that extending maximum benefit durations by one month improves social welfare, whereas increasing wage replacement rates by 10%p deteriorates social welfare. Extending maximum benefit durations is applied to potentially all the UI recipients, including unemployed workers whose wage before job loss is relatively low and whose marginal utility is relatively high. However, increasing wage replacement rates is applied to only a small number of UI recipients whose wage before job loss is relatively high, while the increase in the UI premium is passed onto all of the employed. This study suggests that given the current UI system and economic environment in Korea, it is more desirable to extend maximum benefit durations rather than to increase wage replacement rates in terms of social welfare.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.53-84
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• 2010

This paper investigates the wage losses of displaced workers, using data from the Korean Labor & Income Panel Study. Previous Korean studies were only to estimate the wage losses shortly after job displacement. However, if the wage losses persist, those results seem to under-estimate the effects of displacement. Our findings show that the wage reductions are quite persistent 4 years after displacement. And much of this persistence can be explained by the lost labor market experience (lost opportunities to accumulate generalized skills) and additional job losses in the years following an initial displacement.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.29-57
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• 2008

We construct a unique panel data by using Korean Economically Active Population Survey (KEAPS) from 2003 to 2007 to estimate the returns to different types of job mobility among men. By adopting Mincer(1986)'s method, we estimate the wage change to job mobility after controlling the sample selection bias. There are four different types of job mobility that are concerned in the study: (1) voluntary job-to-job changes without experiencing unemployment, (2) voluntary job changes with experiencing unemployment, (3) involuntary job changes due to layoffs, and (4) involuntary job changes due to discharges. Our findings indicate that Korean men who changed jobs without experiencing unemployment realized wage gains of 7% while those who changed jobs through unemployment period lost 10% of their wages. Among those who changed jobs involuntarily and went through unemployment, the workers who discharged from the previous jobs realized substantially greater wage loss.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.301-335
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• 2014

In this paper, we consider a small open economy under the New Keynesian model with unemployment of Gal$\acute{i}$ (2011a, b) to discuss the design of the monetary policy. Our findings can be summarized in three parts. First, even with the existence of unemployment, the optimal policy is to minimize variance of domestic price inflation, wage inflation, and the output gap when both domestic price and wage are sticky. Second, stabilizing unemployment rate is important in reducing the welfare loss incurred by both technology and labor supply shocks. Therefore, introducing the unemployment rate as an another argument into the Taylor-rule type interest rate rule will be welfare-enhancing. Lastly, controlling CPI inflation is the best option when the policy is not allowed to respond to unemployment rate. Once the unemployment rate is controlled, however, stabilizing power of CPI inflation-based Taylor rule is diminished.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.39-48
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to understand how changes in income due to the COVID-19 pandemic have affected the health behavior and mental health status of self-employed individuals. Methods: We compared the health behavior and mental health status of regular wage workers and self-employed individuals with no change in income, with that of self-employed individuals with reduced income due to the spread of COVID-19. Results: Smoking status, average amount of smoking per day, changes in the amount of smoking and drinking due to COVID-19, drinking frequency per year, monthly binge drinking experiences, subjective stress, and suicidal thoughts experienced by self-employed individuals with decreased income were not only higher than those of wage workers and self-employed individuals with maintained income, but their happiness index was also lower than the latter group. Conclusion: This study suggests that the change in total household income due to COVID-19 adversely affects the health behavior and mental health status of self-employed individuals. However, COVID-19-related policies focus only on economic loss compensation, and the health behavior and mental health management for self-employed individuals is insufficient. Therefore, it is necessary to establish policies for health behavior and mental health management of self-employed individuals.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.31-58
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• 2011

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of real and monetary disturbances and economic interactions between two large countries, and to examine how wage indexation affects the transmission of real and monetary disturbances and affects the fiscal and monetary policies of a large country. A two large country model is built, and is theoretically analyzed. We conducted an empirical investigation to apply theoretical findings to the Japanese and US economic interactions in response to real and monetary disturbances originating in one or the other country. Empirical evidence on Japan-USA economic interactions shows that Japan is much more affected by the US economic policy than the USA is affected by the Japanese economic policy. The economic impacts of real and monetary disturbances on the Japanese and US economies are smaller when the Japanese and US wage indexing parameters are lower.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.32-39
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• 2022

This study analyzed the relationship between occupational accidents in the construction industry and business cycle factors. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to achieve the research purpose; additionally, time-varying parameter estimations were performed to interpret the results. The results obtained for the construction industry revealed a statistically significant relationship between occupational accidents and wage increase rate, unemployment, construction starts, and other factors. The wage increase rate plays a role in reducing occupational accidents because efforts are made to prevent accidents owing to the increase in income loss due to accidents and the demand for increased safety levels. The number of construction starts affects occupational accidents with a time lag of 1 to 2 or 4 months; therefore, it is likely to be used as a leading indicator for estimating fatal accidents in the construction industry. This study highlighted the importance of monitoring socioeconomic changes that could affect the working conditions of workers and workplaces, and production activities in the workplace for the effective prevention of occupational accidents. This study also reveals the necessity of developing a method to operate prevention projects flexibly and the seasonality of industrial characteristics, particularly those of the construction industry where the highest number of fatal occupational injuries occur.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.346-351
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• 2018

Objective: This study aims to provide information needed to determine the wages paid for replacement labor for work lost following accidents in agricultural operations. Methods: Visits and interviews were conducted with 171 farmers who experienced a loss of at least one day of work due to an agricultural workplace accident. Results: It was found that only 35.1% of the study participants hired replacement labor, and more replacement labor was hired in greenhouse and fruit workplaces than in open field work. The mean number of days of hiring replacement labor was 14.6 days, and no significant differences were found between the national average wage and the surveyed value, while female workers were paid less than their male counterparts. Conclusions: The results from this study would be of help in determining a reasonable level of compensation for lost work.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.659-666
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• 2018

The classification of the tablets recovered according to prescription changes is usually carried out manually by a number of pharmacists at the hospitals. Relatively high-wage pharmacists carry out the reclassification of the tablets, which results in a large loss of time and labor, and if the tablets are incorrectly classified, this can lead to medical accidents. In order to overcome these problems, a new automatic tablet classifying machine has been introduced. In the conventional automatic tablet classifying machine, tablets having various shapes, sizes, and colors are transferred to a classifying machine through the line feeder. Problems such as breakaway of the tablets from the line feeder, pilling of the tablets in the line feeder, and appearance contamination of the tablets occur. In this paper, we propose a system that automatically classifies the shape, size, and color of tablets through individual supply method by vacuum adsorption and image processing.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.5 no.4 s.18
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• pp.99-106
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• 2005

With labor shortage and high-wage, the construction cost is rising and the construction-business is dull, demanding the construction environment of Korea to raise profitability through major cost savings and rationalization of construction management. Therefore, in this study, to improve many problems found in calculating rebar quantity for capital expenditure programming which is considered the beginning stage of rebar work. and to improve problems such as no grasping of rebar loss due to lack of systematic management in order/purchase stage and construction management stage, a rebar information-management-system was found and preyed. The relation database was designed for the rebar information management system by analyzing work process of a rebar manufacturing plant, as the rebar information that is necessary in a rebar manufacturing plant if similar to that of a purchasing department of general construction company. The Proposed rebar information management system was implemented in two large rebar production plants. The implementation of the proposed system showed that the system increased work efficiency, reduced the management manpower, and improved the project-integrated management