• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.68 no.2
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• pp.107-130
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• 2016

This study is aimed at the exploratory research on the influence of the obligation of extension of the retirement age on the baby boom generation. The basic question of this study is about which of the baby boom generation can get how much benefit according as the extension of the retirement age becomes compulsory. The extension of the retirement age is the system that can be applied to regular full-time workers. Accordingly, this study is intending to analyze the characteristics of the workers having a high likelihood for benefits from extension of the retirement age by tracing the economic activity state and labor history of the baby boomers. For this purpose, this study looked into the change of the economic activity state by age cohort of the male baby boomers based on the data for the Korea Labor Panel's 4th(2001) & 17th(2014)year. Using Survival analysis, this study also analyzed who will continue to remain as a regular full-time wage earner. As the result of the analysis, it was found that the more the cohort ages of baby boomers increased, the smaller the probability of remaining as a regular full-time wage earner, and the group who can get benefits from extension of the retirement age was predicted to account for only 11.4% level among the baby boomers. In addition, the result showed that there was a high likelihood of getting more benefits from extension of the retirement age when the baby boomers worked for the government-invested institution, corporate bodies, and government organizations rather than working for private enterprises. Thus, it can be safely said that there might appear a generational conflict due to extension of the retirement age in that such jobs coincide with the ones favored by the rising generation.

• 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.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.27-45
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• 1990

Two opposing views prevail regarding the economic impact of rural out-migration on the rural areas of origin. The optimistic neoclassical view argues that rapid rural out-migration is not detrimental to the income and welfare of the rural areas of origin, whereas Lipton (1980) argues the opposite. We developed our own alternative model for rural to urban migration, appropriate for rapidly developing economies such as Korea's. This model, which adopts international trade theories of nontraded goods and Dutch Disease to rural to urban migration issues, argues that rural to urban migration is caused mainly by two factors: first, the unprofitability of farming, and second, the decrease in demand for rural nontraded goods and the increase in demand for urban nontraded goods. The unprofitability of farming is caused by the increase in rural wages, which is induced by increasing urban wages in booming urban manufacturing sectors, and by the fact that the cost increases in farming cannot be shifted to consumers, because farm prices are fixed worldwide and because the income demand elasticity for farm products is very low. The demand for nontraded goods decreases in rural and increases in urban areas because population density and income in urban areas increase sharply, while those in rural areas decrease sharply, due to rapid rural to urban migration. Given that the market structure for nontraded goods-namely, service sectors including educational and health facilities-is mostly in monopolistically competitive, and that the demand for nontraded goods comes only from local sources, the urban service sector enjoys economies of scale, and can thus offer services at cheaper prices and in greater variety, whereas the rural service sector cannot enjoy the advantages offered by scale economies. Our view concerning the economic impact of rural to urban migration on rural areas of origin agrees with Lipton's pessimistic view that rural out-migration is detrimental to the income and welfare of rural areas. However, our reasons for the reduction of rural income are different from those in Lipton's model. Lipton argued that rural income and welfare deteriorate mainly because of a shortage of human capital, younger workers and talent resulting from selective rural out-migration. Instead, we believe that rural income declines, first, because a rapid rural-urban migration creates a further shortage of farm labor supplies and increases rural wages, and thus reduces further the profitability of farming and, second, because a rapid rural-urban migration causes a further decline of the rural service sectors. Empirical tests of our major hypotheses using Korean census data from 1966, 1970, 1975, 1980 and 1985 support our own model much more than the neoclassical or Lipton's models. A kun (county) with a large out-migration had a smaller proportion of younger working aged people in the population, and a smaller proportion of highly educated workers. But the productivity of farm workers, measured in terms of fall crops (rice) purchased by the government per farmer or per hectare of irrigated land, did not decline despite the loss of these youths and of human capital. The kun having had a large out-migration had a larger proportion of the population in the farm sector and a smaller proportion in the service sector. The kun having had a large out-migration also had a lower income measured in terms of the proportion of households receiving welfare payments or the amount of provincial taxes paid per household. The lower incomes of these kuns might explain why the kuns that experienced a large out-migration had difficulty in mechanizing farming. Our policy suggestions based on the tests of the currently prevailing hypotheses are as follows: 1) The main cause of farming difficulties is not a lack of human capital, but the in­crease in production costs due to rural wage increases combined with depressed farm output prices. Therefore, a more effective way of helping farm economies is by increasing farm output prices. However, we are not sure whether an increase in farm output prices is desirable in terms of efficiency. 2) It might be worthwhile to attempt to increase the size of farmland holdings per farm household so that the mechanization of farming can be achieved more easily. 3) A kun with large out-migration suffers a deterioration in income and welfare. Therefore, the government should provide a form of subsidization similar to the adjustment assistance provided for international trade. This assistance should not be related to the level of farm output. Otherwise, there is a possibility that we might encourage farm production which would not be profitable in the absence of subsidies. 4) Government intervention in agricultural research and its dissemination, and large-scale social overhead projects in rural areas, carried out by the Korean government, might be desirable from both efficiency and equity points of view. Government interventions in research are justified because of the problems associated with the appropriation of knowledge, and government actions on large-scale projects are justified because they required collective action.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.101-130
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• 2012

This study examines mortality change in North Korea and its association with state production and welfare systems. Two main subjects are analyzed. The first theme is to examine the reliability of mortality related data released by North Korea government authorities. Examining inner consistencies among mortality related statistics and comparing with mortality trends in other socialist societies, the study finds that mortality rate was under estimated. Under-estimation of mortality by North Korean authorities is regarded to result not only from political purpose which aims to propagate the regime's superiority but also from enumeration errors of vital statistics based on the residence registration. The second theme is to estimate the change in mortality of North Korean people since the establishment of DPRK, correcting errors of mortality data. Mortality of North Korean people is estimated to have improved largely by the early 1970s, to have been sluggish hereafter, and finally to have increased during the economic hardship period between 1993 and 2008. While large people died during the food crisis in the late 1990s, however the population loss caused by mortality increase was not so great as the proposition of the huge starvation was expected. It is partly because population turbulence occurred not just by mortality increase, rather it has progressed in the joint effects of fertility decline and exodus of North Korean people for food. It is also due to North Korean people's voluntary activities of informal economy. It is also worth noting the high mortality rate of North Korean men. The high mortality of North Korean men is likely due to men's mobilization for long time in army and labor with high risk of accident and their life styles.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.1-32
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• 2005

The optimum population of a society or country can be defined as 'the population growth path that maximizes the welfare level of the society over the whole generations of both the present and the future, under the paths allowed by its endowments of production factors such as technology, capital and labor'. Thus, the optimum size or growth rate of population depends on: (i) the social welfare function, (ii) the production function, and (iii)demographic economic interrelationship which defines how the national income is disposed into consumption(birth and education of children included) and savings on the one hand and how the demographic and economic change induced thereby, in turn, affect production capacities on the other. The optimum population growth path can, then, be derived in the process of dynamic optimization of (i) under the constraints of (ii) and (iii), which will give us the optimum population growth rate defined as a function of parameters thereof. This paper estimates the optimum population growth rate of Korea by: specifying (i), (ii), and (iii) based on the recent development of economic theories, solving the dynamic optimization problem and inserting empirical estimates in Korea as the parametric values. The result shows that the optimum path of population growth in Korea is around TFR=1.81, which is affected most sensitively, in terms of the size of the partial elasticity around the optimum path, by the cost of children, share of capital income, consumption rate, time preference, population elasticity of utility function, etc. According to a survey implemented as a follow up study, there are quite a significant variations in the perceived cost of children, time preference rate, population elasticity of utility across different socio-economic classes in Korea, which implied that, compared to their counterparts, older generation and more highly educated classes prefer higher growth path for the population of Korea.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.181-198
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• 1997

Going beyond the previous formulations of development theories, the present paper explores the effects other than political economy on quality of life in a rapidly developing country. The major analysis takes up the historical trend and nature of the developmental transformation that is partially a consequences of state structures and partially autonomous form it in South Korea. Also, it diagnoses developmental pathways for the future track by constructing a baseline model for state transition on the basis of power game between the state and civil society in the country. The results of the historical analysis show that civil society has been transformed in the course of confrontations and interactions between the state and nationalist social movement. The distinction between developmental(or bureaucratic authoritarian) and democratic state is presented to show that these are two qualitatively different aspects of state of state power, requiring separate analytical treatment. Furthermore, the state-centric approach which emphasizes the active role of the state at the sacrifice of societal fabric-constraining social conditions for quality of life - appears to be modified. On the contrary, the impact of civil society is transmitted both directly and indirectly via labor and ecological movement for quality of life, which is critical to the formation of the welfare state in the country. The prospect for sustainable development in Korea lies in providng and expanding quality of life in terms of the financial feasibility of the state through the public-private cooperation, and abstaining from drastic and radical commitment to welfare services as is the case with the European declines in welfare state, Further studies are needed to examine the interrelationships in different historical and cultural settings of developing counties to estimate a theory of quality of life and social justice.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.70-86
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• 1987

Going beyond the previous formulations of development theories, the present paper explores the effects other than political economy on quality of life in a rapidly developing country. The major analysis takes up the historical trend and nature of the developmental transformation that is partially a consequences of state structures and partially autonomous form it in South Korea. Also, it diagnoses developmental pathways for the future track by constructing a baseline model for state transition on the basis of power game between the state and civil society in the country. The results of the historical analysis show that civil society has been transformed in the course of confrontations and interactions between the state and nationalist social movement. The distinction between developmental(or bureaucratic authoritarian) and democratic state is presented to show that these are two qualitatively different aspects of state of state power, requiring separate analytical treatment. Furthermore, the state-centric approach which emphasizes the active role of the state at the sacrifice of societal fabric-constraining social conditions for quality of life - appears to be modified. On the contrary, the impact of civil society is transmitted both directly and indirectly via labor and ecological movement for quality of life, which is critical to the formation of the welfare state in the country. The prospect for sustainable development in Korea lies in providng and expanding quality of life in terms of the financial feasibility of the state through the public-private cooperation, and abstaining from drastic and radical commitment to welfare services as is the case with the European declines in welfare state, Further studies are needed to examine the interrelationships in different historical and cultural settings of developing counties to estimate a theory of quality of life and social justice.

• Korean Journal of Child Education & Care
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.39-50
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• 2018

Objective: Social attention is paid to the issues concerning child care teachers' work multisibility and ambiguous legal status. Child care teachers are employees based on the "Labor Standards Act" and the "Child Care Act". They also play the role of kindergarten teachers based on the "Childhood Education Act" because of the Nuri curriculum. Based on the main tasks of the child care teachers who protect and nurture infants and toddlers, the Nuri curriculum education for infants is conducted. However, the duties and rights of child care teachers are disproportionate because there are many areas where teachers' professional roles do not suit their legal rights. Methods: The purpose of this study is to investigate how teachers perceive their own rights through field experience using qualitative method based on interpretative epistemology. Participants were 61 child care teachers working in the metropolitan area and used protocol description and focus group interview (FGI) for data collection. The collected data were derived as a central theme according to the data analysis method proposed by Creswell (2013). Results: Participants in the study described the 'Right and autonomy of education as a professional occupation', 'Right to request for improvement on working conditions, guarantee of living and to request for welfare system' and 'Right to guarantee of a teacher's status and adjustment of grievance.' They pointed out poor working conditions and welfare benefits at daycare centers, and emphasized that education and autonomy are necessary conditions to be strengthened for quality child care activities. On the other hand, they did not realize that 'Right to guarantee of a teacher's status and adjustment of grievance' was their right. And they have endured the infringement of this right. Conclusion/Implications: This study reveals the gap between teachers' responsibilities and rights, indicating the urgency of institutional arrangements. It is discussed that the social expectation for strengthening personality and professionalism as an infant and child specialist is increased and a practical alternative for the improvement of the right of teachers working in the child care field is needed considering the change of values about work.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.87-94
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• 1992

From December 1991 to March 1992, 34 anejacuratory patients with spinal cord injury underwent 90 of electric stimulations with Seager NRH model 12. The average patient age was 43.5 years with a range of 23 to 48 years. The level of cord injury was cervical in 7, thoracic in 6, lumbar in 11, lumbosacral in 7 and conus medullaris in 3. The average number of electric stimulation per a patient was 2.65 with a range of 1 to 4. The average voltage and amplitude per a stimulation were 17.72 volts and 309. 89 mAmp with ranges of 5 to 25 volts and 50 to 500 mAmp. The total and motile sperm number were evaluated microscopically and analyzed statistically by paired t-test according to the frequency of electroejaculation, level of cord injury and voiding pattern. The results were obtained as follows. 1. An overall success rate of electroejaculation was 85.3% among 34 patients and 82.2% among 90 electric stimulations. 2. The total and motile sperm number per a stimulation were not correlated the frequency of electric stimulation, level of cord injury and voiding pattern. 3. Complications occured in 10 cases; severe low abdominal pain in 5, hypertension in 2, sweating in 1, headache in 1 and neck stiffness in 1. All the copmlications subsided spontaneously within 5 to 10 minutes after transient interruption of the electric stimulation. In summary, rectal probe electroejaculation is an accepted safe means of procuring sperm from spinal cord injury patients with ejaculatory incompetence. However very poor sperm motility was found and it was not related with the frequency of electroejaculation, level of cord injury and voiding pattern. Further investigation would be needed to conclude and to identify the reasons for impaired sperm motility.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.167-181
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• 2012

This study analyzed consumer's harsh complaining behaviors and firm's reactions toward consumers' harsh complaining behavior, and investigated the differences in the firms' reactions according to the characteristics of counselors and customer service centers. In addition, this study attempted to find a strategy and provide guidance regarding consumer's harsh complaining behaviors. The results of this study are discussed below. First, consumer's harsh complaining attitudes were expressed by crude language, violent language, threats, personal attacks, and claims of a high-ranking social position. Consumer's directive, complaining behaviors were repeated on the telephone, and threats of prosecution or disclosure to the public, exposure of habitual product returns, and requests for interviews with superiorsat the representative firm were made. Second, a firm typologies according to its reaction style toward a consumer's harsh complaining behaviors were as follows: Group 1, having a neutral attitude toward consumers and preparation thoroughly regarding their demands; Group 2, having a negative attitude toward consumers and some degree of preparation toward consumers' demands; and finally, Group 3, having a positive attitude toward consumers but offering insufficient reparation regarding consumers' demands. Third, female counselors, counselors having a certified counselor's license, and those much experience working in labor work were more likely to be in Group 3. Male counselors, part-time counselors, and those having experience of many years were more likely to be in Group 2. Group 1 were more likely to have large number of workers at customer service centers, male counselors, and to have large numbers of educational training programs related to the reactions of consumers in the form of dissatisfaction, complaints, how to offer compensation for injuries to consumers, and issues related to PL(product liability). In addition, Group 1 also had more firm level welfare policies related to hight stress levels of consumer counselors and extra types of support regarding harsh consumers. However, Group 2 members were more likely to provide excessive compensation and rewards to harsh consumers. Finally, to react to consumer's harsh complaint efficiently, it was suggested that firms should not treat consumers as harsh consumers, should react to consumers' complaints sincerely, and should take precautionary management efforts as regards consumer dissatisfaction based on better quality control of products. In addition, it was deemed necessary to formulate a management strategy to train competent consumer counselors with a high quality of counselor skill, having standardized and consistent reaction guidance toward consumer complaints and thorough knowledge of compensation rules for consumer injuries and subsequent guidance.