KJC Korea
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This article critically reviews the arguments that deny the financial feasbility and effectiveness of universal basic income as an alternative to existing social security systems and makes some suggestions to design effective and efficient basic income schemes. Regarding the financial feasibility of universal basic income, I argue that replacement of the existing regressive tax expenditures with universal basic income without raising tax rates can effectively reduce tax burden or provide income support to a majority of people except the rich. Addition of basic income to the tax base and reduction of the number of beneficiaries of public assistance and the amount of cash payment for them can further help save money. Regarding the redistributive effect, I note that the targeting ability of the existing social security systems is not good and that “the paradox of redistribution” that universal-type programs tend to be more redistributive than selective programs applies to universal basic income as well. I demonstrate significant redistributive effect of a hypothetical revenue-neutral basic income scheme and reviews several empirical studies done in Korea and abroad to show that basic income can be more effective in redistribution than social insurances or public assistance programs. Lastly, I emphasize the need to construct a reliable tax-benefit microsimulation model to help researchers to study redistributive effects of basic income schemes and other taxes and social policies.

Since 2016, public and political interest on basic income has been increased beyond academic interest. The recent debate on basic income has expanded on issues regarding to the concrete implementation of basic income moving further than the debate on conception of the basic income in the abstract level. This study examines major critiques of basic income which was raised from social policy area and makes a counter-argument on these critiques. Major points summarized as follows. First, the problem of jobs and social insurance exclusion is not serious enough to call for basic income. Second, existing social security systems will be crowded out by excessive financial burden if basic income is introduced. Third, policies to cultivate citizens' capacities to cope with a technological change should be given priority over basic income. This study disputes these critiques by counter arguing four points. First, it is necessary to reconstruct welfare state based on basic income, given the labor market changes, such as long-term trend of employment change, newly emerging employment of platform companies, and inconsistency of platform labor and social insurance. Second, hypothesis of crowding-out effect on social security system is just a criticism that can be applied to the basic in come initiative of the right-wing. Also, it is unable to find a logical basis or evidence of this hypothesis from the historical process of welfare state development or previous studies. Third, it is necessary to discuss how to reconfigure existing social security system and basic in come which are complementary to each other and also have consistency with labor market as a configuration, not as a matter of choosing between basic income and social security system. Fourth, de-laborization does not mean a refusal to labor but a free choice, and the basic principle of social security is not needs but right. In conclusion, in order to develop more productive debate on basic income, it requires more sophisticated discussion and criticism from the point of view of the distributive justice; the debate on the sustainability of social in surance-centered welfare states; and debates on the political realization of basic income.

The purpose of the study was to examine the difference of housing welfare outcomes between public rental housing and market rental housing. Housing welfare is defined as living at adequate, affordable housing with stability and measured as substandard housing, unaffordable housing, unstable housing. This study was based on 2016 Housing Fact Finding Survey, sampled the households which their incomes are below 120% average income of city workers. This study controlled the socio-economic characters of householders to identify the difference of housing welfare performance between public and market rental housing. The study showed the ratios of public rental housing of substandard housing and unaffordable housing are not low. But It is revealed that the achievements of housing welfare of the public rental housing are better than market rental housing and the differences between them are more consistent after controlling the socio-economic characters of householders. The problems of substandard housing, unaffordable housing and unstable housing in market rental housing are more than public rental housing. This study provides the basis that the regulation for market tenant protection should be reinforced and the policy of public housing should be expanded and improved for housing welfare.

The study aims to analyse Korean Long-Term Care Insurance system in terms of caring justice on the premise that elder care should be included in discussions and policies of care. Caring justice means an ideal of equal sharing duties and rights of care by all citizens. Four dimensions of caring justice(decommodification, defamilialization, degenderization and elderly participation and power) were established for the analysis. The results of the analysis were presented that Korean Long-Term Care Insurance system was maintained by commodificated and gendered care services attempting defamilialization with the exclusion of elderly beneficiaries, which represented typical caring injustice. Policy suggestions were made to realize caring justice: improving the status of caring labour by achieving proper service price and public employment, reorganization of life cycle based caring system integrating children, disabled adults and elders, and developing user-centered long-term care system to guarantee participation and choice of people in caring relationships.

As policy areas are widened and more complicated, policy coordination becomes a challenge to the public administration. New Labour’s promotion of the joined-up government was a holistic attempt to redress the fragmentation of the government in social policy. It promoted the joined-up activities by setting up joining-up units and agencies at the core of the government, the Prime-Minister’s Office and the Cabinet office, and between the public, private and voluntary sectors. The joined-up government was criticised as being hierarchical and fragmented, and as confusing the line of accountability. Policy coordination has growing importance in Korea, and the experiences of the joined-up government will have implications on more coordinated promotion of social policy.

This study investigates the issues in relation to the introduction of the fund-based Korean occupational pension, examining the development plans in the members’ perspective. The strong drive from Korean government to introduce the fund-based governance seems to be a sort of strategy to expand coverage in occupational pension. It is not logical that the introduction of the fund-based scheme is likely to cause increase in earning rate and, what is more important is to set the conditions to implement the active investment decision. Also, because the introduction of the fund-based scheme may increase possibility of insolvency, it is necessary to strengthen beneficiary protection or funding rule but, in the short term, it is better to focus on funding rule rather than protection scheme. The introduction of the fund-based scheme suggests the direction that members can actively participate in occupational pension, which means that it is possible to operate occupational pension in the direction of intent of the system.

The purpose of this article is to evaluate Korea's income-led growth policy that is still in dispute. To do this, I discussed the content, background and implications of the income-led growth theory. Next, I discussed the role of income-led growth as a growth strategy in the Korean economy. The income-led growth theory comes from the Keynesian tradition which emphasizes the role of demand in the economic growth. The basic idea emerged nearly 80 years ago, and the current model emerged about 30 years ago. Some of the Korean researchers began to pay attention to this issue when ILO researchers discussed it in 2010. The recent emphasis on in come-led growth theory was due to the tendency of declining labor income, thus forming a consensus that increasing inequality can hamper growth. The effectiveness of the income-led growth strategy, which can lead to economic growth by increasing the share of labor income, is theoretically and empirically controversial. However, it is understandable why income-led growth strategies have emerged. Income-led growth is not a short-term strategy nor a key of growth strategy. However, in current socio economic structures, the prescriptions of income-led growth theory is meaningful in that it enables sustainable growth by making the economic system healthy. In addition, unlike the West, the government's welfare expenditure can play a significant role as part of the income-led growth prescriptions in Korea.

In this study, we examined at what level young people perceive their level of life and the overall degree of happiness in their lives, and empirically analyzed the factors affecting them through multiple regression and ordered logit models. As a result of the analysis, young people were more aware of the degree of overall happiness than their perception of their lives. It has been confirmed that the factors affecting the young generation's perception of the level of life and the degree of happiness are different and different factors are working on each group. In addition, it has been found that the subjective factors of psychological and emotional characteristics have a greater influence than the objective factors of social and demographic characteristics at the level of awareness of life and happiness level. However, in the case of the youth group, it was found that objective factors such as job satisfaction are the determinants that have the greatest influence on life awareness and happiness. The tendency to paradoxically respond to the current level of happiness due to despair of the future has been found to be seen in some subgroups(middle income plus working group) rather than in the whole youth generation.

Anti-oppressive practice (AOP) is a form of social work practice that has developed in the UK. In South Korea, Anti-oppressive social work has not been widely studied / explored unlike in other countries in the world. Its main principles, social justice and human rights, have become commonplace. AOP includes transformational practice because its orientation emphasizes social change through celebrating diverse identities and rejecting hierarchies of oppression and prestige. Recently, a growing body of literature on social work with foreign workers has resulted in an increased understanding of its population and its needs. It needs a theoretical and practical framework for foreign workers necessary to inform effective models of service delivery, reflecting cultural competence, and changing oppressive social structure. In this paper, we will introduce the main principles of AOP, analyse written texts reflected by foreign workers and social work practitioners' opinion, and suggest the implications on possibilities and constraints of applicability to foreign workers in South Korea.

Since the introduction of the Riester Pension Scheme, the controversy has continued in the policy studies and the political debates. This study evaluates the achievements and limitations of the German Riester pension scheme and tries to derive policy implications for South Korea. As a result of the analysis, the most worthwhile achievement of the Riester Pension is to strengthen the role of the private pension schemes. Unlike other private pension schemes, it included a large part of lower income households. It also opened a new perspective of utiliz ing private pension schemes to accomplish the goals of the family policy. Despite these attain ments, it does not reach the promised coverage rate. It also was revealed that the higher in come households have concluded more Riester Pension Contracts than the targeted lower-income households. Due to high administration fee and incomplete information problems, benefit levels are supposed to be much lower than expected. It concludes, above all, despite some achievements, the Riester Pension Scheme will not fill completely the gap of old age in come security caused by the reduction of the public pension system. The German case pro vides fruitful lessons for Korea. The introduction of a subsidized personal pension scheme in South Korea can be realized only when some prerequisites would be satisfied such as the con solidation and maturing of public pension schemes and the strengthening of the transparency in the private pension market.