2011, Vol.18, No.2

Reemployment bonuses in Korea: Policy implications from reemployment bonus experiments of the USA and Japan's reemployment bonuses

Kim, Dong-Heon , Seung Yeol Yee | 2011, 18(2) | pp.9~32 | number of Cited : 3

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A Study on Feature of Refugee Policy Between Australia, Canada, France and Germany

이병렬 , Hee-Ja Kim | 2011, 18(2) | pp.33~68 | number of Cited : 28

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A study on the women’s pension based on Modernization Perspective in Japan

오영란 | 2011, 18(2) | pp.69~99 | number of Cited : 3

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The Status of Flexi-Work Acts and The Conditions for the Successful Women's Employment Policy

이호근 | 2011, 18(2) | pp.101~141 | number of Cited : 10

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The research of this paper is on the flexi-work acts and women's employment policy. The flexi-work has been kept as the effective way to solve the problems of low women's employment rate at one side, to achieve the gender equal treatment, and the work-life-balance at the other side. Otherwise, this flexi-work(part-time, flexi-time, alternative work schedule, discretionary work, compressed work, core time work, at home work etc.), different from the positive intention and purpose, is being criticised as the bad work of low wage and precarious employment because of the characteristics of Korean labour market with the overwhelmingly discriminated non-standard work. This treatise tries to analyse the truth or falsehood of this argument. Since the early 90‘s, the various types of flexi-work and the related acts have been gradually introduced to from the international organizations like the ILO(the convention on part-time work) and EU(the directives on maternity leave, part-time work, and fixed-term contract work) to the important foreign countries(in the Netherlands,United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, USA etc.). This trend on the flexi-work and related legislations is due to the various backgrounds such as the increasing competition in the labour market, the diversification of employment types, the gender-equality oriented employment policy, and the increasing voluntary choices. The key point of legislation has been oriented to keep the balance between the introduction of flexi-work and the non-discriminated work. The alternative form may be the decent 'permanent part-time work'. In this context, this treatise is reviewing the three representative laws concerning the flexi-work such as 「Act on Equal Employment and Support for Work-Family Reconciliation」, 「Labor Standards Act」, 「Act on the Protection etc. of Fixed-term and Part-time Employees」. At the same time, the treatise reviews critically the employment practice in the Korean labour market, which shows the overwhelmingly precarious non-standard work. The key argument of this treatise is that to increase the rate of women's employment should be first completed through the working time reduction and at the same time it emphasizes several preconditions for the introduction of the positive flexi-work(the 'decent', 'non-discriminated' work, and the gender-equality and work-life-balance oriented work).

In search for a distributive user involvement in policy-making process on ageing: a case study of UK Advisory Forum on Ageing

Yunjeong Yang , 정영순 | 2011, 18(2) | pp.143~173 | number of Cited : 6

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A study on the Changing Welfare Regime in Japan during the Economic Recession: Applying the Perspective of Varieties of Capitalism

Shin Dong-Myeon | 2011, 18(2) | pp.175~208 | number of Cited : 7

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It is generally said that changes in the Japanese welfare state since the early 1990s have been made by the government's responses to an aging society, in particular the increase of public pensions and health care for the elderly. In addition to this explanation, the following article argues that the change of production regime brought about by the lasting economic recession since the early 1990s has had an effect on the welfare regime, contributing to the expansion of state welfare. Japan had drawn great praise due to the unique characteristics of its production regime, which has maintained an institutional setting composed of the following: stable industrial relations with the lifelong employment system, a financial system providing patient capital based on the relationship between the main bank and enterprises, the stakeholder's enterprise governance system, the cooperative relationship among enterprises in keiretse(large conglomerates). After the collapse of its bubble economy, however, Japan has experienced a gradual change of the production regime from a stakeholder market economy to a shareholder market economy. The ratio of financial institutions(mainly banks) and non financial institutions(mainly employees) in the ownership of shares has decreased, while the ratio of foreign investors and individual shareholders has increased. Enterprises have increased the employment of irregular workers in order to reduce labor costs and raise labour flexibility. The stable collective industrial relations have been weakened by the introduction of new personal management skills, in particular the transition from seniority based wage system to performance based wage system. The institutional changes in the Japanese production regime have led to a break of institutional complementarities between the production regime and the welfare regime that had provided comparative institutional advantages prior to the collapse of the bubble economy. Full employment based on lifelong employment as well as generous enterprise welfare, which complemented a relatively low level of state welfare, has become increasingly difficult to maintain. Japanese enterprises have significantly decreased the expenditure of voluntary enterprise welfare. They have tended to consolidate the protection of insiders-that is, regular workers- but outsiders, irregular workers, have been discriminated against in wage, enterprise welfare, and social security. Growing concerns about social security contributions paid by enterprises have made Japanese enterprises prefer to ease their social security burden and instead increase the state's burden. Thus, the expansion of state welfare accompanied by the reforms of the social security system since the early 1990s have been influenced by the changed preferences and interests of enterprises regarding social welfare. They have reformed the selective affinity between production regime and welfare regime and as a result, the welfare mix has shifted towards the reduction of voluntary enterprise welfare and the expansion of state welfare.

Effects of the Reform of Post-retirement Income Protection System

Yongha Kim | 2011, 18(2) | pp.209~241 | number of Cited : 13

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This paper is aimed at looking into reform steps OECD and EU countries have taken in response to the need for raising the coverage, equity, and financial stability of their post-retirement income protection systems, and providing policy suggestions for the improvement of Korea’s pension schemes. Making reference to a large body of previous literature and reports, this paper takes up an analysis of policy changes since the 1990s in post-retirement income protection systems in a number of OECD and EU countries. The effect of individual policy changes of note made to pension systems of these countries are analyzed using cross-sectional data sets in linear regression models. Many countries around the world have made changes to their post-retirement income protection systems, and since the 1990s, in particular, such changes have been, if gradual, strong in their impact in the long-term. Pension reforms under review are both paradigmatic and parametric. For most countries in reform of their pension systems chose a combination of both paradigmatic parametric changes. It is important, however, to notice that the effect of parametric changes is not necessarily insignificant and the effect of paradigmatic changes is not always significant. When pension reforms take place, they take place with a view to raising equity and financial stability, but not unaccompanied by additional measures to address the problem of coverage. The participation rate and replacement level of a pension scheme are found to have significant effect on coverage. As to the financing of pension, many countries have taken reforms steps away from the previous pay-as-you-go basis to strengthening the funded component over time. Parametric reforms are an important policy instrument to increase financial stability. Many of the countries under examination are found to have taken parametric reform steps in the form of a combination of a direct downward adjustment of income replacement level, changes in benefit formula and the pensionable age, and shift to price-indexation. The effect of the upward adjustment of the pensionable age as a response to ever-increasing life expectancy is considered significant. A variety of policy measures will have to be taken to increase the financial stability of Korea’s post-retirement income protection system, and to this additional measures must be taken to reduce the adverse impact of demographic aging.

Employment Conditions and Inequalities in Health: Pathways and Mechanisms

정혜주 , Carles Muntaner , EMCONET Network | 2011, 18(2) | pp.245~287 | number of Cited : 30

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Korea Social Policy Review 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 2.47

2011, Vol.18, No.2