2012, Vol.19, No.1

Korea Social Policy Review 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 2.47

pISSN : 1226-0525
https://journal.kci.go.kr/kasp

The objective of this study is to determine whether the experience of social welfare service affects the perception of welfare policy in the sense of institutional perspective. Especially, this study concentrates on the change of perception in welfare clients towards the program-specific goal and the general goal of social welfare service for the elderly. In order to do so, the double difference analysis using propensity score matching is used. The result of this analysis shows that the experience of social welfare service changes the clients' perception. The perception on the general goal, however, is changed by long term experience of the service. This result displays the feasibility of institutional theory, especially welfare clientele within Korea. It also raises the need to consider the change of welfare perception not only in the aspect of institutional interest, but also in the aspect of the effect of social learning.

By defining jobs without social insurance coverage as a proxy for informal work, this paper investigates poverty implications of informal work. To study the static and dynamic interrelation between informal work and poverty, I use Korea Welfare Panel Study 2005-2009. About 3/4 of the working poor is not registered for the mandatory social insurance. Results from simultaneous equation probit estimation show that informal work significantly increases the likelihood of household poverty while correcting for the simultaneity of informal work and household poverty. In terms of dynamic perspective, the informal work also increases the likelihood of persistent or repeat poverty. Even after heterogeneity and initial conditions are controlled, more than half of informal employment remained in informal work after a year. The finding that the persistence of informal work is due to state dependence highlights the need for encompassing policies to promote formal work.

The purpose of this study is to examine the issue of welfare mix and the role of the public sector in child welfare service from the perspective of the rights of the child. Since the 1980’s the privatization of welfare system has proliferated in most developed countries and it is no exception to the child welfare sector in Korea. Privatization of welfare system in Korea has mainly occurred in two types, entrustment to private agencies and voucher. Compared with the western privatization process which transferred roles of service provision from the government to the private sector, the Korean government allowed the private sector to provide welfare services from the beginning stage. Moreover, the services delivered by the private sector are rapidly increasing in recent years in Korea. The entrustment to private agencies is not perfect competitive sourcing process, and does not ensure the credible entrustment process. As well, it is noted that poor service quality evaluation and cost cutting in the entrustment process had caused violation of expected effect of privatization. For the case of voucher, it is criticized as being insufficient for ensuring or improving consumer rights. Therefore, this study suggests that in order for the public sector to carry out its responsibilities as a public sector, the public sector needs to strengthen its role and to alleviate the negative impacts of welfare mix. It is needed to keep public sector participation at certain level, and to allow the public sector to compete with the private sector. The public sector also needs to development more elaborate service evaluation criteria, and also private participation should be allowed in policy planning. And the public sector should coordinate and strengthen its roles to perform functions of selection and placement as a network hub for child welfare service delivery.