KJCKorea
Journal Central

This study investigates the internal mechanisms of the Korean housing market, which exhibits complex dynamics due to its unique jeonse system. While prior research has largely focused on partial relationships such as sales-jeonse linkages, this study extends the Campbell-Shiller present value framework to decompose the price-to-rent ratio into four fundamental components: expected returns, the rent-jeonse conversion rate, jeonse prices, and monthly rent deposits. Moving beyond the conventional statistical assumptions of SVAR, the study introduces a novel methodology that imposes theoretical identities directly on the VAR system, thereby isolating the “pure” shocks to each component and tracing their dynamic propagation paths through the market. Empirical results show that shocks to expected returns generate a “decoupling” between sales and jeonse markets; shocks to the conversion rate reflect landlords' “strategic pricing”; shocks to jeonse prices capture system-wide “deleveraging”; and shocks to monthly rent deposits serve as an ‘early warning indicator’ of fractures in the jeonse system. Each type of shock thus triggers qualitatively distinct transmission channels. By providing a new analytical framework that visualizes these dynamic interrelationships, the study highlights the importance for policymakers to monitor changes in relationships rather than in isolated prices.

This study proposes a modified version of the conventional Gini coefficient, termed the Spatial Gini coefficient, which incorporates spatial effects into the analysis of inequality. The Spatial Gini coefficient considers local clustering and interactions with neighboring areas, thereby enabling the examination of spatial contexts that the conventional Gini index cannot capture. To demonstrate the usefulness of this approach, we analyzed regional disparities in job distribution and compared the results with those derived from the Gini coefficient. The Spatial Gini coefficient shows a slightly higher level of imbalance in the Seoul metropolitan area. In addition, the gap between regions farther from Seoul, such as Honam and Daegyeong, and the central areas has become more pronounced. These findings reveal spatial patterns that traditional indicators often miss and demonstrate the methodological strengths of the proposed approach. Through this methodological extension, the study provides practical implications for developing region-based policy frameworks.

Although public rental housing and housing allowance differ in their modes of provision, they share a complementary nature in that both aim to alleviate housing cost burdens. However, previous studies have largely adopted a binary approach, focusing on which of the two policies is more effective. This study highlights the significance of Overlapping Benefits and compares the effects of different welfare support types on housing cost burden and severe cost burden across age groups. The analysis finds that public rental housing has a statistically significant effect in reducing housing cost burdens across all age groups, with particularly strong effects among the youth. In contrast, receiving housing allowance alone does not show statistically significant effects in any age group. Meanwhile, Overlapping Benefits are found to have significant effects in reducing housing cost burdens for middle-aged and older households, and to be especially effective in alleviating severe housing cost burdens across all age groups. These findings suggest the necessity of designing differentiated policy support that reflects recipients’ life-cycle stages and the degree of housing cost burden, in order to enhance both efficiency and equity in housing welfare policy.