Starting from the 21st century, South Korea has been facing many sudden changes in the social and economic structural changes. Out of the many structural changes, the population structure change is expected to have the largest and longest impact.
To ...
Starting from the 21st century, South Korea has been facing many sudden changes in the social and economic structural changes. Out of the many structural changes, the population structure change is expected to have the largest and longest impact.
To begin with, the population structural change has many causes and among these the most important cause is graying or more commonly known as the population becoming aging. From the 21st century, the present is the time in which the population is aging the fastest and it seems as South Korea will enter the super high aged society soon.
With the lower birth rate, the population structural change is expected to affect the society in myriads of ways. This population structural change and change in culture will affect the society; however, with the income redistribution method that alleviates the impact of change may be used with the right method to improve the society as a whole. Therefore, the social welfare must absorb the flaws and distortion caused by the impact of change and must maintain its role to help the society to progress.
In this context, the main purpose of the research is to alleviate the impact from population structural change and the conflict between generations through the income redistribution and help South Korea progress so it can improve the citizen’s quality of life.
This research has six subtopics of interest. The problems of the subtopics are researched and the researchers try to find the alternative solution to such problems. First, due to the population aging, the labor market may change its labor supply pattern. This change in pattern will affect the business fluctuations and the effects of the present policies; thus, a disparate economic agent general equilibrium model was established to calculate the exact elasticity of labor supply and production distribution. Second, due to the polarization of the senior’s asset distribution and the fact that most of the possession of asset is in the form of property or real estate, the portfolio change will affect the national finance and asset market. To resolve this issue, using big data, we have analyzed the expected effects and compared it with other developed countries to make a more South Korea-specific policy. Third, the population aging is expected to affect the medical expenditure. To analyze the problem, we have used two different methods on calculating the expenditure spent by the elders and the expenditures earned by not spending as much as in the past. Fourth, we tried to analyze the effects of the national pension policy change and provide the policy implications. This process was performed by using the national old age guarantee panel survey provided by the national pension researchers. Fifth, to improve the senior generation’s quality of life, the guarantee of transportation is very important. Therefore, we have scrutinized the OECD data from 2003 to 2006 on transportation policies. Sixth, the elder generation possess real estate or property but lack liquid assets which lead to an inconsistent state. To resolve this inconsistency, the importance of housing reverse mortgage has been highlighted and the demand for it has been constantly increasing. These were the six subtopics of interest which provide the problem and the optimal solution for each problem.
Through the 3 years of the middle stage, the researchers have achieved the results of SSCI 6 volumes, SCOPUS 1 volume, KCI 23 volumes, and one publication. In addition to these, our works have been published in the globally known International Review of Economics and Finance, International Economic Review, Journal of Macroeconomics, and Korean Economic Review (as the leading article).
The publication stated above was performed by all members of the research. The publication 「저출산 고령화가 한국사회에 미치는 영향」 includes the 3 years of theoretical work we have been researching, how to apply it to the real world, and policy suggestions which is expected to help politicians and policy makers.
To spread the works of our research, we have invited Neil Wallace, the chair-professor of Pennsylvania State University and the candidate for the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, as the key speaker of a symposium and opened a SSK Low Birth Rate and Graying Seminar with Hitotsubashi University and the University of California-Merced.
In addition, we have presented our papers for the OECD Paris Headquarters, Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), National Assembly Budget Office, National Assembly Research Service, Bank of Korea, and Trust Guarantee Funds. Other achievements include working as the policy consultant for the KDI and appearance on broadcasting- more specifically SBS TV Debate, and Arirang TV as a policy consultant.
The research also had the opportunity to help the younger generation or students with Master’s degree. The students have published prize winning papers. Therefore, we believe that it is best for us to continue our efforts in giving the opportunity for the following generation.
The research performed will help the society with issues regarding pension, insurance, old aging and labor related to graying. This will be the foundation for realistic and economically optimal policies. From the perspective of national policy, this research will help by providing rate of growth improvement policy, birth rate improvement policy, labor force improvement policy, and welfare for senior citizens.