CASE / 1988–2008
South Korean welfare expansion, 1988–2008
Social-policy expansion after democratization and the 1997 financial crisis, with employment and distributional limits, in South Korea from 1988 through 2008.
DETAILS
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Scope, selection, freshness, and background links
South Korean welfare expansion, 1988–2008 1988–2008
Social-policy expansion after democratization and the 1997 financial crisis, with employment and distributional limits, in South Korea from 1988 through 2008.
Formal design
observation
In 1998 South Korea accelerated employment-insurance expansion from firms with at least thirty workers to firms with at least one worker and eased benefit eligibility, while coverage remained incomplete.
Rules in use
Interactions
observation
South Korea's post-crisis response included temporary public-works jobs for unemployed people who were not protected by employment insurance.
observation
South Korea temporarily widened livelihood protection and cash assistance after the 1997 crisis to reach some people outside employment insurance.
observation
The OECD's 2008 survey reported that non-regular workers and workers in small firms remained less likely to be insured and that only about one-third of unemployed people received employment benefits.
Observed outcomes
observation
Ku reports that post-crisis welfare expansion coexisted with higher measured income inequality and relative poverty than before the crisis, so institutional expansion cannot be treated as proof of equal outcomes.