KDI - Korea Development Institute - RESEARCH - Research Areas

Summary

Policy Study KOR Teacher Retraining Strategies for Early Childhood Education and Care Integration: Focusing on Teacher Learning Communities

With impetus, the government of South Korea is advancing the integration of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services starting this year. This policy initiative aims to merge daycare centers and kindergartens to eliminate disparities in quality between these institutions and establish a standard of excellence. The goal is to ensure that all young children benefit from superior education and care services, regardless of their enrolled institution. Daycare centers and kindergartens influence early childhood development, and parental choice between the two can impact children's developmental outcomes. Currently, dual-income status, household income, and proximity to the institution are determining factors for parents' choice of institution, highlighting how family socioeconomic status influences a child's developmental trajectory.

The integration of ECEC services involves qualitative considerations, including operational hours and days, evaluation systems, child-to-teacher ratios, parental fees, meal and snack costs, facility size, and the system for teacher training and qualifications. However, there are concerns that this integration could lead to reduced working conditions and diluted standards for teacher qualifications. These concerns have fueled opposition, especially among kindergarten teachers, despite the point that establishing new benchmarks and redesigning the system are both seen as reasonable and anticipated.

In this context, this study examines the role of learning communities formed by daycare and kindergarten teachers in fostering acceptance of ECEC integration through peer group mentoring. It also explores whether these teacher learning communities can mitigate psychological stress associated with teacher roles, enhance professionalism, and promote a collaborative organizational culture in a similar manner as seen within homogeneous institution types. Based on the findings, the study argues that it is essential to expand forums for teachers to share insights and engage in dialogue reflecting the unique challenges and conditions of daycare centers and kindergartens for the successful establishment of ECEC integration. Moreover, it underscores the importance of reforms in teachers' working schedules, promotion criteria for qualifications, and retraining methods as key to energizing these teacher-learning communities.

Summary

Policy Study KOR A Study on Job Displacement of Middle-Aged Male Workers During Economic Crisis in Korea

This study explores long-term consequences of unexpected job displacement among middle-aged male workers during the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis in Korea. Utilizing datasets from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) and Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA), the research examines this cohort's work trajectories, socioeconomic status, and health implications. The study further investigates the intergenerational impacts of job displacement, with a spotlight on education expenditure, education attainment, and labor market outcomes of the children of the affected workers.

The findings reveal that these workers could not regain their pre-crisis employment levels, and their job quality declined due to repeated cycles of unemployment and reemployment. This trend shortened their active years in the workforce, leading to decreased pension contributions and reduced income levels in their later years. Moreover, job displacement adversely influenced their mental well-being, with a marked increase in depression rates within this group. Lastly, children of displaced fathers are observed to spend less on education. They display lower enrollment rates in higher educational institutions and often lean towards majors with more direct employment prospects. Economically, these children's annual earnings are roughly 9.4% beneath those of their peers whose fathers remained insulated from job displacement during the crisis.

Summary

KDI FOCUS Women’s Career Interruptions and the Declining Fertility Rate in South Korea

In South Korea, more women are postponing or forgoing childbirth due to concerns about career interruption. Their conscious decision to refrain from motherhood is estimated to be responsible for about 40% of the decrease in the fertility rate. In the face of the world’s lowest fertility rate, Korea needs to overhaul its policies to better support work-life balance, enabling parents to maintain their careers while raising children.

- Traditional economic theory explains the decline in fertility rates as a result of the increase in women’s opportunity costs.

- Since the 2000s, a positive correlation between women’s labor force participation rates, income, and fertility rates has been commonly observed in high-income countries, which appears to be closely associated with the extent to which women (mothers) can balance work and family life.

- South Korea’s low fertility rate may have stemmed from the disproportionate burden of childcare on women, combined with the persistent difficulty in balancing work and family life, leading women to postpone or forgo childbirth.

- If the presence of children significantly affects women’s probability of career interruption, the number of women who forgo childbirth while maintaining their careers due to these concerns may increase.

- If young women choose to have children, their probability of career interruption increases by about 14%p, leading to a higher likelihood of experiencing a substantial level of economic loss throughout their lifetime.

- Since the mid-2010s, Korea’s total fertility rate has rapidly decreased, as the gap in career interruptions based on parenthood status has widened.

- Recently (2013~19), the gender employment gap has narrowed. Still, this converging trend has been limited to the young without children, ironically increasing the women’s opportunity costs for choosing to give birth. This increased child penalty is estimated to account for about 40% of the overall decline in the fertility rate.

- Policies aimed at preventing career interruptions for women with children are expected to contribute to raising the fertility rate by reducing the number of women who delay or forgo childbirth.

- Policies that mitigate career interruptions for women with children can increase labor supply and prevent the erosion of irrecoverable human capital, thereby not only helping to raise the fertility rate but also promoting macroeconomic growth.

Summary

KDI FOCUS Restructuring Higher Education: Toward a Student-led Model

A dwindling school-age population is expected to place many universities under greater financial distress in the coming decades. The Ministry of Education's strategy of assessing universities and coercing poorly performing ones to reduce enrollment has proved inadequate to speed up the restructuring process. A fundamental solution should be found in letting students, rather than the Ministry, lead this process by providing them with more and better information on individual universities and departments. For instance, the average salaries of graduates should be made public. It will facilitate ‘voting by feet’ by students and force universities to focus their efforts on enhancing their core competencies. It has additional advantages in protecting the restructuring process from political interference, enabling a better matching between supply and demand of skills, and promoting the autonomy in higher education.

- There has been a notable downturn in freshman enrollment rates in recent years, corresponding with the decline in the school-age population. If this trend continues, university enrollment figures could halve within the next two decades.

- The current methodology of the Ministry of Education, which compels universities to reduce enrollment quotas based on evaluation results to obtain financial support, remains vulnerable to political influences.

- This current approach has the potential risk of further eroding autonomy and stifling creativity within universities.

- Delegating the decision on the expansion of majors or courses to market forces, rather than to government entities, might prove more effective in addressing issues of labor oversupply or undersupply.

- Faced with declining enrollments, universities have largely opted for a uniform downsizing of department sizes rather than specializing their programs.

- From a supply-side perspective, the most significant hurdle to restructuring is perceived to be resistance from faculty members.

- Income mobility continues to decline, weakening the expectations for upward mobility

- The role and necessity of national universities warrant a fundamental review. Policies concerning university restructuring should be formulated in alignment with the outcomes of this reevaluation.

Summary

Research Monograph KOR Restructuring the Market for Higher Education

The declining number of students has placed many universities under intense pressure for restructuring. The Korean government has implemented a series of programs to facilitate their restructuring, mainly by evaluating their performance, assigning them targets for cuts in enrollment, and offering financial supports. The heavy government involvement, however, has had several drawbacks, including the efficiency principle compromised during the restructuring process, further encroachment on the autonomy of universities, their increased dependency on government, possible distortion in the sectoral supply of manpower, and the decreasing size of individual academic departments in many universities. The sources of the problem can be found, on the supply side, in the resistance from professors toward restructuring and weak governance within universities, and on the demand side, in the under-utilization of information (e.g., on job prospects upon graduation) by students when choosing universities and fields of study. This research monograph analyzes the data from the Education Statistics Service to study the behavior of suppliers and consumers in the market for higher education and proposes three ways to facilitate restructuring: (1) Scaling down the over-sized public universities and dismantling their soft-budget constraint; (2) eliminating the legal ceilings on the number of students in the capital area; and (3) providing better information on individual universities and academic departments. The aim of the latter two is to encourage students to pursue 'voting by feet' and let their selections, not the government's preference, decide which universities will survive and expand and which ones will exit.

Summary

Research Monograph KOR Education Innovation and Human Capital Development

The Korean economy and society confront a multitude of challenges, including demographic shifts, slowing growth potential, and declining social mobility. These changes, coupled with the transition into the digital economy and the development of new technologies such as AI are expected to bring about various changes in labor demand. These developments demand a swift transformation of the education system to foster human resources capable of adapting to these changes. However, Korea's education system, the foundation of its workforce, is not yet prepared, making it essential to transform all levels of education, from primary to higher education.

Recognizing that nurturing future human resources through educational innovation is a critical task in this era, this study explores innovations in primary and secondary education and reorganization strategies for higher education to create an innovative human capital ecosystem.
Beginning with an introduction outlining the role and direction of education, this paper discusses the need for educational innovation, referencing the social mobility index. We then examine educational inequality based on parental social background and status in the modern Korean society, investigate how the resulting income inequality has become perceived negatively, and analyze intergenerational social mobility using empirical data and various metrics and methods.

For innovation in elementary and secondary education, we suggest establishing a new 'Scholastic Aptitude Test' system, implementing a transition to tiered and customized teaching approaches to increase educational productivity, and developing a teacher training system to prepare for upcoming environmental changes.

Regarding higher education, we assess the performance of cross-applicants in the labor market after graduation, the efficacy of major-specific education in the labor market, and the roles of government and academic institutions in enhancing university competitiveness. Drawing upon these analyses, we present a transformation strategy for higher education to foster an innovative human capital ecosystem.

In conclusion, we highlight the importance of shifting from a supply-focused to a demand-focused educational paradigm and prioritizing the improvement of educational productivity as key elements of the proposed educational innovation.

Summary

KDI Policy Forum How to Save Local Communities Where Young People Are Leaving?

■ As young people are increasingly concentrated in the Seoul Capital Area (SCA), there is growing interest in policies for supporting young people to settle outside of the SCA; however, a better understanding of young people’s location choice is a prerequisite for policy effectiveness.

- The growing presence of young adults in their late 20s and early 30s in the SCA since 2015 requires empirical investigations of the determinants of their location choice.

■ This study empirically analyzes the residential location choice of young people at two distinctive stages---college education and labor market entry---and finds that the policy intervention at the stage of college education is ineffective, while more visible impact is observed for the policy intervention at the stage of labor market entry.

- When high school graduates in the SCA had to out-migrate to a non-SCA region for higher education due to an exogenous demographic shock, most of them eventually returned to the SCA at the later job-search stage. The deterioration of local economic conditions at graduation also resulted in the increased return moves to the SCA.

- Simulations from a two-stage locational choice model that estimated from micro data show that wage subsidies are more cost-effective than educational subsidies for the settlement of young people in the non-SCA areas.

■ Policies for youth require a nationally-coordinated design, considering the impact on location choice, and policies for local higher education should focus on the original goals, not the supplemental goal of mitigating youth outflows.

- Policies for youth need to be better designed in consideration of regional circumstances so as not to encourage youth migration to the SCA. In particular, policy alternatives targeting subsidies and tax benefits for local youth workers are needed.

- The policy for local higher education needs to prioritize improving the quality of education and research functions and strengthening the tie with the local community.

Summary

Research Monograph KOR Redesigning Safety Nets as a Response to New Challenges

The safety net faces new challenges. Non-regular workers are increasing with diversifying forms of employment, but the current safety net does not protect these new types of workers. The COVID-19 crisis highlights the lack of protection for these workers in our existing safety net. Also, the transition to a digital and eco-friendly economy is expected to trigger drastic changes in jobs and put burdens on the most vulnerable workers, which requires strengthening the safety net.

This study examines the limitations of the current safety net in rapidly changing economic and social conditions and provides ways to restructure it in response to new challenges. This study consists of four chapters: income support system, employment safety net, adult education and training, and safety net for sick workers. These four fields have revealed major problems in the COVID-19 crisis and need to be addressed and strengthened to build a comprehensive safety net.

Chapter 1 examines the effectiveness of the income support system during the COVID-19 period and provides an overall evaluation of the system in terms of inclusiveness, poverty reduction, economic responsiveness, and consistency. Chapter 2 analyzes what causes blind spots in the employment safety net and estimates a structural model, including unemployment insurance for the self-employed and unemployment assistance, to suggest policies for a comprehensive employment safety net. Chapter 3 investigates the characteristics of users and non-users of adult education and training voucher programs and examines why the most vulnerable groups in need of the programs do not use vouchers. Chapter 4 analyzes the state of the safety net supporting sick workers and examines the impact of health shock on employment and income to provide implications for the design of sickness benefits.

These four chapters share a common concern about the safety net's wide blind spots, especially for vulnerable workers, and discuss policy tasks. First, the employment safety net does not provide protection for temporary, non-regular workers and the self-employed due to limited unemployment insurance coverage. Also, income support programs for the working-age group are not responsive to economic needs, and support against economic difficulties is insufficient. This study suggests strengthening unemployment assistance for the low-income and vulnerable workers to enhance the inclusiveness and economic responsiveness of the safety net. Second, although anyone can participate in adult education and training institutionally, the actual participation rate of the vulnerable is low. This study points out that it is important to induce their actual participation, not simply an external expansion. Third, insecure workers are less likely to access sick leaves than secure workers. Due to the disparity across workers, sickness benefits under discussion for adoption may also have practical blind spots for vulnerable workers. This study discusses policies that need consideration when designing sickness benefits to provide a secure safety net for sick workers.

Summary

Policy Study KOR Study on Location Choice of Young People

The concentration of population toward the Seoul Capital Area (SCA) continues with the ongoing (net) flow of youth into the SCA. While many policies at the local level are introduced to reduce the (net) outflow of young people, those policies’ effectiveness is often questionable. It is crucial for policymakers to understand the key determinants of the location choice of young people and base the choice of a policy mix on the information.

The first chapter, the introduction of the entire study, discusses the necessity of an integrated view for supporting both local areas and young people. The second chapter delves into the interregional migration of youth, focusing on college education and job search. Using plausibly exogenous shocks at each stage, the author finds that the change in migration at college education is mostly temporary at the affected margin. Conversely, a local recession at the time of college graduation significantly increases the “return movement” of youth toward their previous hometown, particularly for those who grew up in the SCA. The third chapter, a joint work of Joseph Han (KDI) and Chamna Yoon (KAIST), estimates a structural model of two-stage location choice from micro-level data. Policy experiments show that subsidizing “local employment” of “local talents” yields the most cost-effective outcomes at both stages among the policy options considered. The supports for local colleges and universities are ineffective for local settlement, although those supports are still valid for other policy goals such as quality education and research. The last chapter concludes with policy implications.

Summary

KDI Policy Forum Improving Elementary After-school Program for Child Development

■ As the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to further strengthen education and childcare, this study looks at the correlation between the participation of elementary school students in after-school programs and their child development and then offers recommendations for developmental outcomes among elementary school children through after-school activities.

- After-school programs are educational and caring activities that schools offer for a certain period apart from the regular school curriculum, tailored to the needs of students and parents. Students choose a course from a list of diverse program options, encompassing school subjects and special talent and aptitude programs.

■ The analysis finds no consistent correlation between participation in after-school activities and the development of elementary school students.

- As for the after-school program, less than one hour of participation led to better health status assessments, and for two to three hours, there were improvements in academic vigor, grit, and body mass index (BMI) but decreased aggressiveness, depression, and peer relationship. In contrast, physical symptoms worsened when participating for two or more hours.

- Such results may be attributed to the differences between the programs, such as varying content composition depending on operating hours, teaching methods, and instructor characteristics.

■ For after-school programs to shore up student competencies, they should share student guidance information with regular classes, form a close link with the regular curriculum, and provide sufficient care backed by positive interactions.

- Provided that student information such as interests, experiences, developmental characteristics, learning history, etc., is exchanged between elementary school courses and after-school programs, the extracurricular activities may provide in-depth stimulation for learning based on the data.

- Affectionate and nurturing care is a prerequisite to bringing out students' potential.

■ It is necessary to expand the instructor pool competent in achieving the well-rounded development of children, widen the scope of after-school program providers to local communities, and have local governments take a managing role over the programs for efficient and effective management.

- In addition to providing compulsory training courses for prospective after-school instructors, the instructor selection process should adopt multi-faceted personality interviews to find out candidates' responses about a given classroom situation for a comprehensive assessment.

- Local governments should play a managing role in planning, promoting, and overseeing after-school activities in the region, including after-school programs at schools. Meanwhile, schools should actively engage and cooperate within this framework by informing after-school program registration details and providing a venue.

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