KIHASA Holds Briefing on Korea Welfare Panel Data

KIHASA, together with the Social Welfare Research Center of Seoul National University, held this year's Korea Welfare Panel Data Briefing at the Korea Chamber of Commerce Conference Hall A on Thursday, August 18 at 1:00 pm.

This briefing was organized by the panel researchers to present the data collected in the Korea Welfare Panel surveys spanning from the 1st to the 18th waves, and to explain the panel's weighting procedures, data processing techniques, merging methods, and survey structure to help users better understand and use the dataset.

The briefing began at 1:00 pm, after a 20-minute registration, with KIHASA Research Fellow Lee, Tae-jin giving an overview of the panel. From 1:30 pm to 2:00 pm, Senior Specialist Shin, Jae-dong expalined the panel's weighting procedures, data processing techniques, and merging methods, followed by Senior Researcher Ryu, Jin-ah explaining the survey structure from 2:30 pm to 3:00 pm. From 3:10 pm to 4:40 pm, Kim Hyun-sik, Professor of Sociology at Kyung Hee University, gave a special lecture entitled "Strolling through a Panel Analysis Model using the Korea Welfare Panel."

The Korea Welfare Panel, organized by the consortium of KIHASA and the SNU Social Welfare Research Center since 2006, is the largest panel of its kind in Korea, collecting data from approximately 7,000 households annually. The panel collects data from all over the country, including rural areas and Jeju Island. It is particularly well suited for studies of low-income people, as about half of the households in its sample are low-income households. In addition, because the panel provides comprehensive data on the participants' living standards and welfare needs, it is used in a variety of disciplines, including not only social welfare, but also economics, sociology, and public health.

"The Korea Welfare Panel is the best panel of its kind in Korea with its representativeness and over-representation of low-income households. I urge researchers to show more interest in the panel so that it can contribute more to the development of social welfare in Kroea through its increased use in various fields," said Lee, Tae-jin, Head of the Center for Quality of Life Studies at KIHASA.