South Korea faces a demographic crisis with low fertility rates and an aging population despite long-standing governmental interventions. In contrast, Sweden has maintained relatively higher fertility rates through comprehensive policies, including family support, labor market strategies, and immigration frameworks. Sweden’s policies evolved from targeted fertility measures in the 1930s to gender equality initiatives and socio-economic strategies that promote employment stability and social integration. South Korea can learn from Sweden's holistic approach by aligning family, labor, immigration, and pension policies while fostering a more inclusive immigration policy and reducing childcare burdens through cultural and institutional reforms.
This study analyzes the complex challenges of economic hardship and time poverty experienced by single-parent households. Despite their active engagement in both work and caregiving, the current support system often limits access and undermine self-sufficiency due to rigid eligibility criteria, abrupt benefit cutoffs, and income reversal effects. Time-related support remains narrowly focused on low-income groups, while structural blind spots within the labor market further constrain access to effective caregiving support. The study offers policy recommendations to enhance both economic and time related support systems, aiming to strengthen the foundation for self-sufficient among simgle-parent families and improve their overall quality of life.
This study reviewed Japan’s population decline policies to identify applicable measures for Korea. Japan’s approach―centered on child-rearing support and regional revitalization―involves collaboration between central and local governments. Key initiatives include attracting foreign talent, supporting internal migration, addressing vacant housing, and assisting shopping refugees. The study suggests five directions for Korea: improve the system by taking advantage of the purpose of the hometown love donation system, respond to the de facto population and the society with more deaths than births, efforts to improve local residents’ awareness and acceptance of foreign workers, promote public-private cooperation and an integrated approach, and establish a support system for shopping refugees.
Amid a growing sense of crisis in South Korea, driven by the world’s lowest fertility rate and a rapidly aging population, there is mounting pressure to overhaul the nation’s population policy. Germany’s experience with a low birthrate and aging population, which preceded South Korea’s, along with its efforts to address these challenges in response to a national crisis, offers valuable lessons. In the 1990s, Germany had the lowest fertility rate in Europe, but through significant family policy reforms, including expanding childcare facilities and introducing parental leave, it has emerged as a model for addressing low fertility. Germany’s regional policy, which emphasizes “equal living conditions,” is characterized by the development of policy strategies and specific implementation plans built on social consensus about the policy’s direction. Regarding immigration policy, the government introduced the Immigration Act for Skilled Workers (Fachkr？fteeinwanderungsgesetz) and is working to transform the country into a more attractive destination for immigrants.
This study examines the characteristics of parental support during young adulthood. It reveals that parental support extends beyond financial assistance to include emotional support, advice, and involvement, with strong emotional bonds facilitating greater instrumental support. Parents and children recognize the value of parental support, not as a matter of moral obligation but as a crucial factor influencing their transition to adulthood. The study also highlights class-based disparities in parental support.
The overarching objective of social policy is to enhance people’s happiness and quality of life. This study examines the validity and reliability of measurements of happiness, an abstract experience, and quality of life, a multidimensional concept.
The Korean welfare state is facing three megatrends: technological change, demographic change, and climate change. This study analyzes whether and how these three factors individually and collectively reinforce or alleviate existing new and old ‘social risks’ and whether they may lead to new types of social risks. The concept of social risks was reviewed, and the current state of the Korean welfare state was examined. In the main body, each chapter analyzed how each change affects old and new social risks and contributes to forming new types of social risks, referred to as third-generation social risks. Finally, the study explored how these three changes interact or mediate one another to impact social risks. Through this analysis, six emerging types of third-generation social risks were identified.
This study analyzes the characteristics of changes in central government spending on social security from 2007 to 2024. To do so, we built a social security fiscal database and analyzed the distribution of social security expenditures by target, benefit type, and age group. We also compared the changes in fiscal expenditures with the changes in major social risks by age group to draw implications for improving future fiscal expenditures.
This study aims to contribute to the OECD initiative for creating child-friendly neighbourhoods by collecting domestic data based on the concept and monitoring indicators of child-friendly neighbourhoods. It provides policy recommendations to improve the living environment faced by children and address the serious issues Korea faces concerning low birth rates and regional population decline. As policy alternatives, this study recommends: creating a child-friendly environment from a multidimensional perspective, developing local data to support the creation of child-friendly neighbourhoods, promoting the OECD Child-Friendly Neighbourhood pilot project, fostering international cooperation to establish an OECD Child-Friendly Neighbourhood monitoring system, and using spatial geographic information systems for data collection.
This study aims to analyze the organizational structure and workforce management of welfare administration in Korean metropolitan governments and explore policy implications for enhancing their autonomy and accountability. This study begins with highlighting key institutional issues. Second, we conduct a cross-sectional and time-series analysis of the budget, organizational structure, and workforce management in Korean metropolitan governments. Third, we qualitatively analyze data from interviews with metropolitan government officials to explore key issues in organizational structure and workforce management. Fourth, an empirical survey of public officials at both metropolitan and local government levels provides further insight into the state of welfare administration. Based on these findings, this study proposes three key strategies for improving metropolitan welfare administration.
