This study aims to reframe higher education financial aid policy from a social investment perspective and to develop performance indicators capable of evaluating the policy’s actual effectiveness. To overcome the limitations of traditional input-output based evaluation methods, the study establishes a systematic framework of short-, medium-, and long-term indicators that comprehensively capture policy outcomes and social value. Additionally, monetizable proxy indicators are presented to provide a foundation for empirical analysis. The analysis confirms that financial aid policy for higher education is not merely a mechanism to reduce the cost of education, but rather a form of social investment that generates long-term benefits―such as increased lifetime earnings, improved health outcomes, enhanced social cohesion, and broader national-level advantages. In light of these findings, it is necessary to advance the policy evaluation framework by shifting toward outcome-based assessments and adopting a social investment approach to measuring social returns within welfare-related public expenditures.
This study confirms that artificial intelligence (AI) technology is effective in improving the quality of survey data and enhancing work efficiency through a review of domestic and international prior studies, case analyses, and empirical research. Furthermore, as AI technology continues to advance, it is expected that methods for managing survey data quality will become increasingly sophisticated.
The purpose of this study is to assess the current status of Community Social Security Indicators (CSSIs) and to propose future directions for improving their framework. Through a review of existing practices and indicator structures, the study identifies key management issues and explores strategies for more efficient administration and broader utilization. Based on these findings, it suggests institutional and legal measures to enhance the use of CSSIs and reduce disparities in data use across regions, thereby supporting evidence-based community social security policy.
Since the economic crisis in the late 1990s, social welfare spending in Korea has increased rapidly, and cash transfer programs have expanded even more swiftly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While Korea’s cash transfer programs were once focused primarily on ensuring the livelihood of vulnerable groups, there has recently been a rise in universal benefit programs aimed at addressing demographic challenges such as low birth rates and population aging. From the perspective of fiscal sustainability, it is now necessary to evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of these programs.
In particular, while universal benefits such as Child Allowances or Baby Bonus clearly provide additional household income through public transfers at the micro level, it remains unclear whether these programs are achieving their originally intended goals.
Against this backdrop, the present study aims to empirically examine whether cash-based welfare programs―such as Baby Bonus, the Child Allowances, and EITC―are meeting their intended objectives. Through this analysis, the study seeks to derive common policy implications for major cash transfer p
This study evaluates the effectiveness of COVID-19 policy responses in five major countries―Korea, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Norway―and aims to draw policy implications for future crises. The analysis finds that Korea was particularly vulnerable to employment shocks due to its high concentration of face-to-face service industries, a large share of self-employed workers, and a significant proportion of temporary and daily employment. The impact was especially severe for women.
The pandemic revealed structural weaknesses in the Korean labor market and significant gaps in the employment safety net. To address these issues, it is essential to expand the coverage of unemployment benefits and job retention support, and to enhance the inclusiveness and accessibility of family care and sick leave policies in order to ease care burdens. Strengthening social protection for the self-employed and platform workers is also a critical priority.
This study examined the concept of health system resilience and trends in international discussions. Based on the guidebook titled 'A Practical Handbook for Resilience Testing' jointly published by the OECD, EU, and WHO Regional Office for Europe in 2024, it assessed the capacity to respond to infectious disease crises and identified areas for improvement. Additionally, it examined the social, geopolitical, and environmental shocks facing the health sector.
This study focuses on the decision-making processes of public child protection workers in local governments. It aims to explore the experiences of these workers and develop measures to improve both the means and the outcomes of their decision-making. To achieve this, this study reviews relevant prior research and theoretical models, examines public child maltreatment response system, and explores child protection workers’ decision-making experiences during various work processes such as intake, substantiation and removal.
Using nationality data from the Population Census, this study calculated a township-level “Population Diversity Index.” The migrant-background population is steadily rising and spreading beyond the industrial zones of the Seoul metropolitan area into rural communities, fishing villages, and tourist destinations. Among children aged 0-5 years old, the share of foreign-born youngsters is increasing rapidly, indicating more active family migration and settlement.
Access to childcare, however, varies greatly by location. Although declining birth rates have slightly eased overall supply pressures, many neighborhoods with large numbers of foreign or multicultural families still suffer from a clear “high-demand, low-supply” imbalance. Usage rates underline this gap: about 60% for Korean children versus roughly 40% for foreign-born children.
Factor analysis shows that additional childcare subsidies from local governments and nearby multicultural or family centers significantly boost enrolment among migrant-background preschoolers. Areas with higher proportions of marriage-migrant households also display higher uptake, underscoring the importance of local networks and information channels. Nevertheless, complicated procedures, Korean-only information, and shortages of interpreters or cultural mediators leave many families under-served.
Therefore, beyond expanding facilities and subsidies, integrated policies are needed to improve cultural accessibility and information reach: multilingual guidance with streamlined applications, on-site interpreters and cultural mediators, and culturally responsive teachers and learning materials.
This study analyzed online platforms―websites and social networking services (SNS) operated by service providers, the central government, and local governments―to assess whether sufficient information is provided online to users in the community social service investment project, a representative social service voucher program. Several suggestions were made for improving information accessibility at the service provider level and at the policy level.
This study develops trend indicators in key social policy areas to better respond to social, economic, and institutional changes, with the aim of bringing qualitative improvements to periodic analyzes of social policy performance and trends. To this end, we selected the concept of 'social wage'―an indicator designed to comprehensively measure the performance of the welfare state and its impact on people's lives as a whole. We examined both how the social wage can be measured and how it can be applied in practice. In particular, we conducted actual measurements of social wages, drawing on existing debates and definitions. Our trend analysis focused on performance indicators across several domains: healthcare (life expectancy and life expectancy at birth), income and housing (average household income), social services (long-term care payment rates), population (per capita and demographics), and overall social security. We analyzed these indicators by policy area, population subgroup, and life-cycle stage.
Building on prior research, we centered our analysis on key indicators within each major social policy area and assessed the feasibility of using the social wage as a central measure of the welfare state’s performance and impact.
