Colloquium in Aug. 2020
Kim, ChangHwan (Professor, Department of Sociology at Univ. of Kansas) and Kim, Andrew Taeho (PhD Student, Department of Sociology at Univ. of Kansas)
Using the Household Income and Expenditure data from 1999 through 2019, this study verified debate on whether between-age-group income inequality was motivating income inequality in Korea. The study analyzed the separate net (coefficient) and distribution effects of factors associated with income inequality. Also, it estimated the income of the other family members (neither family heads nor their spouses) that was absent in the original data. These analytic strategies were to more precisely reflect recent social changes in Korea, such as aging and increases in the proportion of the youth living with their parents. While the study found some evidence on increase in between-age-group income inequality among those aged 20 through 79, it failed to find evidence of the increase among the group aged 25 through 59. According to the study, this difference was made by the age distribution effect, increases in the proportion of the elderly who retired from their career. It was also found that change in income inequality had been mostly led by decrease in within-age-group income inequality since 2000. The study concluded that it found no evidence of the argument that increasing between-age-group income inequality characterized income inequality in today’s Korean society.
♣ Please let us apologize for not uploading the photos for this virtual colloquium.
