KDI - Korea Development Institute - RESEARCH - Research Areas

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 Healing a Wary, Self-cultivating Society through Education

□ Can education improve Korea’s self-cultivating society which has left its people untrusting of others? Reforming public education, particularly eliminating rote-based learning and encouraging horizontal and participatory classes, will enhance peer relationships, trust and cooperation to ultimately contribute to reversing the decline in social capital.

- The significance of social capital, which is formed of interpersonal relationships and interaction, is recognized throughout society.

- Amid the growing popularity of the “each to his own” mentality, Korea is experiencing a continuous decline in mutual trust.

- The low degree of happiness in Koreans is due to the lack of social capital.

- In Northern European countries that apply horizontal collaborative methods, people with higher education show stronger social trust. But, this is not the case for Korea and East European countries wherein one-sided lectures are more dominant.

- How children are taught is more signifiant to the cultivation of social capital than what is taught. What is critical to fostering social capital is how to teach, not what to teach.

- A high proportion (81%) of Korean respondents described high school as a ‘battlefield.’

- Korean undergraduates have low public trust and prefer self-help methods to collective solutions.

- Korea has the lowest percentage of those who believe that the general public and government officials will meet social norms.

- Korea shows low willingness to make donations and has weak solidarity.

- About 73% of Korean respondents preferred a secluded residential environment for privacy protection over communication and interaction.

- Korean undergraduates believe that as the level of education increases, the level of cooperative sprit decreases.

- Social capital increased further among students who were more frequently exposed to PBL activities.

- Students who received a horizontal-type education showed more increases in their network of friends and better perceptions about social capital at the end of the semester.

- Peer relationships fostered in the course of horizontal interactions were found to improve perceptions and attitudes about social capital.

- Having experienced random grouping in class, students became more receptive to cooperating with others who are unfamiliar.

- Horizontal interaction could be enhanced by adopting constructivism through, for example, PBL and flipped classroom programs.

- It is necessary to extend evaluation systems to an appropriate degree, such as team-based, absolute, student participatory and processfocused formats.

- An innovative education environment such as bottomup changes in classes should be developed and HR systems for faculty need to be redesigned to go hand in hand with educational innovation.

- Transforming teaching methods to be more horizontal and participatory is an important agenda that will contribute to not only enhancing social capital but also to fostering those with skills needed in the future.

Summary

KDI Policy Forum Impact of the Free Learning Semester (FLS) on Private-Tutoring Investment

□ Analysis on the impact of the Free Learning Semester (FLS) on the private-tutoring investment for middle school students revealed a significant increase among high-income households.

- This study used data on 178,213 middle school students drawn from Statistics Korea’s 2009-2016 Private Tutoring Expenditure Survey.

- No meaningful impact was observed overall but high-income households (over 6 million won monthly) exhibited yearly increases of 15.2%p and 1.79 million won in the participation in and expenditure on private tutoring.

□ Such increases are due to high-income households’ easy access to private tutoring and high demand in terms of tutoring for admissions and advance learning.

- The FLS reduces the hours spent on academic courses. Therefore, it is easier for students from higher-income households to substitute the loss with private tutoring.

- Also, the FLS alleviates students’ burden of managing their grade point average (GPA), which could increase the demand for private tutoring for admissions and/or advance learning. This is particularly true among higher-income households.

□ The above results indicate that the FLS―designed to help students explore future career paths and facilitate the development of non-cognitive skills―could widen the education gap between income groups through private tutoring.

- Better quality programs are needed to supplement the cutback in academic courses in order to ease parental concerns. At the same time, more after-school programs should be introduced to assure students who have little access to private tutoring with ample educational opportunities.

- Relevant polices must be designed bearing in mind that if they are not aligned with parents' needs, the biggest casualties will be low-income students who are unable to afford private tutoring.

Summary

Research Monograph KOR The Role of Education in Social Capital and Policy Directions

Social capital is based on the relationship among people who are social animals, and it consists of three conceptual elements: social trust, social network, and social norm. There has been a growing awareness of the importance of social capital based on the findings that market failures caused by public goods, information asymmetry, and so on can be overcome through mutual trust and network; social trust and public mind contribute to the success of economic growth, structural reform and transformation; and social support such as trust and engagement are important in the happiness of people both in individual and community levels.

However, when it comes to the social capital in Korea, where its social atmosphere is known to emphasize infinite competition, not cooperation, it is found that the level of social trust is moderate in international standards and the level of trust has declined in the past 30 years. Further, since the relational capital of an individual measured through the presence of people who can be trusted and relied on has a strong correlation with his economic capital and human capital, Korea has a clear gap between the classes in terms of social capital.

Why are the quality of life and happiness of Koreans relatively low even though their national income per capita and health life expectancy are quite high? Weak social capital is an important reason. The lack of social support such as the absence of relatives or friends who can be relied on, the insufficiency of generosity such as miserly donations and charity, and the lack of public trust such as the recognition that corruption is still prevalent, are greatly lowering the happiness index of Koreans. The result of analyzing the determinants of the happiness of the residents in the 17 regions of Korea also showed that the social trust has more influence on the happiness than the variables related to the physical infrastructure of the region.

Summary

Policy Study KOR Study on the Effect of the Free Semester Policy

This study examines two independent but related questions on the effectiveness of the free semester policy.

In order to confirm the validity of public concerns that the free semester may stimulate the demand for private tutoring, this study analyzed the causal effect of the free semester on the participation in and expenditure on private tutoring. Data for the analysis was drawn from the Private Tutoring Expenditure Survey, which includes information on 178,213 middle school students surveyed during 2009-16 by Statistics Korea. Exploiting the cross-region and over-time variation in proportion to middle schools implementing the free semester, the analysis revealed that, on average, the free semester affected neither the participation in nor expenditure on private tutoring. However, a clear distinction in terms of the policy effect was found between income groups. That is, the policy induced high-income families to spend more on private tutoring while the opposite was true for middle-income households. The contrasting effect by income level is mainly because the demand for private tutoring is more complementary to school education for the middle-income group than for their high-income counterpart. Indeed, these results suggest that the free semester policy which accompanies the reduction in hours of academic courses in school may widen the gap in private tutoring investment between high-income and middle-income families.

The impact of the free semester on students’ creativity, sociality and happiness was also analyzed, taking into account that an important goal of the policy is to improve non-cognitive skills. Specifically, a comparison was made of the changes in creativity, sociality and happiness during the 2016 fall semester (late August to late December) between 365 first-year students in four middle schools in Daegu city who had free semesters and 350 second-year students at the same schools who had regular semesters. The within-school and cross-grade comparison shows that the free semester improved students’ sociality, measured by the number of close friends; but not their creativity, measured by the remote associate test and; happiness, measured by the UNICEF’s life satisfaction index. It was also found that free semesters increased the frequency of classroom discussions, group projects, and extra-curricular activities. These results jointly suggest that the free semester policy may promote sociality in students by encouraging teachers to adopt teaching practices that emphasize student-to-student interaction. However, since the evidence found in this study is based on a small sample of a specific region, and because it is difficult to rigorously test the validity of the key assumption of the research design (comparability between grades), care should be taken in interpreting the results as a general effect of the free semester policy.

Summary

KDI FOCUS The Significance of Investing in School Facilities and Measures for Reform

□ Voices are being raised over the need to improve Korea’s educational environment for the health and safety of our students. And despite the fact that the educational environment plays a vital role in both learning and teaching, investment in school facilities has been given low priority. In response, the new government has laid out plans to reform neglected and aged school facilities, emphasizing the duty of the nation with respect to education investment. In this context, relevant policies should focus on the importance of investment in school facilities.

- Investment in school facilities has been a low priority due to policy decisions and a shift in the distribution of financial resources.

- Policies for the investment in school facilities should aim to provide safe and positive educational environments for students.

- Evaluation of the educational environment should include not only indicators for teaching conditions but also that for school facilities.

- One out of three elementary and middle school buildings were found to be over 35 years old.

- Aged school facilities pose problems that directly affect students’ health and safety such as asbestos, lack of seismic resistance and hazardous urethane blend tracks.

- Investment in school facilities could be effective not only in achieving its primary goal of improving health and safety but also in inducing secondary effects such as heightened academic performance.

- A quality educational environment can have a positive influence on the attitudes and behaviors of both students and teachers.

- Future investments in school facilities need to enhance quality and reflect the changes in the educational curriculum.

- To raise the needed financial resources for investment, it is necessary to adjust the expenditure structure by item within the total education budget.

- For efficient investment, a systemic and comprehensive system that can assess the educational environment must be formulated.

- Future investment in school facilities should be made in light of the government’s educational policy that fits the changing educational environment.

Summary

KDI Policy Forum Enhancing Korea’s Work Competency: Focusing on Problem-solving Skills

□ This study attempts to explore the use of and underlying issues related to problem-solving skills, a vital competency in future jobs, and policy measures for improvement.

□ An international comparison shows that Korean workers (aged 16-65) are fairly good at utilizing their skills but poor at applying those skills to solve problems at work.

- As problem solving is a key future competency, it is essential that the relevant skills are enhanced and actively utilized.

- However, insufficient education and training opportunities, poor communication and cooperation at work and a dual labor market structure could become obstacles.

□ To enhance the use of problem-solving skills at work, concerted efforts at various levels are needed, for example changing the contents and methods of educational/training programs and establishing a skill-friendly labor market structure.

- Educational/training programs need to provide more field experiences and professional knowledge as well as soft skills including collaboration, compromise and communication

- Instead of a ‘flexible adjustment of the workforce’ through easy hiring and firing, labor reforms should be implemented though a ‘flexible adjustment of working conditions’ (i.e. wages and working hours) so that both employer and employee can accumulate and fully utilize the necessary skills in problem solving in a stable employment relationship.

Summary

Research Monograph KOR Education Reform through Project-based Learning (II)

This study is the follow-up research of Education Reform through Project-based Learning (PBL) conducted by Korea Development Institute (KDI) and Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education (DMOE) between April 2015 and April 2016. KDI and DMOE both emphasize the changes in teaching practices in order to nurture students’ core competencies such as collaboration and communication, required for rapid technological progress era of so called fourth industrial revolution. Among various teaching practices, we focus on project-based learning (PBL). PBL is a student-centered teaching pedagogy in which students propose a task or project by themselves and work on the project together for an extended period of time. These characteristics of PBL can help students acquire future competencies such as creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication.

The first year pilot study with two treatment and three comparison schools located in Daegu Metropolitan City analyzed the impacts of PBL on students’ social capital (other caring, trust and cooperation, friendship) and academic achievement. It showed that students’ social capital measured by public goods game improved whereas no significant changes on academic achievement were reported. However, the pilot study is limited as the number of sample schools was small and the location of sample schools was concentrated on one district, not representative of Daegu city. Moreover, one of two treatment schools has already introduced PBL a couple of years before the pilot study started. This second year study tries to overcome the limitations of the first year pilot study by increasing the sample size up to 12 schools covering six districts out of the total seven districts of Daegu city. We put emphasis on the analysis of students’ social capital, extensive friendship network, and its interaction. Moreover, we analyze the impact of PBL on teachers’ self-efficacy and job satisfaction.

This study consists of five sections. Section 1 introduces the background and purpose of the research. Section 2 describes the PBL workshop and consultation provided to teachers of six treatment schools. Section 3 presents survey modules on friendship network survey, behavioral experiments such as dictator game and public goods game, and individual and group choice under uncertainty. Section 4 shows the impacts of PBL on students’ outcomes (friendship network, social capital, and rational group decision) through difference-in-differences specification. Section 5 analyze the impacts of PBL on teachers’ outcomes (self-efficacy and job satisfaction).

First, we show that the treatment schools increase PBL class by 10 hours on average during the 2016 Fall semester, compared to comparison schools. Second, we find positive impacts on students’ friendship network in the treatment schools and these impacts become larger for those who have vulnerable characteristics (low test score, low life satisfaction, or introverted personality). Third, we report that other caring behavior measured by the amount of dictator game donation increases in the treatment schools even after controlling friendship network, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Fourth, we present suggestive evidences that PBL may increase the efficiency and equality of group decision making processes under uncertainty although the results are not statistically significant. Finally, we analyze the impact of PBL on teachers’ outcomes and show that treated teachers’ self-efficacy in instruction and student engagement significantly increases while we do not have precise estimations on teachers’ job satisfaction.

Summary

KDI FOCUS Improving Parental Roles and Education for Early Childhood Development

□ Spurred by the recent series of child abuse cases that have been brought to light, the Korean government released a parental education package to promote the participation in and effectiveness of parental education programs. Early childhood linguistic and socio-emotional development are related to parental role indicators such as maternal depression, parental stress and style and the home environment. As such, to improve parental roles, it is important to enhance the use and effectiveness of parental education materials by integrating resources such as booklets and videos at different ministries and provide parents with the necessary skills that are in line with the child’s age and situation. Furthermore, it is necessary to expand parental education programs with expert counselling and guidance to help parents cope with their respective child care needs and improve their parenting skills.

- In response to the series of child abuse cases that have been brought to light, the government released measures to promote parental education.

- To promote participation and interest in parental education, it is important to clarify the relevance of the parental role in child development.

- The parental role can be measured via maternal depression, parenting stress and styles, paternal involvement in child care and home environmental stimuli test results.

- Early childhood linguistic ability is related to fathers’ parenting stress, parental style and interaction capability and their education level.

- However, no relevance has been observed between early childhood linguistic ability and household income.

- Early childhood socioemotional ability is related to maternal depression, parenting stress and style and their interaction capability.

- However, no relevance was observed between early childhood socioemotional ability and parents’ education level and household income.

- Frequency of paternal involvement in child care is irrelevant to early childhood linguistic and socioemotional development.

- Improving parental roles can reduce the gap between children's linguistic abilities that have been affected by the parent's education levels.

- Parental education should be designed to enhance the quality of paternal parenting, instead of increasing the quantity.

- It is most beneficial to the linguistic and socioemotional development of children when parents maintain responsiveness and are less demanding as their children grow older.

- It is necessary to increase the use and effectiveness of parental education materials by integrating resources such as booklets and videos at different ministries and providing the necessary knowledge and skills that suit the children’s age and respective situations.

- More parental education programs are needed that provide expert counselling and guidance to help parents cope with their respective child care needs and improve their parenting skills.

Summary

KDI FOCUS Educational Reform through Project-based Learning (PBL)

□ Project-based learning (PBL) is gaining increasing prominence as an educational tool for enhancing students’ key future competences - communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity, referred to as the 4Cs. However, the proportion of PBL classes in Korean schools is among the lowest in the world. Nevertheless, results from a pilot PBL module undertaken by two middle schools in Daegu during a free semester show that students’ communication and collaboration skills improved. To boost this momentum, Korea must now establish a mid- to long-term plan aimed at reforming school curriculums and admission systems to fully optimize the use of PBL while seeking short-term measures to encourage teachers to pursue innovative teaching methods.

- What should we do to help our future generations develop key competencies in preparation for the rapid changes in technology?

- Vital future skills are communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity - the 4Cs or 21st century skills.

- PBL is an educational pedagogy in which students are naturally led to learning through self-directed projects in collaboration with their peers. It has been known to be effective in fostering key future capabilities.

- The authors provided PBL-related assistance to freshmen in two middle schools in Daegu during the free semester in 2015, and observed changes in their communication and collaboration skills.

- To measure communication, students were asked to list three closest classmates, and their answers were used to gauge students’ level of communication and interaction in class.

- To measure collaboration, students were placed in a situation in which their own personal interests were in conflict with the interests of the entire class, and their way of caring for and collaborating with others to handle the situation was observed.

- Comparison of the students in the treatment and control groups shows that one semester of PBL contributed to enhancing students’ communication and collaboration skills without interfering in their academic achievements.

- Despite the growing importance of PBL, Korea ranked the lowest in the world in terms of PBL use in class.

- The government should urgently reform the curriculum and admission systems to enable a stable adoption of PBL in the mid- to longterm, while attracting more teachers to the bottom-up approach in the short-term.

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