IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v74y2019i3p506-515..html

The Effects of Old-Age Public Transfer on the Well-Being of Older Adults: The Case of Social Pension in South Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Seungho LeeMA
  • Inhoe KuPhD
  • Byongdon ShonPhD

Abstract

ObjectivesThis study examines the effects of the social pension reform on the well-being of older adults in Korea. Our study provides an estimate of the impacts of social pension in an industrialized and urbanized context.MethodsWe use monthly panel data from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey of the Korea Statistical Office. We identify the effects of social pension by utilizing an exogenous variation in the benefit level generated by the reform in 2014. We apply a triple-differences approach to remove potential selection biases related to program participation.ResultsThe higher benefit increases gross income. It does not decrease primary income and private transfer income. It increases consumption and reduces poverty significantly.DiscussionOur findings contrast with those from the literature. The Korean literature fails to find positive effects on the well-being of older persons. The literature of other countries finds negative incentive effects. The discrepancy may result from differences in methodological approaches and social and cultural contexts and institutional characteristics of the social pension.

Suggested Citation

  • Seungho LeeMA & Inhoe KuPhD & Byongdon ShonPhD, 2019. "The Effects of Old-Age Public Transfer on the Well-Being of Older Adults: The Case of Social Pension in South Korea," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 74(3), pages 506-515.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:74:y:2019:i:3:p:506-515.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbx104
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. -, 2007. "Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2006-2007," Estudio Económico de América Latina y el Caribe, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1065 edited by Eclac.
    2. Cox, Donald & Rank, Mark R, 1995. "Erratum [Inter-vivos Transfers and Intergenerational Exchange]," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 77(3), pages 569-569, August.
    3. Hisam Kim, 2010. "Intergenerational Transfers and Old-Age Security in Korea," NBER Chapters, in: The Economic Consequences of Demographic Change in East Asia, pages 227-278, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Esther Duflo, 2003. "Grandmothers and Granddaughters: Old-Age Pensions and Intrahousehold Allocation in South Africa," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 17(1), pages 1-25, June.
    5. Ito, Takatoshi & Rose, Andrew K. (ed.), 2010. "The Economic Consequences of Demographic Change in East Asia," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226386850, August.
    6. Qing Zhao & Zhen Li & Taichang Chen, 2016. "The Impact of Public Pension on Household Consumption: Evidence from China’s Survey Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-15, September.
    7. Takatoshi Ito & Andrew Rose, 2010. "The Economic Consequences of Demographic Change in East Asia," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number ito_08-2, January.
    8. -, 2007. "Economic survey of the Caribbean, 2006-2007," Sede Subregional de la CEPAL para el Caribe (Estudios e Investigaciones) 27632, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    9. Edmonds, Eric V., 2006. "Child labor and schooling responses to anticipated income in South Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 386-414, December.
    10. Ning, Manxiu & Gong, Jinquan & Zheng, Xuhui & Zhuang, Jun, 2016. "Does New Rural Pension Scheme decrease elderly labor supply? Evidence from CHARLS," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 315-330.
    11. Cox, Donald & Jimenez, Emmanuel, 1989. "Private transfers and public policy in developing countries : a case study for Peru," Policy Research Working Paper Series 345, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hwang, Inuk & Lee, Tae-Jin, 2022. "Health improvements of older adults based on benefit duration: Lessons from Korean social pension policies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    2. Kim, Hoolda, 2025. "Social engagement and health in an aging society: Impact of Basic Old-Age Pension in Korea," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 31(C).
    3. Zhu, Alex Yue Feng & Ku, Inhoe & Chan, Wai Sum & Chou, Kee Lee, 2023. "Social pension reform and poverty among older people in Hong Kong: Triple difference estimations," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    4. Kim, Chungah, 2025. "Social pension expansion and suicidal behaviour of older adults in Korea: A quasi-experimental study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 367(C).
    5. Pak, Tae-Young, 2021. "What are the effects of expanding social pension on health? Evidence from the Basic Pension in South Korea," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lena Edlund & Chulhee Lee, 2013. "Son Preference, Sex Selection and Economic Development: The Case of South Korea," NBER Working Papers 18679, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Sen Ma & Fangqi Wen, 2016. "Who Coresides With Parents? An Analysis Based on Sibling Comparative Advantage," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(3), pages 623-647, June.
    3. Chen, Xi & Eggleston, Karen & Sun, Ang, 2018. "The impact of social pensions on intergenerational relationships: Comparative evidence from China," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 12(C), pages 225-235.
    4. Kang-Rae Ma, 2016. "Intergenerational Transmission of Wealth and Life Satisfaction," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 11(4), pages 1287-1308, December.
    5. Lei, Xiaoyan & Giles, John & Hu, Yuqing & Park, Albert & Strauss, John & Zhao, Yaohui, 2012. "Patterns and correlates of intergenerational non-time transfers : evidence from CHARLS," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6076, The World Bank.
    6. Berg, Erlend, 2013. "Are poor people credit-constrained or myopic? Evidence from a South African panel," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 195-205.
    7. Amar Hamoudi & Duncan Thomas, 2014. "Endogenous Co-residence and Program Incidence: South Africa's Old Age Pension," NBER Working Papers 19929, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Ashwini Sebastian & Ana Paula de la O Campos & Silvio Daidone & Benjamin Davis & Ousmane Niang & Luca Pellerano, 2016. "Gender differences in child investment behaviour among agricultural households: Evidence from the Lesotho Child Grants Programme," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-107, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Tanika Chakraborty & Prabal K. De, 2017. "Mother’s autonomy and child’s secondary schooling enrollment in Mexico," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 1037-1053, September.
    10. Atul MEHTA & Joysankar BHATTACHARYA, 2019. "What discriminates the welfare outcomes of children in India. A multiple discriminant analysis in selected states," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(2(619), S), pages 261-276, Summer.
    11. Neryvia Pillay, 2025. "The Impacts of Unconditional Cash Transfers on Schooling in Adolescence and Young Adulthood: Evidence from South Africa," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 34(5), pages 521-540.
    12. Denis Cogneau & Rémi Jedwab, 2008. "Family income and child outcomes: the 1990 cocoa price shock in Cote d’Ivoire," Working Papers DT/2008/05, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    13. Herrmann, Tabea & Leckcivilize, Attakrit & Zenker, Juliane, 2021. "The impact of cash transfers on child outcomes in rural Thailand: Evidence from a social pension reform," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).
    14. Ashwini Sebastian & Ana Paula de la O Campos & Silvio Daidone & Noemi Pace & Benjamin Davis & Ousmane Niang & Luca Pellerano, 2019. "Cash Transfers and Gender Differentials in Child Schooling and Labor: Evidence from the Lesotho Child Grants Programme," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 45(S1), pages 181-208, December.
    15. Elena Nebolsina, 2020. "The Impact of Demographic Burden on Insurance Density," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(4), pages 21582440209, December.
    16. Weller, Jürgen, 2008. "Labour markets, worker protection and lifelong learning in a global economy: experiences and perspectives of Latin America and the Caribbean," Libros y Documentos Institucionales, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 2899 edited by Eclac.
    17. Agüero,Jorge M. & Fasola,Eniola, 2022. "Distributional Policies and Social Cohesion in a High-Unemployment Setting," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10103, The World Bank.
    18. Bratti, Massimiliano & Mendola, Mariapia, 2014. "Parental health and child schooling," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 94-108.
    19. Lin, Yujie, "undated". "The Impact of China's New Rural Pension Scheme on Family Labor Supply: Does the Beneficiary's Gender Matter?," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274181, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Ponczek, Vladimir, 2011. "Income and bargaining effects on education and health in Brazil," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 242-253, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:74:y:2019:i:3:p:506-515.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.