North Korea's COVID-19 policy dilemma: epidemic prevention conflicting with trade.

Background: Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, striking a delicate balance between sustaining economic activity and safeguarding public health has become a crucial concern. The border closures for COVID-19 prevention have further intensified concerns for North Korea, which conducts over 90% of its trade with China and Russia, countries sharing its borders.

Methods: This study aims to scrutinize North Korea's response to these competing imperatives by examining the impact of border closures on the country's trade dynamics with China and Russia.

Can COVID-19 mark a tipping point for home-based telework? Conflict between untact technology and rigid institutions in Korea.

Background: Previously, Korea showed a passive attitude toward home-based telework; however, this stance rapidly changed after the COVID-19 pandemic. Sustaining home-based telework entails adjusting productivity conditions, introducing performance-based evaluations, and modifying employment rules, as required by the Korean Labor Standards Act, which demand the consent of most workers. This study aims to explore the societal and institutional shifts necessary for ongoing home-based telework post-pandemic.

Parenthood and Life Satisfaction in Stratified Labor Market: Evidence From Korea.

This study analyzes the effect of parenthood on life satisfaction with a stratified labor market using the Korean Labor and Income Study. For regular female workers at large companies, the decrease in life satisfaction due to parenthood is higher compared to that for men in a similar position due to the high opportunity cost of a career break following childbirth. For men who are non-regular employees at Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the effect of parenthood on life satisfaction is negative because they are the income earners of the family but earn a relatively low income at SMEs.

Young people are medically invulnerable to COVID-19 but vulnerable in the labor market: Korean evidence.

Background: COVID-19 and its preventive measures affect not only the state of public health but also the economy. The economic impact of COVID-19 varies depending on age, and it is argued that young people have experienced the greatest negative impacts.

Methods: This study was an analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in January 2020 on the Korean labor market.

Uneven Use of Remote Work to Prevent the Spread of COVID-19 in South Korea's Stratified Labor Market.

This research analyzed whether South Korean companies adopted remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on the dual labor market structure comprising of primary sector (large corporations) and secondary sector [small and medium enterprises (SMEs)]. Companies in the dual labor market were classified based on firm size. We used August supplementary data from the Economically Active Population Survey covering 2017-2020 provided by Statistics Korea.

Older Adults' Avoidance of Public Transportation after the Outbreak of COVID-19: Korean Subway Evidence.

With the spread of the coronavirus worldwide, nations have implemented policies restricting the movement of people to minimize the possibility of infection. Although voluntary restriction is a key factor in reducing mobility, it has only been emphasized in terms of the effect of governments' mobility restriction measures. This research aimed to analyze voluntary mass transportation use after the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak by age group to explore how the perception of the risk of infection affected the public transit system.

The impact of city epidemics on rural labor market: The Korean Middle East Respiratory Syndrome case.

This study compared the changes in employment in urban areas in Korea, where a large number of people were quarantined by the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome epidemic, to those in rural areas, where only a small number of people were quarantined using the difference-in-difference approach. The results indicate that the urban labor market experienced a direct effect in terms of a reduction in employment of the group vulnerable to the epidemic while the rural labor market experienced an indirect effect on its economy through a reduction in employment resulting from a decline in consumption and leisure activities. If one looks into the employment in the accommodation and leisure industry, which sustained the most severe blow, dropped to its lowest level right after the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak.

Effects of Working Couple's Retirement Sequence on Satisfaction in Patriarchal Culture Country: Probing on Gender Difference.

We examined the effects of the differences in the retirement sequence (i.e., who retires first between spouses) on satisfaction in Korea of patriarchal culture.

The impact of epidemics on labor market: identifying victims of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in the Korean labor market.

Background: The vulnerability approach suggests that disasters such as epidemics have different effects according not only to physical vulnerability but also to economic class (status). This paper examines the effect of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome epidemic on the labor market to investigate whether vulnerable groups become more vulnerable due to an interaction between the socio-economic structure and physical risk.

Methods: This paper examines the effect of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome epidemic on the labor market by considering unemployment status, job status, working hours, reason for unemployment and underemployment status.

A Comparative Study on Retirement Process in Korea, Germany, and the United States: Identifying Determinants of Retirement Process.

This study classifies the retirement process and empirically identifies the individual and institutional characteristics determining the retirement process of the aged in South Korea, Germany, and the United States. Using data from the Cross-National Equivalent File, we use a multinomial logistic regression with individual factors, public pension, and an interaction term between an occupation and an education level. We found that in Germany, the elderly with a higher education level were more likely to continue work after retirement with a relatively well-developed social support system, while in Korea, the elderly, with a lower education level in almost all occupation sectors, tended to work off and on after retirement.