소득주도 성장 관련 유럽 및 미국의 정책사례 연구 (Income-Led Growth: Policy Cases of Europe and the U.S.)

Abstract

Korean Abstract: 본 보고서는 현 정부가 '소득주도 성장'을 위해 추진하고 있는 주거비 경감 및 공공 사회 서비스 고용 확대에 대해 참고가 될 수 있는 유럽 및 미국의 현황과 사례를 분석하였다. 또한 최저임금 인상과 관련하여 OECD 회원국 패널자료를 이용한 국가 단위 실증분석을 실시하였다. 본 보고서의 연구결과는 해당 분야 정부정책의 설계, 집행, 평가에 유용한 참고자료가 될 것이다. English Abstract: This report aims at providing a reference for the Korean government’s policies for an income-led growth. Among the policies discussed or implemented for the goal of an income-led growth, it focuses on housing-cost reduction (Chapter 2), employment expansion in the public and social services (Chapter 3) and minimum-wage increase (Chapter 4). Housing cost and employment in the public and social services have been chosen, because the level of awareness and interest on these topics is too low despite their importance. On these topics, the Korean government can learn from Europe, where welfare in general is known be highly developed, as well as from the U.S., where many policies in these areas have been employed to counter economic crises. In particular, this report compares the current state of Korea in these areas to those of Europe and the U.S., and delves into the cases that stand out in that comparison. Regarding minimum wage, which has already been widely discussed, this report does not add more cross-country comparison or case study. Instead, considering the ongoing debates on the impact of minimum-wage increase in Korea, it aims at providing scientific evidence on the impact of minimum-wage increase. For this, it empirically analyzes the impact of minimum-wage increase at the country level using a panel of the OECD countries. The main findings of this report are as following. First, for the share of housing rents in disposable income, Korea ranks mid-low compared to European countries and the U.S. At the same time, Korea’s housing subsidies as a proportion to the GDP are also low when compared to the same countries. The U.K. and France have significantly higher subsidies, for significantly more households than Korea. The U.K. has a finer-tuned design of housing policy. The focus of housing policy in the U.S. has shifted from housing development to rent subsidies.