Precarious working youth and pension reform in the Republic of Korea and Italy

This paper focuses on two aspects of the welfare state: the old age pension system and the labor market, where the majority of youth are working in precarious jobs. We discuss the interplay between pension funds and the increase in young atypical workers by studying the case of Italy and the Republic of Korea, closely analyzing the projected benefit level of both standard and nonstandard workers among the youth population in Korea in order to assess where young workers will find themselves after retirement age and what Korea can learn from the case of Italy.This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2012S1A3A2033416)

The Evolution of Welfare Production Regimes in East Asia: A Comparative Study of Korea, Japan, and Taiwan

This study examines the evolution of a dualistic welfare production regime in Korea and Japan, with Taiwan as a contrasting case. It examines how institutions evolved during the industrialization period in the three countries. Taking the view of historical institutionalism, the Varieties of Capitalism approach (Hall & Soskice, 2001) provided theoretical grounds for analyzing the variation of welfare production regimes in East Asia. The study argues that historical events (in Japan, the end of World War II and the Allied occupation; in Korea, the influx of foreign aid followed by the Korean War and the military government; in Taiwan, the defeat of the Kuomintang and ethnic divisions) created a critical juncture for these countries institutional developments. Korea and Japan developed large-company-oriented welfare production regimes, while Taiwans regime was more small and medium size enterprises (SMEs)-oriented. The dualistic welfare production regime of large companies and small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in Korea and Japan is further explained by the functional equivalent welfare system that developed together with each countrys production regime

Changes in Economic Activity, Skills and Inequality in the Service Economy

This paper aims to understand how wage inequality is associated with different level and kind of skills in service economy. Our logic of argument, changes in economic activity and skills in the service economy, is suggested following our observation on changes in skill by examining the International Standard of Industrial Classification of all Economies (ISIC) and the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO). Then we examine how the service sector contributes to total income inequality since the 1980s through conducting a MLD (Mean Logarithmic Deviation) based decomposition analysis with four selected countries, Germany, United States, Sweden and Taiwan, using the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Database. Overall, the findings suggest that inequality within the service sector contributes most to total inequality. Among the three skill levels in service sector, inequality within the middle skill level contributed most to the total service sector inequality in all four selected countries

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

25th annual computational neuroscience meeting: CNS-2016

The same neuron may play different functional roles in the neural circuits to which it belongs. For example, neurons in the Tritonia pedal ganglia may participate in variable phases of the swim motor rhythms [1]. While such neuronal functional variability is likely to play a major role the delivery of the functionality of neural systems, it is difficult to study it in most nervous systems. We work on the pyloric rhythm network of the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion (STG) [2]. Typically network models of the STG treat neurons of the same functional type as a single model neuron (e.g. PD neurons), assuming the same conductance parameters for these neurons and implying their synchronous firing [3, 4]. However, simultaneous recording of PD neurons shows differences between the timings of spikes of these neurons. This may indicate functional variability of these neurons. Here we modelled separately the two PD neurons of the STG in a multi-neuron model of the pyloric network. Our neuron models comply with known correlations between conductance parameters of ionic currents. Our results reproduce the experimental finding of increasing spike time distance between spikes originating from the two model PD neurons during their synchronised burst phase. The PD neuron with the larger calcium conductance generates its spikes before the other PD neuron. Larger potassium conductance values in the follower neuron imply longer delays between spikes, see Fig. 17.Neuromodulators change the conductance parameters of neurons and maintain the ratios of these parameters [5]. Our results show that such changes may shift the individual contribution of two PD neurons to the PD-phase of the pyloric rhythm altering their functionality within this rhythm. Our work paves the way towards an accessible experimental and computational framework for the analysis of the mechanisms and impact of functional variability of neurons within the neural circuits to which they belong

Labour market risks and institutional determinants

Korea and Japan stand out in the group of OECD countries for their rapid increase in, and high levels of, non-standard employment. The empirical evidence leads us to a two-part puzzle: Why are there so many precarious workers in Korea and Japan? And what are the institutional determinants of such labour market risks? This thesis commences by introducing the concept of 'risk shift', and the fuzzy-set ideal type approach is employed to conduct a comparative study of 18 countries. The labour market risks in Korea and Japan are then compared in an international context with 16 selected OECD countries. Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis is employed to investigate the institutional determinants of labour market risks. It then focuses on the increase in non-standard employement in Korea and Japan. Taiwan is also included as a contrasting case, the study taking an institutional approach employing Comparative Historical Analysis. Chapters employing CHA examine how the different welfare production regimes evolved and how they matter in explaining the high rate of non-standard employment in East Asia. The new risk discussion, the argument on the definition and impact of deindustrialization and lastly theories on East Asian welfare states are revisited in the conclusion of this thesis. Finally, I critically discuss the notion of precarious workers and highlight the centrality of social policy that their organizational configuration affects political culture, the formation of the production system, the structure of the labour market and the kind of risk a country could experience

Labour market risks and institutional determinants: an international comparative study of institutions and non-standard employment with a focus on East Asia

Korea and Japan stand out in the group of OECD countries for their rapid increase in, and high levels of, non-standard employment. The empirical evidence leads us to a two-part puzzle: Why are there so many precarious workers in Korea and Japan? And what are the institutional determinants of such labour market risks? This thesis commences by introducing the concept of 'risk shift', and the fuzzy-set ideal type approach is employed to conduct a comparative study of 18 countries. The labour market risks in Korea and Japan are then compared in an international context with 16 selected OECD countries. Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis is employed to investigate the institutional determinants of labour market risks. It then focuses on the increase in non-standard employement in Korea and Japan. Taiwan is also included as a contrasting case, the study taking an institutional approach employing Comparative Historical Analysis. Chapters employing CHA examine how the different welfare production regimes evolved and how they matter in explaining the high rate of non-standard employment in East Asia. The new risk discussion, the argument on the definition and impact of deindustrialization and lastly theories on East Asian welfare states are revisited in the conclusion of this thesis. Finally, I critically discuss the notion of precarious workers and highlight the centrality of social policy that their organizational configuration affects political culture, the formation of the production system, the structure of the labour market and the kind of risk a country could experience