Do Dropouts Benefit from Training Programs? Korean Evidence Employing Methods for Continuous Treatments

Failure of participants to complete training programs is pervasive in existing active labor market programs both in developed and developing countries. The proportion of dropouts in prototypical programs ranges from 10 to 50 percent of all participants. From a policy perspective, it is of interest to know if dropouts benefit from the time they spend in training since these programs require considerable resources. We shed light on this issue by estimating the average employment effects of different lengths of exposure to a program by dropouts in a Korean job training program. To do this, we employ parametric and semiparametric methods to estimate effects from continuous treatments using the generalized propensity score, under the assumption that selection into different lengths of exposure is based on a rich set of observed covariates. We find that participants who drop out later – thereby having longer exposures – exhibit higher employment probabilities one year after receiving training, and that marginal effects of additional exposure to training are initially fairly small, but increase sharply past a certain threshold of exposure. One implication of these results is that this and similar programs could benefit from providing incentives for participants to stay longer in the program.training programs, dropouts, developing countries, continuous treatments, generalized propensity score, dose-response function

Creating Cultural Identity for Sustainable Urban Development A Case Study of the City of Cheongju in Korea

Cities, culture and sustainability are the key words preparing for the twenty-first century. The three themes are so broad for their own sake and closely interrelated that it may not be able to draw any universal and practical consensus even among the nations involved in this comparative case study. It will proceed by the conceptual underpinnings of three themes and by sketching country-specific characteristics of urban system, culture and the sustainability of cities, and then charting out some directions to cope with desirable future. The City of Cheongju has been selected for a case study, as the city is a typical medium-sized city with strong enthusiasm to be a culturally and environmentally sustainable city in Korea. Most of humanity will soon live in cities, and the trend of urbanization is irreversible

A Critical Review of the New Community Movement of Korea with Special Reference to the Concept of Basic Needs Approach

This paper is intended to review the New Community Movement of Korea in the context of the basic needs approach to development. Although a number or studies on the New Community Movement (NCM) which has drawn wide attentions from the countries struggling to uplift the situation of the poverty-stricken rural areas has been conducted, methods and inquiries into the NCM have been largely made without specific reference to a newly emerging philosophy of the basic needs approach to development. In this connection, this study is to shed some lights on commonalities and possible lessons to be learnt by comparing the NCM and the basic needs approach at the micro-level of regional development. Within little more than a decade, strategies of developing nations have shifted from an almost exclusive concern with economic growth, capital-intensive industrialization and central control of development planning. Recently, a new philosophy of development calls for moderate, diversified and balanced growth, integrated spatial development, and increased agricultural production. It aims at more equitable distribution of income for the rural poor, labor intensive industrialization, and decentralized planning and decision-making. However, this train of thoughts needs to he calibrated to take its foot on ground to graft a new thought of development into an unique socio-economic environment of country. The new approach to development being advocated by international circles or motivated by the country's indigeneous awareness is largely based on growth with equity centering on agriculture and the poor majority of the nation

Socio-Economic Considerations for Planning of a New Capital City

Capital cities embody and exemplify the nature of their mother nations and are a reflection of the wealth, organization, and power of the political entity. Some nations have poured considerable resources into their wholly new capitals in order to create there an image of the nation as it hopes to be in the future, a goal for the people's aspirations, and a source of national pride. The creation of a new capital city, however, has not always been based on such a wide range of motives. The transfer of the capitals of some nations to new sites have invariably been political acts. In the case of Korea, the decision to shift the capital to a new site is based on several diverse motivations. The first of these is national security. More than ten million people are under the risk of direct bomb attack from aggressive North Korea, living only 40 miles away from the Demilitarized Zone. One out of every five Koreans is now living in Seoul, and the pace of immigration into Seoul shows no prospect of slowing down. The locational disruption raised by the national territorial division has jeopardized the spatial efficiency of rational development, as the over-concentration of people and industries in a skewed location of the capital city at the northeastern corner of the country has been generating much more movement than would occur with a central capital. External diseconomies of scale in Seoul already have become significant and are expected to become aggravated as time goes on. All of these facts have incrementally combined to bring about the decision to move the capital

Urban Corridors in Pacific Asia

Although terms such as 'urban corridor' and 'Pacific Asia' have never been precisely defined, these two metaphors reflect an unprecedented sense of community and opportunity on the Asian Pacific Rim. The Time magazine in its January 11 and February 22 editions heralded two exciting cover stories relevant to the theme of this paper. The cover stories went on as follows: Megacities, the world's sprawling urban centers are rife with problems and filled with promise. By the millions the come, the ambitions and the down-trodden of the world drawn by the strange magnetism of urban life. For centuries the progress of civilization had been defined by the inexorable growth of cities. Now the world is about to pass a milestone. More people will live in urban areas than in the countryside. Does the growth of megacities portend an apocalypse of global epidemics and pollution? Or will the remarkable stirrings of self-reliance that can be found in some of the point the way to their salvation? Trade across the Pacific Rim already surpasses its transatlantic counterpart. With the apparent dawning of the Pacific Age years ahead of schedule, the East Asia will continue to set the world pace for prosperity

Growth and Management of Mega-Cities : The Case of Seoul

Seoul will reach its 600th anniversary in 1994 as the capital of Korea. Yet Seoul is a metropolis in the making. The phenomenal growth of the city is both consequence and a driving force behind the unprecedented socio-economic change that has transformed a pastoral preindustrial society into one of the world's fastest growing economies and a highly enterprising industrial nation. The transformation has been overwhelmingly abrupt, quickpaced and pervasive. Seoul has been a pivotal in this progress of transformation. Backed by its long· standing prestige as the center of power under a highly centralized politico·administrative system, Seoul has attracted a concentration of people and resources. In 1960, Seoul did not appear in the rank of 25 mega cities but marked 15th largest city in 1980 and is expected to become 7th largest city in the world in the year of 2000. Seoul has grown from an abscure national city in the 1960's to one of the world cities now. As of 1989, its population is approaching to about 11 millions and is still increasing by 500 persons in a day. However, Seoul seems to enter into another phase of urban growth that its metropolitan area comprising the Special City of Seoul and contiguous smaller municipalities has experienced most rapid growth in terms of population and industrial distribution