Analysis of the Joint Distribution of Income and Wealth Among Households Headed by Middle-Aged and Older People

Abstract

The pace of population aging has been unprecedentedly fast in Korea, and this makes old age income security an increasingly important public concern for people in the country. Whereas many studies conducted on old age income security have focused on household income, little research attention has been paid to household assets. The importance of household assets lies in that they provide against unexpected situations that involve, for example, job loss, illness, or family breakdown. Also, assets with high liquidity could themselves be a source of consumption fund. Research on senior citizens' asset wealth only began gaining momentum in Korea as recently as the early 2000s, before which crude data on senior citizens' assets was difficult to come by. Income poverty is usually expressed in terms of "relative poverty,"which means having an income below half the equivalized median income. In Canada, relative poverty is measured in general by what is known as "Low‐Income Cut‐Offs."People living on less than 60 percent of median income are regarded in the EU as being in poverty. In the United States, poverty line is equivalent to 30~35 percent of the equivalized median income. Wealth poverty is a term much less agreed upon. This study is aimed at looking at some of the key features and implications of household wealth held by middle‐aged and older Koreans.