Multidimensional Elderly Poverty Index

Abstract

Whereas the income poverty rate among Korean seniors reached around 46 percent as of 2015, according to the OECD’s standard, about 45 percent of income-deprived seniors (nearly 21 percent of all seniors) were multidimensionally poor seniors deprived in terms of assets, housing, or both, in addition to being deprived in terms of income. Concerning the question as to whether half of all Korean seniors are as poor as the OECD’s relative poverty standard indicates, based upon our analysis, we can say that they are not, at least from a multidimensional perspective on poverty. Policymakers thus need to revisit and consider whether they should prioritize all seniors categorized as poor under the OECD’s standard as primary targets of policy efforts to alleviate poverty.