A Study on the transportation and communication expenditure burden of households in Korea and eight European countries

Abstract

This study compared the transportation and communication expenses of Korea and 8 European welfare states using the Korea’s Household Income and Expenditure Survey and the European Union’s Household Budget Survey in 2015. From its findings, this study derives a plan to reduce the household burden of transportation and communication costs. The transportation cost burden as a share of consumption expenditure for all households was in the 12 to 17% range in all countries compared, including Korea. The higher the income quintile, the higher the level of transportation cost burden was as a percentage of consumption expenditure. The household telecommunications cost burden as a share of consumption expenditure was higher in Korea (at 5.7%) than in any other country examined in this study. The lower the income quintile, the higher the transportation cost burden was as a share of consumption expenditure. Based on the results of this analysis, we proposed a policy to alleviate the burden of transportation and communication costs.