A Study on Factors Affecting Welfare Attitudes of Korean: Analyzing Effects of Equity Perception

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to advise a method to spread the pro-welfare attitudes by defining the causal relationship between welfare attitude and equity perception. The analysis data for this study is the additional research data from the 2nd Korea Welfare Panel Survey(2007). The welfare attitude, the dependent variable, is measured by ‘the preference between economic growth and distribution’, ‘the attitude towards the government responsibility for reducing the income gap’, ‘the attitude towards tax-increase for strengthening the welfare’, and ‘the preference between selectivism and universalism’. The equity perception, which is the independent variable, is estimated with ‘the equity perception on income distribution’ and ‘the equity perception on tax burden’. As for the statistical method, a multiple regression model which puts both independent variables and control variables is used. The results of this study are as follows. First, the lower level of the equity perception on income distribution is associated with the higher preference for distribution. Second, the lower levels of the equity perceptions on income distribution and tax burden are related to the higher positive attitude toward the government responsibility of reducing the income gap. Third, the higher level of the equity perception on income distribution is associated with the higher positive attitude towards tax-increase for strengthening the welfare. No relation is found between ‘the level of the equity perception’ and ‘the preference between selectivism and universalism’. The results highlight the importance of the prevention of ‘the critical optimism’ in order to reach the national agreement on strengthening the welfare. Also, it stresses the need of the strategy to broaden the national agreement on tax payment solving the duplicity towards the welfare attitude.