Roemer's Conception of Equal Opportunity and Korea's Income Tax-Benefit Policy (in Korean)

Woocheol Kim () and Woojin Lee ()
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Woocheol Kim: SK Research Institute
Woojin Lee: Korea University

Economic Analysis (Quarterly), 2009, vol. 15, issue 3, 129-168

Abstract: Adopting Roemer's conception of equal opportunity and using Korea’s micro-survey data (the Korea Labor and Income Panel Studies) during the period of 2001-2005, we calculate the extent to which Korea’s tax-benefit policies correct unequal opportunities for income acquisition among its citizens. In Roemer’s definition, a tax-benefit policy equalizes opportunities if it makes the socio-economic achievement of individuals be a function only of their efforts, not of their circumstances. To partition the samples into types based on circumstances, we use two different typologies of individuals: one (EDU typology) characterizes each individual according to the level of education of the more highly educated parent (usually father in Korea) and the other (OCC typology) characterizes the individual by his father's occupation (OCC_PA1, OCC_PA2, OCC_PA3). Our samples consist of those individuals who are male heads of household 35-55 years old. We use two definitions of income: standard income (ST-income) and equivalence income (EQ-income). Our main findings are the following. First, the EOP tax rates in Korea are quite comparable to those of Spain, Italy, the UK, and the US. Out of the eleven countries studied in Roemer et al. (2003), they are the four countries that have the highest EOP tax rates. Our analysis thus suggests that opportunities in Korea are as unequal as those in the four countries. Second, the observed marginal tax rates in Korea are, however, significantly smaller than those in the four countries. This suggests that Korean tax-benefit policies have played almost no role in correcting unequal opportunities for income acquisition among its citizens.

Keywords: Equality of Opportunity; Optimal Taxes; Circumstances; Efforts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D6 H2 H5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bok:journl:v:15:y:2009:i:3:p:129-168

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