Suchergebnisse

An extensive, large-scale relocation of public institutions occurred in South Korea in the 2010s. The local policy governing this relocation was implemented to mitigate metropolitan concentration and advance equitable regional development. The policy's ultimate goal was to bolster the fiscal foundations of local governments to facilitate regional economic self-sufficiency. This study employs a synthetic differences-in-differences methodology to analyze the repercussions of public institution relocation on local government revenue. Ultimately, our findings fail to provide unequivocal evidence of a significant impact on various local revenue streams; in fact, they indicate a decrease in total revenue per capita. This study intimates that, from a local fiscal perspective, the efficacy of local reinvigoration policies via the relocation of public institutions may be limited, underscoring the importance of implementing a range of supplementary measures to facilitate the transformation of these urban centers into self-sustaining entities. Points for practitioners This study highlights the limitations of relying solely on large-scale relocation of public institutions to stimulate local economies in South Korea. Despite policy intentions, our findings indicate a decrease in total revenue per capita, suggesting a need for supplementary measures to foster sustainable urban development. Practitioners should consider diverse strategies beyond relocation, emphasizing holistic approaches to bolster regional economic self-sufficiency and mitigate metropolitan concentration for equitable growth.

This article presents evidence that high-ranking public officials in the Ministry of Strategy and Finance in South Korea affect local budget allocation. Applying a regression model on a uniquely constructed panel dataset, I found that the growth rate of the per-capita National Subsidy, which is a subcomponent of the national budget susceptible to discretionary behaviors, increases approximately 7 percent in the hometowns of high-ranking bureaucrats. To validate these findings and address causality, I conducted a battery of auxiliary robustness checks, which yielded confirmatory results. This study also found that enhancing transparency in the budget allocation system can alleviate concerns about bureaucratic hometown favoritism, providing suggestive evidence of bureaucrats' rent-seeking behaviors without government transparency.

In modern democratic politics, members of parliament (MPs) engage in legislative activities influenced by political parties and voters. This article examines how electoral margins within constituencies affect MPs' party loyalty in roll call votes. We analyzed all bills of the 20th Korean National Assembly (2016–2020), providing evidence for the marginal hypothesis from the perspective of an emerging democratic country. We found MPs were more likely to deviate from the party's position in roll call votes during their term where voting margins were greater. This relationship was heterogeneous according to MPs' and local districts' conditions. We found feedback effects, whereby political parties and voters reflected the MPs' party loyalty in the subsequent election. These results suggest that in Korea, where pork-centric regionalized politics have become solidified, voters tend to perceive MPs as representatives of political parties, and MPs constrained by tight voting margins seek to follow party discipline to ensure reelection.

Leaders do matter in formulating legal foundations that affect society's path of development. If these laws are gender discriminatory, they hinder the development of groups adversely affected by the system. This study empirically examines the relationship between female leaders and gendered laws in 190 countries between 1970 and 2020. We find that female leaders have been positively associated with enhancing gender equality in the legal system over the past five decades. Their effects on gender equality are heterogeneous, with higher positive impacts when their terms of office are longer. The effects are noticeable both in regions of high economic and social development and high legal gender disparity. Moreover, the results remain robust under multiple specifications of the period. Our findings suggest that individual female leaders can play a crucial role in shaping legal equality between men and women.

A momentous democratic protest against an authoritarian regime can affect individuals' social attitudes. This study empirically examined the impact of democratic movements on anti-authoritarian attitudes by focusing on the June Struggle of 1987 in South Korea, which was one of the most successful democratic uprisings in Korean history. Using representative survey data, we compared cohorts who started college before and after the year of the June Struggle. Because the year of college enrollment itself can act as an endogenous variable, we applied the fuzzy regression discontinuity method, using birthdate as an instrumental variable. We found that individuals who began attending college after the successful democratic movement tended to demonstrate stronger anti-authoritarian attitudes in their late thirties. A battery of robustness tests supported the results. This study's results reaffirm the argument that historical events can have enduring effects on social attitudes, helping us to understand one potential mechanism explaining anti-authoritarian attitudes in Korean society.

AbstractLawmakers' political spending plays an essential role in the representation of the public through legislative activities. Based on a rich dataset from South Korea, this study examines the relationship between political spending and legislative activities in the National Assembly. We focus on lawmakers' average legislative performance during the term rather than specific roll call votes by adopting novel measurements of legislative productivity and efficiency. We find that the total number of bill proposals increases when political spending increases, suggesting an improvement in lawmakers' legislative productivity. The timeliness of legislation is enhanced by reducing the processing period. However, little evidence exists that the passing and processing rates of legislation requiring bipartisan collaboration and political compromise are improved. The effects are heterogeneous by legislation and expenditure types, affiliated party, and electoral term. The results indicate that political spending has positive effects on lawmakers' individual productivity but restrictive effects on legislative efficiency.

Politicians' individual traits can influence policy outcomes. A local mayor has authority over the budget process and can affect the municipal budget allocation. This study empirically examined whether the mayor's gender affected the gendered budget in Korean cities between 2016 and 2020. Across various econometric designs, our results revealed little evidence that mayoral gender (women, in this case) affects the formulation and execution of the gendered budget. The results imply that the effects of female representation through a female leader are dependent on various socioeconomic contexts.