The Effect of Education on Welfare Exit: Prospects of Life As a Mediator

Background and Purpose:  Many poverty researches have emphasized the role of education and its direct effects on welfare exit. Policy makers who designed welfare-to-work program or self-reliance program for Korean welfare recipients also believed that the education should work for those recipients without relevant job skills.  However, despite enormous investment on education through the self-reliance program for the past 17 years, the program has often been criticized as inefficient in reducing welfare dependency.

Some researchers have wondered if there was a gap between the goal of self-reliance program set by policy makers and the perceived goal of the program by the welfare recipients. Others have shown that welfare recipients rationally took advantage of the program with no intent to exit welfare. Still others have argued that psychological aspect of welfare recipients be well addressed to achieve the goal of the program.

To better understand the role the education in the program, the effects of the education on welfare exit should be re-examined. In this context, this paper first qualitatively analyzes the insiders’ views on the role of education by utilizing interviews with the welfare recipients. Then it formulates hypotheses on the role of education and creates a statistical model based on quantitative approach. Finally, it empirically tests the hypotheses and provide policy implications based on the research findings.

  

Methods:

Qualitative Data and Samples: Among three waves (2011-2013) of qualitative Korea Welfare Panel Study(KWPS), 14 cases are collected for qualitative analysis.

Quantitative Data and Samples: 1,251 cases are selected from the 7th Korea Welfare Panel Study (KWPS).

Methods: Based on the sequential exploratory design, this study qualitatively analyzes the welfare experiences of the recipients and their perceptions on the role of education. Then it creates a Structural Equation Model(SEM), which shows a linked path from education to prospects of welfare exit. Using AMOS 6.0, research hypotheses and the model fitness are tested, and RMSEA, CFI, IFI, TLI score are presented as well.

Findings: Qualitative findings suggest that the education is perceived as means to improve prospect of life. It also suggests that the prospects of life are essential to pursue life after welfare. The outcomes of SEM suggest that prospects of life play a mediating role between education and the prospects of welfare exit.

Implications: The findings suggest that the role of education should be understood not only in a direct link to the welfare exit but in the context of recipients’ psychological aspects. Instead of simply leaning on an assumption that the education will lead to success of the recipients, policy makers should develop a program that would enhance the prospects of life of the poor to achieve the goal of anti-poverty program.