한국지방행정연구원

Identification and Institutionalization of Post-Project Finance for Urban Regeneration: Evidence from Urban Regeneration Funds and Final-Account Expenditure Structures of Korean Basic Local Governments Urban regeneration depends on post-project operation and maintenance, yet limited empirical attention has been paid to how such finance is identified and institutionalized in local government final accounts. This study analyzes direct urban regeneration funds and linked urban-regeneration-related funds using a nationwide municipal panel for 2014–2024, and conducts a case analysis of 12 municipalities by coding 2023–2024 final-account statements and fund accounts. The analysis combines accounting channels, funding structures, expenditure types, and project timelines. The results show that direct funds are extremely rare, and that most municipalities remain non-adopters in the first-adoption survival analysis. Urban decline and fiscal-capacity variables do not consistently explain fund adoption or scale. Case findings further show that operation- and management-related expenditures are mostly absorbed into general accounts and are difficult to attribute clearly as post-project finance without project-timeline information. The study proposes standardized itemization, earmarking within general and special accounts, and complementary use of funds as a staged institutionalization strategy.

2026.9.30.

Ha, Ji-Man

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A Study on Fiscal Shock Types and Changes in Local Government Expenditure Priorities: Comparing Transitory Shocks and Structural Shortfalls Using Panel Regression and BERTopic This study examines whether different types of fiscal shocks are associated with different patterns of expenditure-priority adjustment among Korean basic local governments. Using a municipality-year panel of 226 local governments from 2019 to 2024, the study distinguishes the 2021 shock as a transitory deferral-type shock and the 2024 shock as a structural shortfall-type shock, measuring exposure to each shock with an indicator matched to its originating channel. The dependent variables include functional expenditure shares and rule-based shares of rigid and flexible expenditures from program-level data, analyzed with two-way fixed effects models, cluster bootstrap, and BERTopic. In 2021, fiscally stressed municipalities had lower shares of flexible expenditures, an effect robust to controlling for total expenditure. In 2024, municipalities more exposed to deteriorating revenue conditions showed higher shares of legally mandated redistributive expenditures and lower shares of discretionary expenditures. These findings suggest that fiscal-shock adjustment protects mandatory spending while discretionary spending absorbs the cuts.

2026.9.30.

Je Ung Ryu ･ Jeongha Oh

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A Study on the Political Characteristics of Local Government Heads and Distribution of Local Subsidies: Focusing on private subsidies This study empirically analyzed the impact of the political characteristics of local government heads on the allocation of local subsidies. To this end, a panel analysis was conducted on 17 metropolitan autonomous bodies for the period from 2021 to 2026. The results showed that, at the macro level of total volume, the total amount of local subsidies per resident decreased when a progressive-leaning head was in office compared to when a conservative-leaning head was in office; however, the influence of political variables was limited in specific categories such as social welfare subsidies and private capital subsidies. Horizontal party congruence between the local government head and the majority party of the local council had a positive (+) effect on the total amount of local subsidies and some private current subsidies, whereas it did not affect social welfare subsidies or private capital subsidies. Vertical party congruence between the local government head and the ruling party of the central government had a negative (-) effect on the total amount of local subsidies, but did not affect subsidies by specific category. Theoretically, this study overcame the limitations of existing research that relied solely on the total scale of local subsidies by identifying that politics operates in a fragmented manner according to the institutional and functional characteristics of subsidies. Policy-wise, it suggested establishing a budget management system that considers the institutional nature of subsidy items, moving away from fragmentary total volume controls.

2026.9.30.

Choi, Jeongyeol

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Fiscal Effects and Reform Options for Intergovernmental Matching Rates in Social Welfare Programs: A Simulation Analysis of Gyeonggi Province This study This study examines how the mismatch between policy design authority and fiscal responsibility in social welfare grant programs affects the fiscal management of local governments. It also estimates the fiscal effects of reforming matching rates according to the responsibility structure of each program. The analysis covers 9,225 social welfare grant programs implemented by 31 cities and counties in Gyeonggi Province in 2024. These programs include 4,100 central government grant programs and 5,125 provincial grant programs in the areas of basic livelihood security, support for vulnerable groups, childcare, family and women, and services for older adults and youth. Drawing on Korean studies of welfare-function assignment and intergovernmental cost sharing, this study derives classification criteria concerning legal mandates, benefit-setting authority, program choice, and operational responsibility. It then classifies the programs into five general types and one exceptional type according to the policy designer and the form of benefits. It then compares the static fiscal redistribution effects in 2024 and the long-term fiscal risks from 2024 to 2050 under Scenarios A, B, and C. Under Scenario B, the main reform scenario, the fiscal burden on cities and counties declines from KRW 4.2059 trillion to KRW 1.8744 trillion, representing a reduction of KRW 2.3314 trillion, or 55.4%. The average fiscal risk indicator in 2050 also falls from 0.368 under the current system to 0.161, while the number of local governments classified as facing serious or very serious long-term risks decreases from 14 to 7. These findings show that reforming social welfare matching rates goes beyond providing fiscal support or easing local fiscal burdens. Such reform can restructure intergovernmental fiscal relations by requiring the government that designs a policy to assume a corresponding share of its financial costs.

2026.9.30.

Min Hyo-sang ･ Shim Jaehwan ･ Eom Young Ho

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Factors Promoting Participation in Participatory Budgeting: The Interaction Effects of Policy Communication Message Framing and Cognitive Characteristics This study examines the effectiveness of policy communication messages designed to promote citizen participation in participatory budgeting and investigates how such effects vary according to individuals’ cognitive characteristics. Drawing upon the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), the study classifies policy communication messages into central cue-based messages and peripheral cue-based messages and analyzes the moderating effects of involvement and need for cognition on policy participation intention using Two-way ANOVA. Data were collected through an online experimental survey involving 228 respondents. The findings indicate that while the direct effect of message cue type on participation intention was not statistically significant, significant interaction effects were identified between message cue type and involvement, as well as between message cue type and need for cognition. Respondents with high levels of involvement and need for cognition responded more positively to central cue-based messages emphasizing the objectives, procedures, and expected outcomes of participatory budgeting. In contrast, respondents with lower levels of involvement and need for cognition demonstrated relatively higher participation intentions when exposed to peripheral cue-based messages highlighting celebrity endorsements, social participation, and ease of participation. These findings suggest that policy communication strategies for participatory budgeting should move beyond uniform message delivery and adopt fine-tuning message design strategies tailored to the cognitive characteristics of target audiences.

2026.9.30.

Chung, Yuree ･ Park, Yongsung

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Resource Allocation and Fiscal Resource Distribution under Korea’s Regional Balanced Development Special Account: Differences by Local Government Type and Fiscal Conditions This study examines how Korea’s Regional Balanced Development Special Account is allocated across local governments and how its inclusion changes the distribution of fiscal resources. Using panel data for 226 basic local governments from 2014 to 2024, we analyze changes in fiscal disparities using the coefficient of variation, Gini coefficient, and Theil index, and estimate separate panel regression models for cities and counties. The results show that per capita fiscal disparities across local government types increase after transfers from the Special Account are included. However, this increase becomes much smaller when the sample is limited to cities and counties, while disparities decrease when fiscal resources are standardized by standard fiscal needs. The reduction in within-type disparities observed under the local-tax-only baseline also disappears when the Local Shared Tax and adjustment grants are included. In the allocation analysis, lower fiscal capacity is associated with higher per capita transfers among cities only in the pooled model, whereas designation as a growth promotion area is positively associated with transfers among counties even in the two-way fixed-effects model. However, the county-level result should be interpreted with caution, as only seven counties experienced changes in designation status during the study period and the within R² of the two-way fixed-effects model was low. These findings suggest that the distributional effects of the Special Account should be evaluated by considering local government type, fiscal needs, and existing intergovernmental transfers rather than relying solely on per capita fiscal disparities.

2026.9.30.

Lim, JaeHoon

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Designing Fiscal Special Provisions for Special Autonomy Following Administrative Integration: Focusing on Intergovernmental Transfers and Fiscal Relations with Cities, Counties, and Autonomous Districts This study examines the fiscal special provisions stipulated in the Special Act on the Establishment of the Jeonnam–Gwangju Integrated Special Metropolitan City and explores institutional reforms required to provide a sustainable fiscal foundation for substantive special autonomy. Rather than focusing solely on expanding fiscal support for administrative integration, the study emphasizes the establishment of a decentralized fiscal framework that enables the integrated special metropolitan city to exercise transferred powers and functions with greater autonomy. The analysis finds that, although the current Special Act provides various fiscal measures, including central government financial support, special provisions for local tax rate adjustment, local bond issuance, and the establishment of special funds, further institutional improvements are required to secure stable general-purpose revenues, strengthen local taxing autonomy, and enhance discretion over intergovernmental transfers. Accordingly, this study proposes introducing either a fixed-rate allocation system for the Local Shared Tax or an additional fiscal-demand adjustment mechanism to ensure stable revenues, while linking such reforms to exemptions from the Standard Personnel Cost System and greater autonomy in organizational and personnel management. It also proposes restructuring national subsidies from individual and competitive project-based grants toward block grants, together with the transfer of financial resources commensurate with functions devolved from the central government. As an institutional mechanism for this reform, the study suggests establishing a separate account for the integrated special metropolitan city within the Special Account for Regional Balanced Development. In the longer term, fiscal resources associated with functions that have become firmly established as local responsibilities should gradually be converted into autonomous revenue sources, including local taxes. With respect to local taxation, the study further argues that taxing autonomy should be strengthened beyond the current special provision for tax-rate adjustment by expanding ordinance-making authority over local taxation and discretion in adjusting local tax reductions and exemptions, thereby enabling taxation policy to support strategic industries and attract investment. Finally, fiscal decentralization within the integrated special metropolitan city should accompany decentralization from the central government. To prevent fiscal authority from becoming concentrated at the metropolitan level, the transfer of functions to cities, counties, and autonomous districts should be accompanied by corresponding fiscal resources and an appropriate internal fiscal equalization mechanism. The study concludes that fiscal special provisions for the integrated special metropolitan city should be designed as an integrated framework for special autonomy that combines stable general-purpose revenues, greater discretion over intergovernmental transfers, enhanced local taxing autonomy, and internal fiscal decentralization rather than merely expanding the volume of central government financial support.

2026.9.30.

Heung Ju Kim ･ In Ho Kang ･ Yong Ju Kim

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Fiscal Decentralization, Government Quality, and Regional Disparities: A Simultaneous Equations Analysis This study examines the relationships between fiscal decentralization, government quality, and regional disparities. Utilizing a dataset of 24 OECD countries from 2000 to 2022, the analysis employs 3SLS-GMM and GMM-HAC estimation methods to account for the simultaneous dynamics between variables. The results find that fiscal decentralization, government quality, and regional disparities exert mutual influence on one another. Specifically, while fiscal decentralization contributes to enhancing the quality of government, it simultaneously exacerbates regional disparities. Conversely, regional disparities act as a negative driver for both fiscal decentralization and government quality. Meanwhile, a higher government quality serves to strengthen fiscal decentralization and mitigate regional disparities. These results imply that successful fiscal decentralization requires complementary policies focused on enhancing government quality and refining fiscal equalization schemes.

2026.9.30.

Hong, Geunseok ･ Kim, Yunjun

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Exploring Ways to Reconfigure Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations to Secure Autonomy in Local Fiscal Operations: Focusing on Changes in Local Finance Following Fiscal Decentralization This study takes an institutional-analytical approach to descriptively analyze the changes in local fiscal indicators before and after the implementation of the first (2019) and second (2020–2022) phases of fiscal decentralization, based on data from Local Finance 365. Although the government has actively promoted revenue decentralization through quantitative expansion, such as transferring national taxes to local taxes and increasing local consumption tax rates, the fiscal independence and fiscal autonomy rates of local governments have stagnated or declined, failing to improve actual revenue autonomy. On the expenditure side, the proportion of autonomous projects in basic local governments remains low at the 30% level, while the proportion of mandatory social welfare expenditures centered on national subsidy projects has skyrocketed, severely pressuring local finances. Notably, as of 2026, 110 out of 226 basic local governments cannot even cover their public officials’ personnel expenses with their own local tax revenues, indicating that local governments are burdened with excessive administrative functions compared to their financial procurement capabilities. Therefore, to restore substantive autonomy in local finance, the approach of merely expanding the fiscal scale quantitatively or uniformly transferring authority must be entirely revised. A principle must be established to carefully consider the financial capacity of local governments to cover the costs with local taxes when transferring national functions to them. Specifically, it is urgent to reclassify administrative functions based on administrative and financial criteria to a level that basic local governments can actually manage. In particular, universal services and statutory expenditures in the social welfare sector, which impose a heavy financial burden, should be reassigned to the upper-level government as functions of the central or regional governments to reallocate roles and simplify the financial structure.

2026.9.30.

Bangmoo Lee ･ Taeseop Yoon

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The Social Reconstruction of Disasters and the Meaning of Policy Demand: Focusing on Local Government Citizen Safety Insurance This study examines policy demand, institutional, and political factors influencing the adoption and operation of citizen safety insurance by local governments. Focusing on insurance as a discretionary policy instrument, it draws on a new institutionalist perspective to examine institutional legitimacy, isomorphic pressures, and political contexts. Using panel data from 226 local governments in Korea from 2015 to 2023, the study analyzes insurance adoption, the number of coverage items, and cumulative years of enrollment through panel regression. The results show that insurance adoption in the same metropolitan area has positive effects on insurance adoption and cumulative years of enrollment, while the regional level of coverage has a positive effect on the number of coverage items. The presence of a local ordinance and election periods have positive effects on all three dependent variables. The proportion of older adults has positive effects on insurance adoption and the number of coverage items, whereas the proportion of basic livelihood security recipients has a negative effect on cumulative years of enrollment. These findings suggest that citizen safety insurance cannot be explained solely by policy demand but should be understood as a policy process shaped by institutional and political contexts. This study contributes by integrating policy demand and new institutionalist factors to demonstrate the institutional context of local governments’ disaster safety policies.

2026.9.30.

Yang Su Yeon ･ Eom Young Ho

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Characteristics of Policy Instruments in Municipal Low Birth Rates Policy This study conducts a policy instrument analysis of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s “Happy Parents Project,” examining how a municipality selects and combines instruments within vertical relations with the central government and horizontal relations with private entities, and how these choices affect budget execution and implementation output. Coerciveness was classified, according to the degree to which policy targets are constrained, into regulations, service incentives, cash incentives, and information; directness was classified, according to the initiative a municipality exercises in its relationships with the central government and private entities, into supplementary, self-administered, and collaborative types. The policy instrument types Seoul mainly used were those providing service and cash incentives of moderate levels of coerciveness either directly or in collaboration with private entities, though implementation budgets showed some dependence on central government policy. Across the project’s five support areas, instrument mixes varied with policy objectives, existing central programs, and Seoul’s own policy commitment, while budgets were concentrated on each area’s primary instrument. This research identified the importance of horizontal cooperation within the municipality for self-administered service incentives, and of mutual instrument management between the municipality and private entities for collaborative cash incentives. The study therefore proposes strengthening the strategic use of self-administered service incentives, activating upward policy cooperation for self-administered cash incentives, and permitting limited self-administered regulation. It extends policy instrument typologies to the municipal level, though reliance on a single, atypical case limits the generalizability of the findings.

2026.9.30.

Ahn Hyun-Chan ･ Moon Jin-Young ･ Kim Hyun-Jung

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Perceived Evidence-Based Decision-Making Norms, Assignment Type, and Innovative AI Use: A Study of Policy Support Officers in Local Councils in Gyeonggi Province The diffusion of generative AI has increased scholarly interest in public officials’ acceptance and use of AI at work. Policy support officers in local councils, however, work under distinctive task-allocation, supervisory, and review arrangements while directly assisting council members. This study examines the association between policy support officers’ perceptions of evidence-based decision-making norms in their councils and innovative AI use and tests whether this association varies by assignment type. Innovative AI use encompasses interest in new ways of using AI, exploration of new functions, adjustment and experimentation with usage methods and settings, and application of these practices to work. Survey data were collected in January 2026 from 155 policy support officers working in 18 provincial and municipal councils in Gyeonggi Province. Hierarchical moderated regression models were estimated with education treated categorically and HC3 heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors. In the model before assignment type was added, the association between perceived evidence-based decision-making norms and innovative AI use was not statistically significant (B = .186, p = .226). The interaction between perceived norms and assignment type was statistically significant (B = −.643, p = .017) and increased the explained variance by 4.6 percentage points. A significant positive conditional association was found among officers jointly assigned to council members (B = .449, p = .011), whereas no statistically significant association was found among officers assigned to council secretariat departments (B = −.194, p = .365). The difference in slopes was maintained in models using council-clustered standard errors and council fixed effects. Models using positively and negatively worded items separately produced interaction coefficients with similar directions and magnitudes, although their statistical significance differed. These findings indicate that the association between perceived evidence-based decision-making norms and innovative AI use may be conditional on assignment type. Future research should examine discretion, task diversity, and supervisory and review procedures to clarify why the association differs by assignment type.

2026.9.30.

Hong, SangWoo ･ Kim, SungGeun ･ Kim, Minhan

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An Exploratory Study on the Performance of the Policy Support Officer System in Local Councils in Korean local councils in 2022 following the revision of the Local Autonomy Act, affects the legislative performance of local council members. Based on Resource-Based View theory, the study considers policy support officers as a professional human resource that local councils recruit, deploy, and develop, and questions whether both the quantity and the quality of the policy support officers are associated with legislative performance. The data on the management of policy support officer system and others were collected from 202 local councils. The analytical results indicate that the recruitment rate of policy support officer positions in local councils is positively associated with the number of bills initiated by council members. Two indicators of officer quality—the proportion of officers holding a master’s or doctoral degree and the amount of training provided—show a similarly positive association with bill initiation. These findings offer that securing the authorized number of support staff would not be sufficient. Moreover, the professionalism and expertise of these staff and training and development matter for legislative performance. Based on these results, the study proposes ideas to strengthen the policy support officer system of local councils.

2026.9.30.

Hwang, Seonghee ･ Wang, Tae Kyu

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The Study on the Autonomous Police System for Strengthening Decentralization: Focused on the Democratic Control in Police Administration This study aims to reconstruct the development process and key issues of the legislative discussions in the National Assembly concerning the democratic control of police administration under the autonomous police system, which was fully implemented in July 2021, and to diagnose the structural limitations of the current unification model in order to suggest directions for institutional improvement. To this end, we reviewed relevant laws and prior research, establishing legal consistency, resource consistency, and procedural consistency as the analytical criteria, and conducted a qualitative content analysis of the 502 cases identified by searching and re-verification of local police-related meeting minutes recorded in the National Assembly Minutes System from May 31, 1948, to August 3, 2026. The analysis showed that the National Assembly’s discussions expanded from the political neutrality of the police and the functional differentiation of national and local police to decentralization of local authority, regionally tailored public safety, external accountability for expanded police authority, the realization of autonomous police commissions, and the relationship between resident participation and judicial oversight. However, during the legislative process of the 2020 unification model, the separation of policy-making authority from the execution organization, personnel, budget, and information led to a mismatch between authority and responsibility, and resident participation also failed to translate into agenda-setting, budgeting, execution, and implementation monitoring. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the Autonomous Police Committee’s statutory authority to direct, supervise, and mediate, secure substantial resources such as an independent administrative body, balance the committee’s independence with its multi-layered accountability, and institutionalize a resident-participatory policing governance system.

2026.9.30.

Hwang Hae Dong

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The Effect of the Mismatch between Local Government Administrative Boundaries and Residents’ Living Spheres on Settlement Intention As transportation and information technologies advance and mega-regional restructuring accelerates, residents’ daily living spheres increasingly extend beyond the administrative boundaries of local governments. However, little empirical attention has been paid to how this spatial mismatch is associated with residents’ settlement intention. Using a nationwide survey of 1,000 Korean adults, this study examines whether the congruence between one’s daily living sphere and the administrative boundary of the local government of residence is associated with settlement intention, and whether this association operates through a sense of local belonging. The results show that living sphere–boundary congruence remains positively associated with settlement intention after controlling for sense of belonging, whereas the indirect path via belonging is not supported. Sense of belonging is significantly associated with settlement intention, but it is related to length of residence rather than to spatial congruence. Given the modest explanatory power of the models and the cross-sectional design, these findings tentatively suggest that the spatial congruence of daily life may be associated with settlement intention in a way distinct from, rather than through, the sense of local belonging. The study implies that regional policies could be extended from administrative units to actual living spheres, and that administrative consolidation may improve everyday convenience without necessarily guaranteeing an integrated sense of local belonging.

2026.9.30.

Hwang, Ji eun ･ Ha, Dong hyun

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Designing an Integrated Organizational Structure for Metropolitan Governments in Response to Population Decline: The Case of Daejeon Metropolitan City This study aims to explore an organizational response strategy for population decline and regional extinction at the local government level and to propose an integrated governance model for population, youth, and foreign resident policies in Daejeon Metropolitan City. As demographic challenges intensify, local population policies have expanded beyond low fertility and population aging to include youth retention, expansion of the living population, and support for the attraction and settlement of foreign residents. However, policy functions remain fragmented across multiple departments, resulting in limited coordination and reduced administrative efficiency. This study employed a literature review, statistical analysis, and comparative case studies of metropolitan governments to examine Daejeon’s response system to population decline. The findings reveal that Daejeon faces continuous population decline, youth out-migration, and insufficient settlement support for foreign residents. In addition, policy functions related to population, youth, and foreign residents are dispersed among several departments, creating structural limitations in policy coordination and integrated implementation. To address these issues, this study analyzed the organizational models of seventeen metropolitan governments and proposed the establishment of a new integrated organization, the Population Decline Response Policy Office. The proposed organization consists of three teams: the Population Vitality Policy Team, the Youth and University Policy Team, and the Foreign Resident Community Team. The organization is designed to strengthen strategic planning and coordination while integrating population, youth, and foreign resident policies under a unified governance framework.

2026.9.30.

Kwangwon Lee ･ Soodong Yoo ･ Hyeju Lee

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Measuring the Economic Value of Autonomous Bus Services for Transportation-Disadvantaged People in Seoul: Focusing on Dongdaemun-gu, Dongjak-gu, and Seodaemun-gu This study estimates the economic value of autonomous bus services for transportation-disadvantaged people in Seoul, focusing on Dongdaemun-gu, Dongjak-gu, and Seodaemun-gu, using the Double-Bounded Dichotomous Choice (DBDC) format of the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). Based on 616 valid responses, the estimated mean Willingness to Pay (WTP) was 1,457 KRW per ride. The results showed no statistically significant differences in WTP by gender, educational attainment or region. However, a statistically significant difference was found across age groups. In particular, respondents aged 60 and older showed a relatively higher WTP, suggesting that the service may be closely associated with the mobility needs of older adults. These findings suggest that autonomous bus services for the transportation-disadvantaged users can function as an essential urban public service by supplementing gaps in existing public transportation systems. This study contributes to the literature by quantitatively estimating the demand for an unrealized urban public service and providing empirical evidence that can inform for local government’s policy decisions regarding the provision of urban public services.

2026.9.30.

Sohyun Park ･ Younghyun Song

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Determinants of Day-Trip Concentration and Stay Conversion in Local-Government Tourism: The Case of Ganghwa County, Incheon This study analyzes the day-trip concentration of tourism used by a basic-level local government as a regional-development instrument, and the policy task of stay conversion, using Incheon’s Ganghwa County as a case. From the perspective of local fiscal self-reliance and regional economic revitalization, the local contribution of tourism is realized not through visitor counts but through length of stay and expenditure, and day-trip concentration constrains local consumption and employment linkages. Using microdata from the Korea National Tourism Survey (2022–2025), we analyze 1,004 Ganghwa-visiting trips with weighted estimation, seasonal-concentration indices, and hierarchical regressions. First, Ganghwa’s seasonal concentration is statistically indistinguishable from uniformity, so seasonal-dispersion policy has limited efficacy. Second, the structural problem is a severe day-trip concentration (21.7% overnight). Third, stay and expenditure are governed primarily by proximity (metropolitan residence), together with generation, household income, and household size. Notably, a cross-regional comparison shows that the sign of the proximity effect reverses with destination distance, confirming the distance-decay mechanism. The study extends distance-decay theory to the quality of tourism outcomes and argues that the policy lever for metropolitan-fringe local governments lies in stay conversion targeting proximity and generation, rather than in seasonal dispersion.

2026.9.30.

Ko, Hyeon-Jong

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Regional Disparities in Technology-to-Finance Conversion and Policy Implications for Local Government Intermediary Functions: An Analysis of RFCM This study examines regional variation in the use and outcomes of Korea’s technology-special listing system, which operates under a uniform national standard, and proposes an analytical framework to explain how technological accumulation is converted into capital market outcomes across regions. By shifting the analytical focus from firm-level listing outcomes to regional technology–finance conversion structures, this study extends research on the technology-special listing system to the regional scale. The Regional Financial Conversion Mechanism (RFCM) is proposed not as a confirmatory causal model, but as an exploratory analytical concept and composite index for comparing regional technology–finance conversion structures, with the aim of identifying structural patterns rather than establishing definitive causal relationships. Drawing on KOSDAQ-listed firms from 2005 to 2025 and firms listed through the technology-special listing system from 2014 to 2025, this study examines R&D investment patterns, regional distributions, location quotients (LQ), regional share effects (RS) from shift-share analysis, and the association between RFCM scores and listing outcomes. The results show that technology-special listings have expanded nationwide, yet their outcomes remain concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area and a few innovation hubs. Regional R&D investment does not show a consistent linear relationship with listing outcomes, whereas regions with higher RFCM scores tend to exhibit relatively stronger performance in technology-special listings. This pattern is interpreted as a structural association, not as evidence of a direct causal effect. The findings suggest that regional innovation policy should move beyond technology production support and incorporate technology–finance linkage structures and the policy-intermediary functions of local governments.

2026.9.30.

Jong Tag Han ･ Lak Kyoung Song

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Exit or Loyalty in the Era of Decentralization: The Effects of Settlement Environment and Regional Disparity Perception on the Settlement Consciousness of Gimhae Residents Over three decades of decentralization in Korea, institutional autonomy has advanced, yet the settlement foundation of local communities has weakened. This study examines how settlement environment perception and regional disparity perception shape the settlement consciousness of Gimhae residents, based on survey responses (N=700) analyzed through hierarchical regression and the PROCESS Macro. Settlement environment perception refers to residents’ evaluation of internal local conditions, and regional disparity perception to the sense of relative disadvantage formed through comparison with other regions. The analysis shows that more favorable evaluations of housing, safety, and employment conditions are associated with stronger settlement consciousness, whereas, among the disparity perceptions, only the perceived gap with neighboring cities significantly lowered it.

2026.9.30.

Jeong Min Oh ･ Sang Hyeb Lee

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Veterans’ Regional Settlement Intentions from a Local Population Policy Perspective: Focusing on Pre-Discharge Military Personnel in Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province This study examines veterans as a strategic target group for local population policy and analyzes factors associated with settlement intentions among military personnel approaching discharge in Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province. The study draws on a survey of 65 participants in a pre-discharge preparation program and supplementary interviews with 13 participants, including prospective veterans, public officials, and counselors. Hierarchical regression analysis assessed the relationships between settlement intention and five factors at the individual, regional, policy, and family levels. Among the same respondents, settlement intention was high while perceptions of local employment opportunities were the lowest, revealing a gap between willingness to settle and the conditions required to realize it. Although all five factors were significantly correlated with settlement intention, only family support among the independent variables, together with prior service experience in Gangwon as a control variable, remained significant in the final regression model. Multiple-response items and interviews also showed that family considerations were central to settlement decisions, whereas the lack of suitable jobs was the main constraint. These findings suggest that local veteran settlement policy should develop into a place-based population policy linking military experience with local employment, supporting family living conditions, and identifying potential settlers before discharge.

2026.9.30.

Kiyong Jeong ･ Heejin Ju

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Relative Importance of Policies for Promoting Youth Migration and Return from the Seoul Metropolitan Area to Non-Metropolitan Regions: An Expert AHP Analysis This study examines the relative importance of policies for promoting the migration and return of young adults from the Seoul Metropolitan Area to non-metropolitan regions, an issue that has emerged as a core task in responding to regional depopulation in Korea. Drawing on prior studies and Japan’s UIJ-turn support framework, a three-level hierarchy of 3 upper-, 9 mid-, and 27 sub-level factors was constructed, and an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) survey was conducted with 35 experts from academia, research institutes, and the public sector. The results show that industry and jobs policy (0.572) clearly outweighs population policy (0.244) and territorial policy (0.184) at the upper level. In terms of global weights, strengthening the relocation of public institutions to non-metropolitan regions (0.135), developing industrial clusters (0.086), and enhancing employment support services (0.081) ranked highest, and six of the seven top-ranked sub-factors belonged to industry and jobs policy, whereas disaster and risk management and awareness-raising measures were ranked lowest. These findings suggest that quality jobs are a precondition for youth migration, and that public-institution relocation and industrial cluster development should be pursued alongside youth-tailored living infrastructure and direct support for movers.

2026.9.30.

Kim, Sae Woon ･ Jeong, Hyun

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Impact of Industrial Policies Funded by the Local Extinction Response Fund on Youth In-Migration: Evidence on Lagged Effects This study examines the effects of different investment project types under the Local Extinction Response Fund (LERF) on youth population inflows in South Korea. The analysis focuses on 32 local governments designated as depopulation areas among 65 municipalities located in the Gyeongsang region, including Gyeongsangbuk-do, Gyeongsangnam-do, Daegu Metropolitan City, and Busan Metropolitan City. Using panel data covering the period from 2023 to 2024, this study empirically investigates the policy effects of major infrastructure-related investment projects financed by the LERF, specifically transportation, industry and employment, and housing projects, on both the resident youth population and the inflow of the youth living population. The empirical results indicate that a higher proportion of investment in industry and employment projects and housing projects has a positive effect on the inflow of the youth living population. Furthermore, these policy effects become statistically significant after approximately a one-year time lag rather than immediately following project implementation. These findings suggest that industry, employment, and housing projects require sufficient time for business attraction, job creation, and local economic revitalization to materialize before they can effectively increase youth visits, commuting, and short-term stays, thereby expanding the youth living population. Based on these findings, this study argues that the performance evaluation system for the Local Extinction Response Fund should move beyond annual assessments and adopt a medium- and long-term evaluation framework that explicitly accounts for policy time lags. In particular, extending the investment evaluation cycle from the current one-year period to two- or three-year intervals

2026.9.30.

Taekyoung Lim

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Is South Korea’s Monocentric Concentration Universal?: A Comparative Study through the Typology of Urban Primacy in High-Income Countries This study conducts an international comparative analysis of the static structure of urban primacy and its dynamic trajectories over a 50-year period (1975–2025) across 43 high-income countries. The static analysis identifies four types of urban systems: monocentric concentration, upper-tier concentration, balanced dispersion, and hierarchical dispersion. A latent class mixed model is then employed to classify long-term dynamic trajectories, yielding four patterns: rapid intensification, stability, decline, and gradual intensification. Korea is found to exhibit the most extreme form of monocentric concentration in static terms, while also following a trajectory of rapid intensification in urban primacy over time. The combination of a high level of monocentric concentration and its continued intensification is therefore better understood as a distinctive feature of the Korean urban system rather than as a general pattern among high-income countries. A review of previous studies on countries in which urban primacy has intensified over the past 50 years identifies several potential factors associated with such changes, including the self-reinforcing effects of agglomeration economies, the concentration of gateway functions, the incomplete scaling-up of second-tier cities, and the spatial bias of capital flows. These findings suggest that balanced regional development strategies in Korea should consider not only the degree of concentration in the Seoul metropolitan area, but also structural conditions such as the functional scaling-up of major non-capital-region cities, their global connectivity, and the circulation of capital within regional economies.

2026.9.30.

Minyoung Kim

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An Analysis of the Relationship between First-half Fiscal Spending Timing and Regional Economic Vitality This study empirically examines the effect of fiscal expenditure timing—rather than mere scale—on regional economic vitality in South Korea. To assess the effectiveness of the first-half expedited execution policy, a counter-cyclical strategy promoted by the central government, we employ panel data from 17 metropolitan and provincial governments (aggregating underlying municipal data) covering 2016 to 2024. A Two-Way Fixed Effects (TWFE) model is applied to control for unobserved region-specific characteristics and common annual shocks. To capture the multi-dimensional nature of regional economic vitality, the study specifies three dependent variables: Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP), private consumption (credit card sales volume), and local economic dynamism (net number of new business establishments).

2026.6.30.

Seohee Lee ･ Boram Yoo ･ Jungwoo Choi

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