Empirical Analysis of Public Assistance Using Spatial Econometric Models

2024 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K13732
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 07050:Public economics and labor economics-related
• Research Institution: Osaka University of Commerce (2021-2024); Osaka International University (2019-2020)
• Principal Investigator: HINOKI YASUKO 大阪商業大学, 経済学部, 講師 (30761514)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2025-03-31
• Keywords: 生活保護 / 空間計量

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study is to empirically analyze how economic fluctuations affect public assistance (PA) receipt rates. As an analytical method, a spatial econometric model is estimated by considering differences in the age of the head of household and the number of household members as “spatial distance”. The analysis also considers the age effect, the cohort effect, and the period effect. As a result, it shows that each of these effects affects the PA receipt rate. In particular, it is found that the PA receipt rate is higher among the so-called “the ice-age cohorts", and that there is no improvement in the PA receipt rate among younger cohorts.

Free Research Field

労働経済学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

いわゆる「就職氷河期世代」で生活保護率が顕著に高いことが確認された。しかし、その後の世代でも生活保護率が改善されていないことから、単なる労働市場の状況改善が生活保護率低下に直結しないことが明らかとなった。この結果は、非正規雇用の増加や雇用流動化など、労働市場の構造変化が生活保護受給に新たな影響を及ぼしている可能性を示唆している。稼働可能な年齢層での生活保護率を改善するためには、労働市場の構造変化に対応した政策が必要とされることが示された点に政策的含意を持つ。