& Justice
Research
Paper
A Modern Analysis of South Korea’s Lease-Housing Policies: Rental Inflation and Affordability
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the efficacy of South Korea’s late 20th-century public housinginitiatives in controlling rent inflation and improving affordability. For our research, we utilize alongitudinal dataset from the Korea Statistical Information Service (KOSIS) and leverage it toconstruct two parallel time series: a 300-month series tracking median rent, CPI, and wages, anda 25-year annual series encapsulating average incomes and housing expenditures. Our analyzableoutcomes are the monthly log-change in CPI-adjusted median rent and the yearly rent burden asmeasured by the percentage of income spent on housing. Using Newey-West errors, we createthe OLS models to include linear time trends, controls for seasonality, and three policy dummiesto isolate each of the respective implemented policies: Permanent Lease Program (1989-1993),the 50-Year Lease Program (1994-1995), and the 10/20-Year Lease Programs (1998-2002). Ourmonthly results panel shows no statistically significant or economically significant impact fromany of the three programs (all programs ≈±0.1-0.3% per month, all p > .11). The annual resultsreveal a statistically significant shift, but for a trivial change in rent burden (±0.06 percentagepoints, p < 0.05) when compared to a 0.025 percentage point decrease in burden associated witha 1% increase in income. These findings suggest that despite expanding housing stock andproviding subsidies, early public-housing initiatives in South Korea had a limited real-worldimpact on rent dynamics and affordability.
Moral Foundations Theory and DEI: How Political Ideologies Shape
Responses to Diversity Efforts in South Korean Housing Policies
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the various political responses to housing policies in South Korea using the
Moral Foundations Theory (MFT). Building upon the MFT framework of moral concerns, which
includes care, fairness, loyalty, authority, and sanctity, the research analyzes how different moral
concerns underpin attitudes to housing affordability, government intervention, and property
rights. The study finds that the younger generation, which is largely a renter generation and faces
housing insecurity, will seek policies that aim to create care and equity foundations so that there
is equal accessibility to affordable housing. Older homeowners believe in authority and loyalty
foundations and desire market-driven approaches that protect property values and personal
responsibility. Based on survey responses and case study analysis, the research illustrates the
housing crisis in South Korea as a problem of sharp price increases and an intergenerational
equity gap and that moral-emotional responses are related to specific political ideologies.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) frameworks can serve to bridge these ideological splits by
promoting moral perspectives and inclusive discussions of policy. Furthermore, these findings
may serve as moral psychology insights in public policy debates and can provide valuable
guidance on how to make transitions to housing in contexts of highly urbanized and
economically unequal societies more politically feasible.