Asan Poll

2013AUG15
Asan Daily Poll

Willingness to pay increased Taxes to Social Welfare

  • Issue/Region :
    Governance,Social Welfare/Korean Peninsula
  • By.
    Kim Jiyoon / Research Division, Karl Friedhoff / Chicago Council on Global Affairs

ASAN POLL- The Asan Institute for Policy Studies

THE ASAN PUBLIC OPINION BRIEF

Tax Reform
WILLINGNESS TO PAY INCREASED TAXES TO FUND SOCIAL WELFARE
August 12-14
Are you willing to pay additional taxes to fund social welfare?
(%)

Willingness to pay increased Taxes to Social Welfare
A slim majority were unwilling to pay more to fund welfare. While 51.6% of Koreans had no desire to pay more taxes for social welfare, 44.4% were willing.

Men and women differed slightly in opinion, with women more critical of tax hikes. Among men, 52.7% were willing to pay more taxes—441.% were unwilling—while just 36.2% of women were willing to pay more taxes versus 58.9% who were unwilling. Women have tended to be more conservative on economic and financial policies, and this may be reflected in attitudes on tax hikes.

Also noteworthy is the difference by party affiliation. While Saenuri Party supporters were almost equally split (willling, 49.5%; unwilling, 46.5%), Democratic Party supporters were more reluctant to pay more taxes (willing, 39.9%; unwilling 57.3%). Ironically, Progressives and opposition party supporters oppose taxation for social welfare while conservatives and ruling party supporters support it.

METHODOLOGY

  • The sample size of each survey was 1,000 respondents over the age of 19.
  • The surveys were conducted by Research & Research, and the margin of error is ±3.1% at the 95% confidence level.
  • All surveys employed the Random Digit Dialing method for mobile and landline telephones.

3-day rolling average?
The sample size of each survey was 1,000 respondents over the age of 19. The surveys were conducted by Research & Research, and the margin of error is ±3.1% at the 95% confidence level. All surveys employed the Random Digit Dialing method for mobile and landline telephones.

This brief is a product of the Public Opinion Studies Center at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.

Contact Karl Friedhoff at klf@asaninst.org.

About Experts

Kim Jiyoon
Kim Jiyoon

Research Division

Dr. KIM Jiyoon is a senior fellow in the Public Opinion Studies Program at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Previously, Dr. Kim was a postdoctoral research fellow at Université de Montréal. Her research interests include elections and voting behavior, American politics, and political methodology. Her recent publications include “Political judgment, perceptions of facts, and partisan effects” (Electoral Studies, 2010), “Public spending, public deficits, and government coalition” (Political Studies, 2010), and “The Party System in Korea and Identity Politics” (in Larry Diamond and Shin Giwook Eds., New Challenges for Maturing Democracies in Korea and Taiwan, Stanford University Press, 2014). She received her B.A. from Yonsei University, M.P.P. in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Karl Friedhoff
Karl Friedhoff

Chicago Council on Global Affairs

Karl Friedhoff is a fellow in public opinion and Asia policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He was previously a Korea Foundation-Mansfield Foundation US-Korea Nexus Scholar and a member of the Mansfield Foundation’s Trilateral Working Group. Friedhoff was previously based in Seoul where he was a program officer in the Public Opinion Studies Program at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. His writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among others, and he has been a frequent guest on both TV and radio to discuss US foreign policy in Asia, South Korea’s politics, and international relations in East Asia. Friedhoff earned his BA in political science at Wittenberg University and an MA in international commerce at Seoul National University.

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