통합문화이용권이 저소득 가구의 문화, 관광, 스포츠 분야 지출에 미치는 효과

The Effects of Culture Voucher on Culture-related Expenditures of Low-income Households

이 글은 2015~2019년 기간 통합문화이용권 수급자 비중 및 충전금액 소진률의연도별, 광역시도별 변이를 활용하여, 통합문화이용권이 문화, 관광, 스포츠 분야 지출액 및지출 확률에 미친 효과를 추정하였다. 재정패널조사 자료를 활용한 고정 효과 패널 추정 결과, 소진률 조정된 6세 이상 인구 100명당 바우처 지급률이 1 표준편차 증가할 때, 저소득가구의 공연, 전시, 영화 관람 연간 지출 확률은 약 6.9%(0.39 표준편차), 연간 지출액은 약6천 원(0.47 표준편차) 증가했으나, 관광 및 스포츠 분야 지출에는 영향을 주지 못했다. 상당수 저소득 가구에서 여전히 문화 지출이 전무한 점을 고려할 때, 분석 결과는 문화 바우처사업이 타당성을 가질 수 있으며, 금액 인상보다는 외연 확대가 더 효과적일 수 있음을 시사한다.

This paper aims to assess the effects of the recent expansions of Moonhwanoori Card, a cultural voucher program targeted to disadvantaged families to alleviate the supposed polarization in cultural capital in South Korea. Exploiting the regional variations over the years between 2015 and 2019 in eligibilities as well as the extent of benefit redemption across the metropolitan areas, we estimate the effects of cultural vouchers on the probabilities of cultural expenditure and the amount of cultural expenditures among the households. Employing household-level fixed effects estimation based on a nationally representative sample of Korean households, we find that a one-standard deviation increase in the density of beneficiaries statistically significantly increases the probability of cultural expenditures on museums, performances, and movies, but not on the amount of expenditures on culture, tourism, or sports, all of which are the items redeemable by the culture vouchers. Our findings suggest that the vouchers can play an important role in incentivizing those households who spend none on the cultural activities for consuming more of the cultural goods and services, which is regarded as an investment, rather than a consumption, and a public good as well that may bring social benefits. On the other hand, the absence of the effects of cultural vouchers on the amount of cultural goods and services despite the substantial increase in the amount of benefits indicates that further expansion of the voucher program may be more effective at the extensive margins rather than intensive margins.