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In this study, BGI was developed to analyze the growth of innovative cities from various perspectives and applied to 10 innovative cities and the metropolitan area, respectively. Through this, the purpose of the construction of an innovative city, whether national balanced development and shared growth, was presented through empirical analysis. The distinctiveness of this study is that first, the Balanced Growth Index was developed and applied based on a comprehensive index for the impact on the construction performance of innovative cities. Second, the indicators before and after the construction of the innovative city were presented as BGI. Finally, by presenting the BGI of the metropolitan area at the same time, a comparative analysis was performed on whether national balanced development and shared growth occurred. The growth rate before and after the construction of the entire innovative city was 0.1479, which was lower than 0.2713 in the metropolitan area. However, considering the growth of innovative cities, it is possible to judge that the innovation city construction policy played a role in delaying the growth rate and reducing the size of growth in the metropolitan area. On the other hand, all 10 individual innovative cities had higher BGI values after construction compared to before construction. Therefore, it can be said that the innovative city construction policy had a positive effect on the balanced national development.

This thesis examines population and immigration from the perspective of balanced national development and local annihilation. From a macro perspective, at the global level, population growth is rather a problem. On the other hand, from a microscopic point of view, the population is decreasing in developed countries and increasing in developing countries. Already in 1798, Thomas Robert Malthus had a gloomy forecast of population growth. At that time, the world population was about 3.5 billion people. In 1996, Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees devised the concept of an ecological footprint, which by 1970 had already made the earth unsustainable. Meanwhile, Korea stopped the birth control policy in 1989 when it stopped the contraceptive program. In 1996, the government of the Republic of Korea changed the goal of its population policy from ‘restriction of birth’ to ‘improvement of quality’. However, despite spending 280 trillion won in the budget to solve the population problem for the past 16 years, the fertility rate plummeted to 0.75 in the second quarter of 2022. In the Republic of Korea, balanced national development has emerged as an important national policy since the Roh Moo-hyun administration (1998-1993). However, 20 years later, the balanced national development policy has failed or has not achieved the desired result. Not many people believe that balanced national development will be achieved by relocating additional public institutions or giving more money to local governments. Obsolete policies should be discarded and thoroughly revised. Balanced national development can never be achieved with the same policies as before. Among the current balanced national development policies, the most contradictory thing is that for the population concentrated in the metropolitan area, new towns are built to provide housing while promoting local distribution of the population. Housing supply in the metropolitan area and balanced national development are conflicting policies. As the influx of short-term foreign workers became difficult in the COVID-19 situation, farmers, in particular, suffered extreme difficulties due to a shortage of labor. And in this situation, it is carefully suggested as a solution to immigration as a way to solve the labor force. However, in rural areas, not only the labor shortage, but also the cultivated area and income must be comprehensively considered, and the problems sometimes conflict. There are a few things that Korea should consider before introducing full-scale immigration. These are the types of policies that accept foreigners, the difference between urban and rural areas, policies to increase the fertility rate, the formation of migrant-focused residences, and spatial heterogeneity. It is an era of autonomy and decentralization. A differentiated development plan that reflects the characteristics of each local government is the responsibility of each local government. More important than attracting funds and business from the central government is the competitiveness and self-reliance of local governments. And the most fundamental way to increase the fertility rate is to show a vision and hope for the future. This is not a problem that can be solved with childbirth subsidies.

This study conducted a centrality analysis by taking a close look at the current status of the “relational population” and networks in the non-metropolitan area of Korea for the period from 2016 to 2019. The main results are summarized as follows: First, in the non-metropolitan area, the relational population between each industrial complex area and the nearby metropolitan city was found to be predominant. Second, in each centrality analysis, Daejeon, Daegu, Gwangju, Suncheon, and Cheonan were found to have high degrees of centrality. Third, among the areas experiencing population decline, Namwon, Andong, and Nonsan were found to have high degrees of centrality. In particular, Namwon showed a stable centrality value without significant change in ranking. A region having a high centrality value means that the connectivity of the relational population is high on the network, and that there is a wide distribution of people in the population who have various relationships with the region. The relational population of a region can be used in regional policies to help overcome shortages of local talent. Through the relational population, the spatial extent of the static local population can be expanded. This study concluded with the policy suggestion that, before using the relational population in carrying out regional policies, the network structure between regions should be understood by analyzing the current status and centrality of the relational population and that an evaluation of the current regional situation should also be conducted.

The previous studies have shown that residents in declining areas tend to evaluate their local circumstances in a negative way. However, subjective perception of local conditions may vary according to the socio-economic status as individuals with higher socio-economic status have better accessibility to regional resources provided by adjacent areas. The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether subjective evaluations of local circumstances differ depending on the socio-economic status of residents in declining areas. The data used in this study were from Hankyoreh 21 survey of the residents who have been residing in the declining areas. The main finding of this research is that socio-economic status does not have any influence on subjective evaluation of the local circumstances. However, residents with lower socio-economic status are likely to perceive greater socio-economic gap between Seoul Metropolitan Area and the area where they live.

From the perspective of citizens, their information is subscribed to by companies, governments, or other institutions. However, no institution pays a subscription fee for this and uses personal information without permission. Information utilization institutions must pay individuals a data subscription fee, which can be defined as a reverse subscription economy, so-called "data (information) pension," in which they allow them to use their information from the perspective of information providers and instead receive a subscription fee. Therefore, when information-using institutions such as companies, public institutions, or governments use personal information, they must pay the price of information use to individuals like monthly pensions. This will be the right way to use personal information (data), the crude oil of the 4th industrial society, only then will it become a society of sovereign citizens and protect individual data sovereignty. By receiving the price of personal information use from information-using institutions, the expected digital gap and social conflict can be reduced in the future, and the theoretical validity of various government-funded support, including disaster support funds, can be secured. This study aims to establish a reverse subscription economy in which Korea protects the true democracy and value of personal information through the realization of “data sovereignty” in the era of digital transformation, preventing local extinction and young people from living in peace.

This paper attempted to develop a Residents’ Satisfaction-oriented Disaster Prevention Index (RSDPI) for infectious diseases and suggest a policy direction for balanced growth based on the results. To do so, the disaster prevention indices were set based on the prior studies and their effects on regional safety satisfaction were statistically estimated. The results showed that, in the case of infectious diseases, the residents’ safety satisfaction was influenced by the number of deaths from infectious diseases, public transportation users, elderly people, children, health education, and health professionals. Based on the aforementioned indices, chosen as the RSDPIs, 17 provinces in South Korea were divided into 5 types. Finally, the disaster prevention policies by regional type were provided to improve the regional own disaster prevention capability, and therefore, to achieve national balanced growth in terms of disaster safety.