• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.23-52
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• 2016

This paper examines the impact of introducing high-speed trains on consumer welfare, taking the ensuing changes in train schedules into account. Based on the estimated demand model for travel which incorporates consumer's heterogeneous preferences for travel schedules into the standard discrete-choice model, I separately evaluate the impact from adding high-speed trains and that from changes in train schedules. The results indicate that consumers who travel between two cities connected by high-speed trains benefit from the introduction of high-speed trains, while some travelers whose choice set does not include high-speed trains face a reduced frequency of non-high-speed trains, resulting in significant losses.

• Asia Pacific Journal of Business Review
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.19-38
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• 2018

The energy intensity of Nepal is economically not worthy, lacks eco-friendly and importantly not sustainable, and almost four times the average global energy intensity. Considerable efforts have been exercised to reduce the energy gap yet, it is still much to achieve. Nation priority on energy sector was envisaged with promulgation of investment friendly rules and law in hydropower and renewable technology even though, could not harness the sufficient energy. In amid of this acute energy crisis, the government launched the Nepal Energy Efficiency Programme (NEEP) with technical assistance from German International Cooperation (GIZ). Energy Efficiency (EE) practice is the most cost-effective method to reduce the supply and demand gap, reduce on greenhouse gases and pollution, and deter on import of petroleum products which finally improves on trade imbalance. This paper had proposed a framework of energy management team to promote energy efficient technologies in residential consumer. The energy management teams study the past records of energy use pattern of consumers and suggest appropriate technology for energy saving options. The paper provides some reviews of energy efficiency initiatives undertaken by the concern regulatory body which highlights the current status. The comprehensive knowledge acquired through exploratory research is implemented in this paper to identify the various barriers that domestic consumer is experiencing towards the active participation in energy efficiency program launched by the Government of Nepal.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.41 no.10 s.188
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• pp.185-198
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• 2003

Fashion is a field that responds sensitively to social and cultural atmospheres, brings about constant change due to consumer demand for new items in new fashion trends and in the latest design. The fashion industry tries to predict what kind of clothing the customers desires and produces fashion products according to trend information stated by fashion information services. This research analyses the relativity between the trends stated in the fashion information books and what consumer accept, and with this information find the application of trend information books in the planning of domestic woman's clothing. The used information books were based on Samsung Fashion Institute and Interfashion Planning, Inc. The 02/03 F/W season emphasized restoration-romantic, nostalgic mood themes. Fashion trend information and consumer acceptance condition tend to concentrate on trend themes given tv fashion information companies. In other words, $Sincere\;girl(39.04\%){\to}Frontier\;girl(34.92\%){\to}Dark\;lady(18.43\%){\to}Lady\;belle(7.59\%)$ in this order Also when looking into the consumer's wearing, no one theme appears by itself and the themes are mixed accordingly to one's lifestyle and sensibility. Accordingly fashion information organizations must provide precise fashion trends according to consumer sensibility & consumption and also compare trend information to consumer fashion trends each season. With this precise information the planned design plans will help the domestic fashion markets, which are gradually overrun by foreign brands, develop a unique and original fashion product that meets consumer sensitivity needs, and develop a new stepping stone for fashion companies and the relative fashion industry and furthermore contribute to the advancement of overseas markets.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.334-343
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• 2013

Purpose: This study aims to investigate consumers' demand of and perspective on drug information domestically available and uncover hurdles that they faced while utilizing information. Methods: We conducted a survey of 101 consumers, face-to-face after obtaining informed consent. Chi-squared, or Fisher's exact tests, and multivariate logistic models were used to investigate the association between participants' perceptions and characteristics. Results: As results, participants showed the highest demand for "Adverse effects >90%"; "Drug interactions/Dosage/Drug-food interactions/Indication >80%", and utilized package inserts (52%), doctors (41%) and pharmacists (36%) most often as information sources. Generally, the most common difficulty consumers suffered with was that "it is hard to understand (51%)". With public sources of drug information, sixty one percent of participants were "unaware of the provision of information", resulting in strikingly low usage rates (5~11%). Subgroup analyses indicated that the older (${\geq}50$ years) and the disadvantaged might have been placed in the blind spot of information mostly developed online (p<0.05).Conclusion: In conclusion, public sources of drug information that have been developed online might fail to meet consumers' demand. Greater efforts should be made to balance the development of the information sources between online and offline, and to increase accessibility of the established information sources.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.81-95
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to examine the dissatisfaction level of consumers buying foreign goods through Internet shopping malls and their complaint behavior. As there is growing demand for foreign brands along with a rapid increase in the Internet user population, a lot of ongoing studies have focused on Internet-based transaction. The dissatisfaction level of selected consumers was checked in terms of system, price, quality, information/hype, shipping and refund/exchange, and it's found that complaint behavior linked to refund/exchange was most prevalent. The most dominant way for them to respond to such situations was talking friends, relatives or neighbors about that. And they had an intention to buy foreign goods through Internet shopping malls again to greater or lesser extents, though they were unsatisfied. It indicates that the consumers didn't have a wide option in the consumer market.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.987-997
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• 2012

The sales volume of men's cosmetics has drastically increased in Korea. In recent years, men's needs for cosmetics have been diversified and the consumer demand for functional cosmetics has greatly risen. In particular, male consumers have become more interested in essence product that is a light and concentrated treatment to correct skin problems. This research analyzes consumer preferences for essence-for-men through the use of choice-based conjoint analysis. This approach is adopted since the task of respondents to choose the most preferred option from several alternatives closely mimics actual marketplace purchasing behavior by consumers. New technique for the construction of choice sets is suggested based on the balanced incomplete block design, to accommodate a larger number of product profiles. The proposed design for choice sets is balanced and provides a tool to filter the contradictory choices. Conjoint analyses are performed to assess the relative importance of attributes and identify the most preferred profile of essence-for-men with respect to attributes such as emphasized function, price, type of content, and design of container. Some differences are indicated in the analysis results between age brackets as well as between groups classified by the amount of fashion item expenditures.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.73-87
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate the fishery perception and recreation fishing demand level of coastal waters ranch with the case in Tongyeong city's Bijin-do Yongcho-do, Juk-do. The study conducts a survey of 27 fishermen and 113 recreation fishing tourists from September 26 to November 21, 2016. The major results of this study are as follows. First, the survey of fishery perception level suggests that the increase of fishery resources by Tongyeong-si coastal waters ranch project contributes to the rising income of fishermen, decreased fishing cost, and increased the number of tourists. Second, the survey of recreation fishing tourists's demand level suggests that a beautiful view, fish populations, kindness of residents, fishing point information, charter information, and the convenience of transportation are highly praised and highly regarded. However, links to nearby tourism, lodging facilities, and food information that can increase the income of fishermen is poorly praised. Therefore, this study suggests that a careful marine policy with fishery resource creation should be followed for marine fishing village tourism consumer's benefits in order to increase fishing village's income.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.9-16
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• 2015

As electricity is an indispensable input to human's existence and industrial production, economic benefits arise from consumption. The economic benefits of the electricity consumption are useful information in various fields of electricity-related policy. Therefore, this study attempts to value the economic benefits from electricity use. The economic benefit of electricity consumed is the area under the demand curve which made of the sum of the actual consumer expenditure and the consumer surplus. Consumer expenditure can be easily observed but the information on price elasticity of demand is necessarily required to compute consumer surplus. This study derives the estimates for price elasticities through literature review. The price elasticities of the electricity demand for residence, industry, and commercial are estimated to be -0.332, -0.351, and -0.263, respectively. Because the consumer surplus of the electricity consumption for residence, industry, and commercial are computed to be 191.54, 143.44, and 231.91 won per kWh, respectively. Given that average prices of electricity use were 127.02, 100.70, and 121.98 won per kWh for the year 2013, the economic benefit are calculated to be 318.56, 244.14, and 353.89 won per kWh, respectively. We can convert the values to 321.96, 246.75, and 357.67 won per kWh in 2014 constant price, respectively, using consumer price index. They can be used in the economic feasibility analysis of a new electricity supply project.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.39 no.12 s.173
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• pp.1057-1066
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• 2006

Water is an indispensable input to human's existence and industrial production. A water supply project would demand considerable costs, but produce economic benefits, which are importantly utilized in the project evaluation. In this situation, this study attempts to value the economic benefits from the residential water supply in Seoul. In particular, yearly consumer surplus and economic value of water supply for eleven water authority agencies in Seoul are measured during the period 2001-2004. Information on price elasticity required in calculating consumer surplus is obtained from direct estimation of the residential water demand function, and the consumer surplus is assessed by using a recently developed formula. Price elasticities used here are -0.810 and -1.011, and the estimated consumer surplus and economic value amount to 131.9 to 164.6 billion won and 398.6 to 431.3 billion won, respectively.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.61-71
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• 2015

Purpose - Before the year 2000, the housing prices in Korea were increasing every decade. After 2000, for the first time, Korea experienced a decrease in housing prices, and the repetitive cycle of price fluctuation started. Such a "boom and bust cycle" is a worldwide phenomenon. The current study proposes a mathematical model to explain price fluctuation cycles based on the theory of consumer psychology. Specifically, the model incorporates the effects of buyer expectations of future prices on actual price changes. Based on the model, this study investigates various independent variables affecting the amplitude of price fluctuations in housing markets. Research design, data, and methodology - The study provides theoretical analyses based on a mathematical model. The proposed model uses the following assumptions of the pricing mechanism in housing markets. First, the price of a house at a certain time is affected not only by its current price but also by its expected future price. Second, house investors or buyers cannot predict the exact future price but make a subjective prediction based on observed price changes up to the present. Third, the price is determined by demand changes made in previous time periods. The current study tries to explain the boom-bust cycle in housing markets with a mathematical model and several numerical examples. The model illustrates the effects of consumer price elasticity, consumer sensitivity to price changes, and the sensitivity of prices to demand changes on price fluctuation. Results - The analytical results imply that even without external effects, the boom-bust cycle can occur endogenously due to buyer psychological factors. The model supports the expectation of future price direction as the most important variable causing price fluctuation in housing market. Consumer tendency for making choices based on both the current and expected future price causes repetitive boom-bust cycles in housing markets. Such consumers who respond more sensitively to price changes are shown to make the market more volatile. Consumer price elasticity is shown to be irrelevant to price fluctuations. Conclusions - The mechanism of price fluctuation in the proposed model can be summarized as follows. If a certain external shock causes an initial price increase, consumers perceive it as an ongoing increasing price trend. If the demand increases due to the higher expected price, the price goes up further. However, too high a price cannot be sustained for long, thus the increasing price trend ceases at some point. Once the market loses the momentum of a price increase, the price starts to drop. A price decrease signals a further decrease in a future price, thus the demand decreases further. When the price is perceived as low enough, the direction of the price change is reversed again. Policy makers should be cognizant that the current increase in housing prices due to increased liquidity can pose a serious threat of a sudden price decrease in housing markets.