• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.21-42
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• 2014

In this study, we are estimating the economic effects of the rising sea level due to the climate change in the Korean Eastern and Southern coastal areas. Using disaggregated regional data, we also estimate the optimal rate of coastal protection. We use FUND (The Climate Framework for Uncertainty, Negotiation and Distribution) in order to obtain estimates of the expected inundation ratios by geographical district. Our estimates suggest that in Busan the ratio of inundated land to total territory will likely constitute 3.19% by 2100, while the number in Gangwon-do province is estimated to be lower at only 0.1%. We estimate the associated economic damage to differ by geographical district with the economically active regions such as e.g. Busan and Ulsan cities, or the Gyeongsang-nam-do province, likely to sustain relatively more damage. In Busan and Ulsan where the coastal line is relatively short and the size of expected economic damage is rather high, we estimate the optimal rate of coastal protection to be at the level of 98% and 92%, respectively. In the Kyeongsang-nam-do area that is also likely to suffer a substantial economic damage due to the inundation, we suggest the optimal ratio of coastal protection to be set at the level of 78%~79%. In contrast, in the Kangwon-do province where the expected economic damage is estimated to be low, the optimal rate of coastal protection is estimated to be around 43%, depending on the scenario.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.129-144
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• 2019

Purpose - Recent empirical studies have reached mixed results on the effects of financial liberalization and currency crises. We argue that this relationship is likely to depend both on whether controls are primarily on the degrees of financial liberalization and on the stability of the government. Using the disaggregated data on financial liberalization recently developed by Abiad et al (2010) for a sample of 30 emerging countries over the period 1995-2015, we attempt to investigate the political economy determinants of currency crises. Design/methodology - Our empirical model considers the relationship between financial liberalization and currency crises for emerging market economies. This study employs the existing theoretical framework to identify the disaggregate level for financial liberalization across countries. Using a multivariate logit model, this study attempts to estimate the interrelationship among financial liberalization, government stability and currency crises complemented by a case study of South Korea. Findings - Our main findings can be summarized as follows: we find strong support for the proposition that more liberalized financial institutions are positively associated with the probability of currency crises especially under less stable governments, but reduce the risks of currency crises especially for more stable governments. We also examine the role of financial systems with the case of South Korea after Asian financial crises and the results are further supported and consistent with the empirical findings. Originality/value - Existing studies focus on the economic factors across countries. This paper instead attempts to evaluate the effects of financial liberalization and currency crises by incorporating political considerations with newly developed dataset on financial liberalization, which are essential to the understanding of the causes of currency crises.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.51-79
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• 1990

Research on technical efficiency, an important dimension of market performance, had received little attention until recently by most industrial organization empiricists, the reason being that traditional microeconomic theory simply assumed away any form of inefficiency in production. Recently, however, an increasing number of research efforts have been conducted to answer questions such as: To what extent do technical ineffciencies exist in the production activities of firms and plants? What are the factors accounting for the level of inefficiency found and those explaining the interindustry difference in technical inefficiency? Are there any significant international differences in the levels of technical efficiency and, if so, how can we reconcile these results with the observed pattern of international trade, etc? As the first in a series of studies on the technical efficiency of Korea's manufacturing industries, this paper attempts to answer some of these questions. Since the estimation of technical efficiency requires the use of plant-level data for each of the five-digit KSIC industries available from the Census of Manufactures, one may consture the findings of this paper as empirical evidence of technical efficiency in Korea's manufacturing industries at the most disaggregated level. We start by clarifying the relationship among the various concepts of efficiency-allocative effciency, factor-price efficiency, technical efficiency, Leibenstein's X-efficiency, and scale efficiency. It then becomes clear that unless certain ceteris paribus assumptions are satisfied, our estimates of technical inefficiency are in fact related to factor price inefficiency as well. The empirical model employed is, what is called, a stochastic frontier production function which divides the stochastic term into two different components-one with a symmetric distribution for pure white noise and the other for technical inefficiency with an asymmetric distribution. A translog production function is assumed for the functional relationship between inputs and output, and was estimated by the corrected ordinary least squares method. The second and third sample moments of the regression residuals are then used to yield estimates of four different types of measures for technical (in) efficiency. The entire range of manufacturing industries can be divided into two groups, depending on whether or not the distribution of estimated regression residuals allows a successful estimation of technical efficiency. The regression equation employing value added as the dependent variable gives a greater number of "successful" industries than the one using gross output. The correlation among estimates of the different measures of efficiency appears to be high, while the estimates of efficiency based on different regression equations seem almost uncorrelated. Thus, in the subsequent analysis of the determinants of interindustry variations in technical efficiency, the choice of the regression equation in the previous stage will affect the outcome significantly.