• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.55-75
• /
• 1992

At the outset of import liberalization, most economists expected a significant drop in the prices of domestic goods that faced foreign competition. However, it is now generally acknowledge that a significant drop in prices of those goods has not occurred. A common claim is that the prices did not drop significantly because the major importers of many imported goods were also the domestic producers of competing goods. The objective of this paper is to analyze the welfare effect of importation by domestic firms that produce competing goods, to identify the factors that facilitate such business practices, and to formulate a policy that could improve the welfare. We proved that importation by competing domestic firms definitely raises the prices of both imported and domestic goods compared to the situation where foreign goods are imported by non-producers, ceteris paribus. The intuition behind this result is that since a producer-importer is essentially a cartel, its overall profit maximization requires reduced competition between the products that it sells. On the other hand, if a producer-importer is more efficient at distrinbution than a simple importer, the comparison between the two cases is a priori indeterminate. We also find that the industries in which domestic producers are actively involved in importing competing goods are the ones in which the distribution channels are tightly controlled by importer-producers. This finding suggests that exclusive dealing contracts, which work as an entry barrier, may be the source of importing by domestic producers. We argue that in a country such as Korea, where financial market is highly incomplete, tight control of the distribution channels by oligopolistic manufacturers is likely to be an effective entry barrier that leads to importing by domestic producers of similar goods. We further argue that seemingly superior distribution costs of importer-producers is likely to be a result of market foreclosure which would disappear once the entry barrier of exclusive dealing contracts is removed. Above findings suggest that market imperfections are the source of importation by domestic competitors, which in turn constitutes a market imperfection in itself and reduces consumer welfare. As potential remedies, we considered three alternatives; direct price control by the government over the imported goods sold by major domestic producers, regulation of trade itself between major producers, and regulation of exclusive dealing contracts. For reasons both theoretical and pratical, we find that the last alternative is the most attrative. Prohibiting exclusive contracts between manufacturers and dealers in industries where exclusive dealing contracts are a significant entry barrier is expected to break up the importer-producer cartel and improve the welfare.

• Management & Information Systems Review
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.167-184
• /
• 2017

In this study, we investigated the effect of offline banking trust on smart banking trust. As influencing factors of smart banking trust, this study compared offline banking trust, smart banking's system quality, and information quality. For the empirical study, 186 questionnaire data were collected from smart banking users and the data were analyzed using Smart-PLS 2.0. As results, it was verified that there is trust transfer in FinTech service, by the significant effect of offline banking trust on smart banking trust. And it was proved that the effect of offline banking trust on smart banking trust is lower than that of smart banking itself. The contribution of this study can be seen in both academic and industrial aspects. First, it is the contribution of the academic aspect. Previous studies on banking were focused on either offline banking or smart banking. But this study, focus on the relationship between offline banking and online banking, proved that offline banking trust affects smart banking trust. Next, it is the industrial contribution. This study showed that offline banking characteristics of traditional commercial banks affect the trust of emerging smart banking service. This means that the emerging FinTech companies are not advantageous in the competition of trust building compared to traditional commercial banks. Unlike traditional commercial banks, the emerging FinTech is innovating the convenience of customers by arming them with new technologies such as mobile Internet, social network, cloud technology, and big data. However, these FinTech strengths alone can not guarantee sufficient trust needed for financial transactions, because banking customers do not change a habit or an inertia that they already have during using traditional banks. Therefore, emerging FinTech companies should strive to create destructive value that reflects the connection with various Internet services and the strength of online interaction such as social services, which have an advantage over customer contacts. And emerging FinTech companies should strive to build service trust, focused on young people with low resistance to new services.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.58 no.3
• /
• pp.295-312
• /
• 2006

The use of the national pension funds to welfare has been criticized due to its low profitability, with concern about financial instability and the lack of funds. Despite the small amount of the funds employed to the welfare, therefore, it has been decreasing so far. It is resulted from the fact that the use of funds to the welfare sector failed to provide its valid reasons, and take the policy direction firmly. There are three main logical reasons for the welfare investment of national pension funds: Firstly, no state is capable to take the full responsibility for the entire social welfare, and therefore, the funds can be used for social welfare. Secondly, the funded system, contrasted with the case of pay-as-you-go system, has inevitably caused discriminations to the present elderly through excluding them institutionally from pension participation. At last, so as to its selective system, the minimum contribution period of 10 years brings about the equity problem between the people who can afford it and the people who hardly can. Therefore, investing a proportion of funds to the welfare is entirely reasonable in that it can alleviate the discriminations to the present elderly generation and the marginal participants, rather than to meet their social welfare needs. With regard to the policy decision, the profitability of the investment, and the choice of the welfare work, on the other hand, the policy direction should be given a sufficient consideration of a various policy factors such as the necessity of social consensus, independence of the welfare work in relations with other national welfare work, policy identity to judge whether the work is worth long-run or short-run, and the reliance of direct-operated work and indirect-operated work. As a result of all these efforts above mentioned, an investment to the welfare of the national pension funds could be vitalized, and gain public confidence.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
• /
• v.56 no.3
• /
• pp.5-35
• /
• 2004

This research is about the change of the occupation and the income of the subscriber of the medical expenditure due to the economic influence on them. The data of this study are based on 4,215 of medical cost payers among respondents of the survey on "Health and Retirement", which was the fourth additional research of Korea Labor and Income Panel Survey. The main findings of this study are as follows: First, the average medical cost is 5.5% of the income. The ratio of the medical cost to an earned income is highly different between low-income group and high income group. For the low income group, the medical cost reaches up to 1/3 of the total family income. That proves that the medical cost si a heavy burden on them. The group with the high medical expenditure seems to be supported by their own private property and other family members whenever it is needed. But it doesn't show the exact sources of the property, which includes the fund from the interests and real estates. On the other hand, only 14.4% of the subscribers changed their job status on the 5th year, and 85.6% of those kept their job status until the 5th year from the 4th year. This shows that the amount of the medical cost could be the important factor for them to change their job; for example, it is crucial whether the medical expenditure is over the average rate or not. Furthermore, the change of the occupation caused by the medical cost has the negative influence on the gross income. It makes the economic conditions of the family get worse. Therefore, the health insurance in Korea is lack of the compensational function, which substitutes the family income reduced by the change of the job status due to the high medical cost.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.46 no.4
• /
• pp.21-35
• /
• 2018

In recent years, there has been a tendency to reuse 'landscapes of memory,' including industrial heritages, modern cultural heritages, and post-industrial parks, as public spaces in many cities. Among the various types of landscapes, 'modern historic landscapes', which were formed in the 19th and 20th centuries, are landscapes where the debate between conservation and removal is most frequent, according to the change of evaluation and recognition of modern history. This study examines conflicts between conservation and removal around modern historic landscapes and explores the value judgment criteria and the process of formation of those landscapes, as highlighted in the case of the demolition controversy of the old Japanese general government building in Seoul, which was dismantled in 1995. First, this study reviews newspaper articles, television news and debate programs from 1980-1999 and some articles related to the controversy of the Japanese general government building. Then it draws the following six factors as the main issues of the demolition controversy of the building: symbolic location, discoveries and responses of new historical facts, reaction and intervention of a related country, financial conditions, function and usage of the landscape, changes of urban, historical and architectural policies. Based on these issues, this study examines the conflicts between symbolic values that play an important role in the formation of modern historic landscapes and determines conservation or removal, and the utility of functional values that solve the problems and respond to criticisms that arise in the process of forming the modern historic landscape. Especially, it is noted that the most important factor that makes the decision is the symbolic values, although the determination of the conservation or removal of modern historic landscapes has changed according to changes in historical perceptions of modern history. Today, the modern historic landscape is an important site for urban design, and still has historical issues to be agreed upon and addressed. Thi study has contemporary significance from the point that it divides the many values of modern historic landscapes into symbolic values and functional values, evaluates these, and reviews the background social context.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.163-192
• /
• 1983

In order to facilitate the Korean government's efforts in integrating family planning and maternal & child health at the primary health care level (or township level), the Soon Chun Hyang College of Medicine, with the financial and technical assistance of WHO, has under-taken a service research project. The project has employed a quasi-experimental study design introducing interventions tat provide crucial factors lacking in the ongoing government programs such as midwives and qualified referral physicians. The study is being conducted in three locations, one control area and two study areas. Before introducing trained Nurse/Midewives into the study areas, a baseline prevalence survey was undertaken from 15 July 1981 to 10 August 1981 in selelcted townships of Seosan County. In this sample survey of bath the study and control areas, 2,484 eligible women (97% reponse rate) were interviewed to obtain benchmark data on basic evaluation indicators related to family planning and maternal and child health. The salients results were summarized as follows.: 1. CONTACT RATES WITH HEALTH WORKERS; During the year preceding the survey, 12% of women were visited by government health workers. The primary reason for such visits by health workers was family planning (45% of the visits). About 34% of the women visited the health centers during the year. The primary reason for visiting health centers was immunizations for their children (45% of the visits). 3. FAMILY PLANNING USE RATE; The baseline data showed little difference between women in the study area and the control area on contraceptive use. Approximately 59% were currently using some methods. However, among those current users, almost half were practicing less effective methods of birth control such as rhythm or withdrawal. Among other methods, the tubectomy was the most popular (16%), while use of the IUD, oral pill and condom together reached only 14%. 3. PRENATAL CARE RATE; About 75% of the women reported no prenatal care for their last births (the youngest child of each women), Additionally, among women received prenatal care, over half had only one visit. 4. ATTENDANCE AT DELIVERY; Most of the women surveyed (over 80%) were attended by a non-medical person during their last delivery. These figures are somewhat comparable to the national figure of 84% for remote areas. 5. POSTNATAL CARE; The proportion of women reporting postnatal care was only 4.5%, and postnatal care was not received by the majority of women surveyed. 6. CHILD HEALTH CARE: In contrast to the low rate of maternity care for women themselves, most women reported obtaining immunization care for their children. About 75% of the women obtained Polio and/or DPT, 58% BCG, and 44% Measles vaccine for their children. However, in terms of illness care, while 35% of the women stated that their youngest child had been sick during the month preceding the survey, only 28% of these women took their child to the clinic for treatment. 7. COMPLICATIONS OF PREGNANCY AND DELIVERY AND ABNORMALITIES IN THE NEWBORN; Among all last deliveries, 18% of the women had pregnancy complications and 9% of the women had complications during delivery About 5% of the women reported abnormality in their most recent newborn. 8. REPRODUCTION EFFICIENCY; PERINATAL MORTALITY AND INFANT MORTALITY Based on data from the pregnancy history in this survey, reproduction efficiency was estimated. Out of the 11,154 pregnancies reported by all women surveyed, foetal loss was 21% (almost 16% were induced abortions) and infant deaths before reaching one year old were 3.1%. The reproduction efficiency was, therefore, reduced to 76%. In terms of perinatal and infant mortality rates, the former was 40.2 per 1,000 total births and the latter was 39.3 per 1,000 live births. Both rates described J shaped relationships with age of mothers and parity, and they were also correlated with birth interval and mother's education. In summary, this baseline survey data indicated a need for (1) improving contraceptive practices with more effective methods to prevent unwanted pregnancies and (2) providing better services for maternal and child care to protect wanted pregancies. In the Korean rural setting. the author believes that the latter is more important as the value of each child has increased as a result of the family planning campaign for the past two decades. This calls for more effective integration of Family Planning and MCH programmes to meet the needs of the family in each stage of the child bearing and rearing period with deploying more qualified personnel than the current government program personnel.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.455-463
• /
• 1996

A survey was conducted to investigate the perceptions of health and foods, and the food habits among the elderly men who came to the Tap-Gol park on a daily basis. A total of 253 subjects were selected for this study. The data was analyzed through the $X^2-test$, Duncan's multiple range test and Pearson Correlation by the use of SAS program. The results were as follows. The majority of the subjects were in their 70's. 56.1% of them lived with their sons' families, 9.1% lived alone, and 27.3% lived with a spouse. 32% of the subjects were living with the expense less than 50,000 won per month. Although some were suffering from such diseases as arthritis, indigestion, and hypertension etc., the subjects were generally in good health. Their dependance on dietary supplements were insignificant. Most of the subject had a common-sensible notion as to health. They put emphasis on the three factors for the maintenance of good health: a balanced diet, a peace of mind and exercising. With regard to the food habits, the majority were fair in general. The subject living with family had more regular meals than the single people did. 41.5% of the subjects responded that they had irregular meals, mainly for lunch due to a poor appetite or a financial problem. The respondents cited protein food, milk, fruit, sea weeds and food cooked with oil as conducive to good health. But what they consumed did not match what they thought was good, particularly milk. The results of this study lead to the suggestion that Korea need to develop such a lunch program for the elderly as is practiced in the U.S., through which dietary motivation can be stimulated and a low-priced and balanced diet offered at least for one meal a day.

• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.10 no.6
• /
• pp.27-37
• /
• 2012

Many studies have focused on the importance of organizational integration when companies try to achieve growth through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). However, there has been little research that focuses on the new branding or customer base integration of the M&A process, despite the fact that this integration is very important for achieving M&A goals and business performance in industries such as retail. The purpose of this study is to provide an M&A case study of the retail industry, focused especially on the new branding and customer integration of two department stores. This study examined key integration processes in terms of brand name and membership systems of both companies by examining how the merged company achieved its new branding and the integration of its membership systems. The methodology of this research is the case study, which is used in both normative and empirical studies for distribution research in Korea. This research analyzes the case of both new branding and customer membership systems of the two companies. The new branding initiatives of this case centered on decision making including brand extension and brand naming. The customer membership integration of the two companies is analyzed on the basis of the customer reward programs that include both financial and service rewards. This study shows the success factors of new branding and customer integration in the M&A process in terms of achieving marketing goals and business performance as follows: First, companies should identify the integration areas by analyzing the brand and membership of both companies and make a balanced decision for both the customer and company. Second, the goals of new branding and membership integration in the M&A process should not emphasize business efficiency from a short-term perspective but rather should consider brand power and business synergy from a long-term perspective. Third, the post-merger integration process of the brand or customer areas requires not only the organized execution of integration tasks but also follow-up programs for changes in business strategy and marketing-related programs to realize the synergy effects of integrated organization. Although this study provides a detailed review and analysis of the new branding and customer integration processes in post-merger integration and in identifying the primary decision-making areas of these processes, there are some limitations requiring further research that may overcome or compensate for these limitations. The suggested future research areas are as follows: First, since this research is a case study of only one M&A, it makes few theoretical contributions such as new propositions or theories or possibilities for generalization. This limitation can be overcome through further research using multiple cases, which may lead to new propositions. Second, the methodology of this study lacks sufficient rigor in terms of its analytic approach because this case study was developed and analyzed descriptively. Further research is needed to compensate for these limitations, such as using a theory-based approach or comparative analysis approach that makes case analysis more systematic.

• 한국노년학
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.569-592
• /
• 2018

This study purported to investigate the current state of human rights of older adults residing in rural areas of Korea. The study utilized, as an analytic framework, 4 priority directions (1. "older persons and development", 2. "rural area development", 3. "advancing health and well-being into old age", and 4. "ensuring enabling and supportive environments") with 13 task actions recommended by Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA). Furthermore, the study examined gender differences in all items included in the analytic framework. Data was collected by the face-to-face survey on 800 subjects aged 65 and over. Statistical analyses were conducted using STATA 13.0 program. The main results were summarized in order of 4 priority directions as follows. First, average working hours per day were 6.2, and men reportedly participated in economic activities and needed job training more than women, while women participated in lifelong education programs more than men. Awareness of fire and disaster prevention facilities was low in both genders. Second, accessibility to the support center for the elderly living alone as well as protective services for the vulnerable elderly was found to be low. IT-based services and networking were used more by men than women, and specifically, IT-based financial transactions and welfare services were least used. Third, medical check-ups and vaccinations were well received, while consistent treatments for chronic illnesses and long-term care services were relatively less given. In addition, accessibility to mental health service centers was considerably low. Fourth, although old house structures and the lack of convenience facilities were found to be circumstantial risk factors for these elders, experiences of receiving housing support services were scarce. The elderly were found to rely more on informal care, and concerns for their care were higher in women than men. Plus, accessibility to elderly abuse services was markedly low. Based on these results, discussed were implications for implementing policies and practical interventions to raise the levels of the human rights for this population.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.103-128
• /
• 2021

Recently, investors' interest and the influence of stock-related information dissemination are being considered as significant factors that explain stock returns and volume. Besides, companies that develop, distribute, or utilize innovative new technologies such as artificial intelligence have a problem that it is difficult to accurately predict a company's future stock returns and volatility due to macro-environment and market uncertainty. Market uncertainty is recognized as an obstacle to the activation and spread of artificial intelligence technology, so research is needed to mitigate this. Hence, the purpose of this study is to propose a machine learning model that predicts the volatility of a company's stock price by using the internet search volume of artificial intelligence-related technology keywords as a measure of the interest of investors. To this end, for predicting the stock market, we using the VAR(Vector Auto Regression) and deep neural network LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory). And the stock price prediction performance using keyword search volume is compared according to the technology's social acceptance stage. In addition, we also conduct the analysis of sub-technology of artificial intelligence technology to examine the change in the search volume of detailed technology keywords according to the technology acceptance stage and the effect of interest in specific technology on the stock market forecast. To this end, in this study, the words artificial intelligence, deep learning, machine learning were selected as keywords. Next, we investigated how many keywords each week appeared in online documents for five years from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2019. The stock price and transaction volume data of KOSDAQ listed companies were also collected and used for analysis. As a result, we found that the keyword search volume for artificial intelligence technology increased as the social acceptance of artificial intelligence technology increased. In particular, starting from AlphaGo Shock, the keyword search volume for artificial intelligence itself and detailed technologies such as machine learning and deep learning appeared to increase. Also, the keyword search volume for artificial intelligence technology increases as the social acceptance stage progresses. It showed high accuracy, and it was confirmed that the acceptance stages showing the best prediction performance were different for each keyword. As a result of stock price prediction based on keyword search volume for each social acceptance stage of artificial intelligence technologies classified in this study, the awareness stage's prediction accuracy was found to be the highest. The prediction accuracy was different according to the keywords used in the stock price prediction model for each social acceptance stage. Therefore, when constructing a stock price prediction model using technology keywords, it is necessary to consider social acceptance of the technology and sub-technology classification. The results of this study provide the following implications. First, to predict the return on investment for companies based on innovative technology, it is most important to capture the recognition stage in which public interest rapidly increases in social acceptance of the technology. Second, the change in keyword search volume and the accuracy of the prediction model varies according to the social acceptance of technology should be considered in developing a Decision Support System for investment such as the big data-based Robo-advisor recently introduced by the financial sector.