• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.93-105
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to outline the strategic implications of a structure analysis and trends of transferred air cargoes for the main airports of the North Asian region for 13 years from 2000 to 2012. To do so, it analyses the concentration levels using a Gini coefficient and Hirschmann Herfindahl index and represents the competitive positioning with regard to the main East Asian airports using the BCG framework and shift-share analysis. Currently, the concentration level is getting weaker in response to the emergence of Chinese airports in the north-east region. It is likely that the steady growth of air cargo of Shanghai airport (PVG) has caused the increase in concentration levels in the region. Seoul airport (ICN) may be directly in competition with PVG for air cargo in the region, giving consideration to reducing or maintaining an average increase ratio of air cargoes of ICN, NRT (Tokyo), and KIX (Osaka) for same period. In the same sense, the average increase in ratio for ICN for same period yields 1.3%, which is far behind the 6.2% and 5.2% of the north-east region and PVG respectively. Additionally, shift-share effect analysis indicates that ICN lost 422,180 tons in the north-east region during the same period, suggesting that transferred cargoes might have been forwarded to PVG.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.33-49
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• 2017

Background: Health care utilizations and costs of the patients with degenerative lumbar spine disease in Korea increased dramatically. We analyzed whether hospital market competition is associated with charges and length of stay for patients with degenerative lumbar spine disease. Methods: We used Medical claims data of 2002 and 2010 from the nationwide representative sample of National Health Insurance Service of Korea. The study subjects were inpatients with degenerative lumbar spine disease (N=24,768) in 2002 and 2010. We employed a multilevel linear mixed model that included patient- and hospital-level variables in hierarchical data. Results: Higher hospital competition was associated with lower charges (${\beta}=57.5$, p<.0001 in 2002; ${\beta}=353.7$, p<.0001 in 2010) and shorter length of stay (${\beta}=0.3$, p<.0001 in 2002; ${\beta}=0.9$, p<.0001 in 2010) in both 2002 and 2010. Compared to 2002, the magnitude of such association became greater in 2010. However, subgroup analyses show that the influence of competition on charges and length of stay differed by hospital size. Conclusions: This study showed that hospital market structure (e.g., hospital competition) affects hospital efficiency (i.e., hospital charges and length of stay). It is necessary to continue to monitor how changing market structure influences hospital outcomes, including more detailed outcomes such as patient satisfaction.