• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.164-179
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• 1991

Korean agriculture has encountered two problems. One is internal income disparity between rural and urbarn area and the other is external Uruguay Round trade problems as an abolition of direct and indirect import barriers, reduction in export subsidies and to reduce internal price supports. These problems will be brought severe farm problems such as decreasing farm household income and repressing agricultural growth in the near future. Considering the above inevitable facts Korean government has implemented several development projects such as rural industrial area development project, rural special production area development project, leisuresight seeing farm development project, traditional food development project, unskilled labor training project for off-farm employment and so on, to increase farm household income through off-farm income increase. This study was mainly concentrated on the identification of operational problems and post evaluation of the rural special production area development projects which aimed at increasing non-farm incomes and giving employment opportunity for rural farmers in small factories processing regional special farm products and mine products. The main findings and problems to be solved for the successful project implementation are as followed ; 1. Total number of the special production area development projects as of the end of 1991 was amount to 138, and total number of farm household participated were estimated at 2,079, and total amount of off-farm income per farm household was reached to 3,011 thousand won. 2. The total number of processed special products have increased from 21 items in 1981 to 56 items in 1991. On the other hand the total number of farm household participated in the projects have decreased from 2,518 to 2,079 during same period. 3. Total amount of investment for the projects has increased from 1,429 million won in 1981 to 24,760 million won in 1991 but the rate of G'T loan of the total investment has reduced from 24.5% to 5.2% during same period. 4. 138 special production area development project are classified into 6 kinds of commodity groups such as 19 of general industrial good production areas, 52 of folks-industrial art objects production areas, 39 of food processing areas, 9 of fiber and texstile processing areas, 18 of agricultural and fishery inputs processing areas and 1 of stone processing area. 5. The total production value in 1990 was estimated 20,169 million won of which export was amount to 2,627 million won. 6. The finacial rate of return of the UNGOK KUGIJA Tea processing Project operated by UNGOK coops and BAKSAN ginseng tea processing project were estimated at 45.4% (B/C Ratio=1.17, NPV=152.5 million won) and 17.7% (B/C Ratio=1.12, NPV=120.2 million won) respectively. 7. More favorite terms and condition of the loan including collateral problems have to be given to farmers participated. Heavy investment and G'T subsidy policies should be started for the successful project implementation anf farm household income increase. 8. To expand market demand of the rural special goods G'T have to provide special program of TV or other mass media for commodity propaganda and the total cost concerned must be supported by G'T subsidy. 9. The special farm products as GUGUJA,MOSI'Ramie', Ginseng. SOGOKJU,HEMP,Mushroom.DUGYUNJU and Chesnut processing projects have to be propelled and expanded for off-farm income increase in Chung Nam Province. 10. Direct operational pattern of the special production area by coops is more favorable to farmers and recommendable considering with off-farm income increase and market demand creation throughout Korea. 11. In rural area, special organizations for project appraisal are not exist. Accordingly special training program, project appraisal, formulation and preparation for civil servants concerned have to be prepared for project selection and sound implementation under limited budget and financial support.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.185-223
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• 2008

This paper considers a heterogeneous agent dynamic general equilibrium model and analyzes effects of an increase in labor income tax rate on labor market and the aggregate variables in Korea. The fiscal policy regarding how the government uses the additional tax revenue may take the two forms: 1) general transfer and 2) earned income tax credit (EITC). The model features are as follows: 1) Workers are heterogeneous in their productivity. 2)Labor is indivisible, hence the analysis focuses on the variation in labor supply through the extensive margin in response to a change in fiscal policy. 3) The incomplete markets are introduced, so individual workers can not perfectly insure themselves against risks related to stochastic changes in income or employment status. 4) The model is of general equilibrium, hence it is equiped to analyze the feedback effect of changes in aggregate variables on individual workers' decisions. In the case of general transfer policy, the government equally distributes the additional tax revenue to all workers regardless of their employment states. Under this policy, an increase in the labor income tax rate dampens work incentives of individual workers so that the aggregate employment rate decreases by 1% compared with the benchmark economy. In the case of EITC policy, only employed workers whose labor incomes are below a certain EITC ceiling are eligible for the EITC benefits. Unlike the general transfer policy, the EITC induces low-income workers to participate the labor market to be eligible for EITC benefits. Hence, the aggregate employment rate may increase by 2.7% at the maximum. As the EITC ceiling increases, too many workers can collect the EITC but the benefits per worker becomes too little so that the increase in employment rate is negligible. By and large, this study demonstrates that EITC may effectively raise the aggregate employment rate, and that it can be a useful policy tool in response to the decrease in the labor force due to population aging as observed in Korea recently.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.1203-1210
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• 1997

This study was performed from March to June 1994 in ANsung Medical Center. We investigated serum components of 78 diabetics in the center, in addition to the nutrient intake status and anthrophometric status of 60 diabetics among them. We separated the latter into 2 groups(ⅰ) less tan 5 years of diabetic duration and ⅱ) more than 6 years of diabetic duration) and analyzed the clinical characteristics of each group. The results are as follows : \circled1 The average ages of male and female subjects were 57.1 and 58.9 years, respectively. The average diabetic duration of male subjects was 4.8 years and that of female subjects was 5.9 . The major occupational field of both male and female subjects was agriculture(33.3%, 36.1%). 50% of male and 75% of female subject's monthly incomes were less than 600, 000 won and 75% of male and 94.4% of female subjects had weekly food expense less than 40, 000 won. The nutrient intake status of the subjects was lower than RDA on the whole. There was no big differences between 2 the male groups of different diabetic duration , but calorie, protein , fat carbohydrate, phosphorus, iron and Vit B$_1$intakes of the above 6 year female group were appearently higher than those of the under 5 year female group (p<0.05). There were different intake tendencies between male and female subjects . For females. the longer the diabetic duration, the less intakes of calorie, protein , fat carbohydrate, phosphorus, iron Vit B$_1$, Vit B$_2$, and niacin were observed. Furthermore, the longer the diabetic duration in females , the more intakes of energy and nutrients, except Vit C were observed. Fasting blood glucose levels were 155mg/dl and 164mg/dl and Postprandial glucose levels were 242mg/dl and 247mg/dl for males and females respectively. Hb of both males and females , and Ht of males met the lower limit of normal status, The serum TG level was higher than normal , so that they seemed to suffer from hyperlipidemia ; their high HbAIC status indicated that the management of diabetes mellitus was poor. The total protein level of female subject was higher when compared with that of males(p<0.05). All subjects blood pressure were higher than normal , and the longer the diabetic duration, the higher was the blood pressure. The serum HDL-cholesterol levels of the above 6 year group male subjects were lower(p<0.05) than those of the under 5 year male group subjects, and the former group's systolic and diastolic blood pressures were higher than those of the latter(p<0.05). Levels of serum total protein, albumin and TG of the above 6 year female group were lower than those of the under 5 year female group(p<0.05). As the diabetic duration was extended, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels showed a tendency to increase, while Hb, Ht, total protein, albumin, and A/G, which represent the nutrients state of iron and protein, were inclined to decrease. This result showed that serum lipid components went bad. To summarize the results, the longer the diabetic duration, the worse were the male subjects nutrient intake status, but those of the female subjects were good. With respect to serum components and serum lipid subjects Fe, protein, nutrition status and serum lipid component got worse as the diabetic duration was extended , implying the possibility of diabetes mellitus complication grows.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.108-128
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• 2000

The Korean government has implemented the policy for merging 141 health insurers into Korean Unified Health Insurer (KUHI) in July of 2000. The unification of multiple insurers will definitely effect the stability of financial management, equity of premium burdens and efficiency of administrative management. However, it is difficult to predict what forms the far-reaching effects of the unification would take. Thus, pursuing the unification may be express as a huge policy experiment. In order to lead the unification, which lies on a crossroad between success and failure, to the road of success, we need to infer the problems and obstacles predicted in the step-wise processes of merging organizations, finances and the systems of computing premium, and come up with the effective means to maintain the stability of financial management, to improve the equity of premium burdens and to increase the efficiency of administrative management. Thus, I first described the changes of the Korean medical insurance system, and analyzed the performances of self-employed medical insurance 1 year after the integration of societies in October of 1998. At the base of examining the stability of financial management, equity of premium burdens and efficiency of administrative management, I predicted the problems and obstacles that could occur after the unification of the multiple medical insurers, and proposed a few ways of leading the unification of the multiple medical insurers in Korea to success. The most worried factor is that insurance finance would become unstable since the expansion of premium revenues is not easy because raising the premium for all Koreans is to be difficult. In addition, the unification of insurance finance could weaken the insurer's efforts for declaring real incomes of the self-employed and increasing the collection rate of premiums from them. This weakening would be the decisive factor of lowering the equity of premium contributions between the self-employed and employees. And bureaucratization and rigidity that are unavoidable in a gigantic unified organization could lower the efficiency of administrative management. Furthermore, by having 3 labor unions in the unified organization, it is possible to experience frequent difficulties and discords among the unions and between the unions and organization. Thus, when smooth pursuing of the unification of multiple insurers gets difficult, the social expenses derived from the failure would eventually end up on all Koreans. The unification is to be performed after coming up with the ways to eradicate these worries, so that the unification of multiple insurers would step onto the road of success.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.110-126
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• 1995

Korean economy has been developed successfully in the course of implementing the five year economic development plans since 1962. The gap of incomes and quality of life between rural and urban area has been widened and it made rural farm laborers drain to urban areas. Therefore the prevailing situation of labor shortage and wage hike in rural area has made farm management deteriorate in recent years. Under the internal and international unfavorable economic conditions, marginal farm land of 66.5 thousand ha has been idled as of end of 1993. The total area outside agricultural development zone with bad farming conditions including irrigation and drainage, and land consolidation for mechanization were estimated at 360.4thousand ha equivalent to 17.5% of the total farm land area in Korea. Considering the topographical conditions of marginal lands, the effective use of marginal lands should be studied from the view point of public interest rather than from the view point of individual economic conditions. Considering the present agricultural economic settings, such as price decrease, unfavourable benefits of farm products, labour shrotage, free trade of farm products and poor physical condition of marginal lands, the institutional and realistical measures for the effective utilization of idle and marginal land should be studied as soon as possible. Detail land use pattern should be surveyed in the areas outside agricultural development zone and have to be classified as orchard farms, grass land, fish culture farms, lawn and ornamental tree farm, sight seeing and leisure farms for urban peoples, special crops production farms and common farms to be developed for farm mechanization. According to the surveyed results, the expected utilization patterns of the idle and marginal lands could be considerd as village common use, farm land base development, leisure farm development, mutual complementary utilization between urban and rural areas, G't purchase and management, credit supply and new extension services, improvement of cropping patterns and sight seeing and leisure farm patterns. For the successful and reasonable management of the marginal lands, the actions such as institutional improvement, prohibition of idle marginal land, enforcement of activities of farm management committee members and land banking system of RDC including development and utilization systems should be included.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.23 no.4 s.32
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• pp.436-450
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• 1990

This study was designed to investigate the mar factors affecting selection of delivery facilities by pregnant women. Five hundred women hospitalized at 23 Seoul-area delivery facilities, such as university hospitals, general hospitals, hospitals, and clinics were selected and given questionnaires from April 24 to May 7, 1990. A total of 350 questionnaires were collected and analysed for the study. The results are as follows ; 1. In general, variables which significantly affected the choice of delivery facilities included the age of women, their educational level, the educational level of their husbands, monthly average incomes and residential areas. 2. In analyzing the obstetrical characteristics of the women, those variables significantly affecting the choice of delivery facilities were the gestational period, the facilities for prenatal care, the frequency of prenatal care, the type of delivery, the frequency of miscarriage, previous delivery experiences and the awareness on prenatal care. 3. In comparing the motivation factors for selecting the delivery facilities, all the factors except convenience and need for hospitalization differed significantly among delivery facilities. 4. The factor analysis was assessed for twenty possible factors motivating the choice of delivery facilities. Six factors including personal service, scale of the facility, reputation, urgency, convenience, and experience were noted explaining by 57.7%. 5. In the discriminant analysis used to clarify the major factors affecting the selection of delivery facilities, the 16 significant variables were regarded as independent variables, and the type of delivery facilities was considered a dependent variable. The stepwise method was applied to the analysis. Detected discriminant variables were the facilities for prenatal care, scale factor, personal service factor, urgency factor, convenience factor, reputation factor, experience factor, gestational period, types of delivery, frequency of miscarriage, age and income. These 12 discriminant variables were tested, with reference to discriminant prediction, on their importance in the choice of the delivery facility, by the discriminant functional formula. The test showed a hit-rate of 67.7%. The results suggest that general characteristics, obstetrical characteristics, and motivations for selecting the delivery facilities differ significantly according to the types of the delivery facilities. This study implies that all types of delivery facilities should attempt to acommodate characteristics and motivations of pregnant women. The facilities should be prepared to increase their patients satisfaction with required medical conditions by improving service and responding to the pregnant women's preferences.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.29 no.2 s.53
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• pp.311-329
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• 1996

This study was designed to compare the level of medical utilization between the urban and rural areas of Korea and to explain the differences between the two regions. Data from the National Health Interview Survey performed by the Korean Institute of Health & Social Affairs in 1992 were used for this study utilizing a sample size of 21,841 people. The level of medical utilization such as the number of physician visits and the number of hospital admissions was compared between the regions with ANOVA. Various determinants for medical use were also compared by univariate analysis. Statistical models which included enabling factors, predisposing factors, need factors and region were constructed for bivariate analysis in order to further elucidate the level of medical utilization. The results were as follows: 1. There was greater medical use, both in terms of physician visits and inpatient care in the rural areas in spite of insufficient health resources. The particular reasons for higher medical utilization in rural areas were attributed to a higher number of initial physician visits as well as a longer the length of stay per hospital admission. Therefore, indicators representing the degree of met need (utilization/need) showed no significant difference between rural and urban areas in spite of the fact that the medical need is larger in rural areas. 2. Use of public health facilities received a significant portion of physician visits in the rural area. The government's effort to enhance primary health care through health centers, health subcenters and the nurse practitioner's post in rural areas has contributed to the increase of access to medical care in the rural areas. 3. There were some differences in the socio-demographic characteristics between two regions ; There were more elderly people over the age of 65: unstable marital status, less education and lower incomes also characterized the rural areas. Therefore, among rural people, there were more predisposing factors for medical use. Additionaly, need factors such as poor self-reported health status and high morbidity level were also high in the rural area. 4. In contrast it was learned that, the supply of health resources was mostly concentrated in the urban areas except for public health facilities. Therefore, geographical access to medical care was lower in the rural area both in terms travel time and travel cost. 5. The coefficient of the region variable was insignificant in the regression model which controlled the supply factor only. However, utilization was significantly higher in urban areas if the model included predisposing factors and need factors in addition to the supply factor. The results were interpreted as rural people have greater medical needs.

• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.57-72
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• 2018

Organic agriculture seeks sustainable agriculture. Organic agriculture is based on circulating agriculture of a family farm unit. However, as of the end of 2016, only 33 out of the total organic farming farms were implementing Crop-Livestock cycling organic farming. The reason seems to be a matter of income after all. The optimal size combination refers to the scale by which family farms can maintain their quality of life while engaging in farming activities. In other words. it is a farm scale that maintains optimal income through stable labor costs. In the meantime, there has been no previous study on the optimal economical combination of Crop-Livestock cycling farming. Choi (2016) analyzed whether the economies of scope (EOS) were realized in the combined production by using the management data of the farmers who practiced Crop-Livestock cycling organic farming for four years. As a result, it has been revealed that the EOS measurement value is 0 or more so the economies of scope are being realized. Therefore, the purpose of this empirical analysis is to identify farm incomes under this circumstance. It is assumed that the optimum production is achieved by balancing the total income curve and the total cost curve in the optimal scale production range. The results of the analysis are as follows. First, the income after the conversion to Crop-Livestock cycling farming was 44,789,280 won, the sum of the seedling-livestock sector, which was 17,873,120 won higher when the non-Crop-Livestock cycling farming was assumed. The same is true for 2014 and 2015. The reason for this is that pig droppings were composted from organic seedlings, and the cost of selling pork was 150,000 won/per pig more expensive even though the manufacturing cost of organic feeds was higher than the purchasing cost. Secondly, this study simulated the result that the economic index varies when the farm size combination is changed by the farm size of 100% standard (S100) as of 2014. S130 is the increase in size from 100% of 2014, whereas S30 is the result of 3ha crop and 66 livestock (pigs). As a result of this simulation, Crop-Livestock cycling farming income decreased more than non-Crop-Livestock cycling farming as the farm size decreased, whereas the income decreased as the farm size increased. When the size was reduced below S50, the income tended to decrease. In this situation, EOS changed in the same direction. The results showed that when the farming size was reorganized and reduced to 50% compared to 2014, the income and income difference was the highest. At the same time, economies of scope (EOS) were the highest at 0.12985. In other words, it was found that the income of farm houses in a family farm unit sector was the best in the combination of 1.5ha crop agriculture and 110 livestock (pigs).

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.69-102
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• 2012

Owing to increased number of luxury brand users, both genuine and counterfeit luxury product consumption continues to increase every year. Luxury brand is defined as use or display of a particular branded products which brings the ownership prestige apart from its functional utility(Grossmand and Shapiro 1988). Some luxury brands have imitations sold in marketplace due to their popularity. These imitations or counterfeits have been jumping on the bandwagon of the upturn in sales of their originals. The purpose of our study is to understand consumer's underlying motives to consume luxury brands, genuine and or counterfeits. To do this, we propose functional theories of attitudes, decision-making styles, and life attitudes to form the determining causes for different consumption choices of luxury brands: genuine brands, counterfeit brands, both genuine and counterfeit brands, and no consumption on luxury brands types. In proposed causal pathways, we examine moderated effects of socio-psychological factors to further investigate if consumer profiles would exert influences in causal relationships. From the existing theories of functional attitudes: value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes, we developed and introduced a new measure of rationality-consumptive attitude. From the existing eight decision-making characteristics of consumer styles inventory(CSI), three measures of high-quality, hedonic-shopping, and price-shopping styles were primarily applied in the study along with newly introduced measure of 'high-price' being added, which makes four total. Seven life attitude measures of life purpose, life control, will to meaning, goal seeking, future mean to fulfill, life satisfaction, and religiosity were applied. Finally, such socio-psychological measures as age, gender, marital status, income, and age-gap between couples were assumed to function as moderators. With 430 valid study samples, ages from 20s to 50s, with more females(316) than males(114), with average personal possessions of 5 genuine and 9 counterfeit luxury brands, we conducted questionnaire survey. Results indicated that social-adjustive function is totally disappeared in the relationship due to current social trend of widespread consumptions on both genuine and counterfeit brands which in turn, make consumers feel less special on wearing or carrying them unlike in the past. Self-expressive function and rationality-consumptive functions act as strong catalysts for genuine brand consumption and counterfeit brand consumption, respectively. On consumers' decision-making styles, high-price sublation is the most powerful indicator anticipating counterfeit consumption, even more powerful than personal incomes. In life attitude, the overall model fit was not validated, and only life control and life satisfaction are proven to be significant on both genuine and counterfeit product consumptions. Employment of socio-psychological factors in the model improved understanding of users further. Young consumers tend to go for genuine products over counterfeits. Consumers in different income groups; low, medium and high, all significantly consume genuine products for reasons of different decision-making styles. The results indicated that consumers whose personal disposition is predisposed to consume products in the form of reflection of his or her personality, go only for genuine brands for quality reason, while consumers who rationally consume products for its function or usability, go only for counterfeits for high-price sublation reason. Meanwhile, both product users support for high-price orientation who are not well off.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.108 no.3
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• pp.392-404
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to identify the impact of various income sources on income inequality of forestry households. Data from the Forestry Household Economy Survey from 2013-2016 were analyzed using the Gini coefficient decomposition method via income source. In particular, the income inequality analysis of forestry households was broken down into separate analyses based on group, i.e., the whole of forestry households and the five income quintile classes. The results of the analyses showed that income inequality of forestry households is primarily affected by forestry and nonforestry incomes and income quintile class. Moreover, income inequality of the highest income quintile class was largely affected by forestry income compared with other sources of income, whereas that of other income quintile classes was largely affected by nonforestry income. Therefore, in order to reduce income inequality in forestry households, it is necessary to increase the proportion of forestry income in the lower four quintile classes. Given that the income of the lowest quintile class is negative, it is necessary to devise ways to improve the proportion and quantity of forestry income. At the same time, as forestry income increases, a policy alternative is also required to improve inequality in forestry income.