• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.131-140
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• 2019

The study aims to examine the impact of productivity in addition to the policy of increasing the foreign investors' ownership rate on the performance of businesses which were listed on Vietnam's stock exchange market from 2010 to 2017. With the database of 3.961 observations, the study employs a statistical method - multiple regression to estimate the relationship between labor productivity, foreign ownership as well as other firm-level characteristics and firm performance. Research findings show that increasing labor productivity and increasing foreign ownership rates help increase firm performance. In addition, except for financial leverage, variables such as liquidity and firm size have positive effects on firm performance measured by Tobin's Q. These findings have theoretical contributions and practical implications for managers, investors and government in Vietnam. Managers should pay attention to improving labor productivity through employing incentive mechanisms, building a good working environment, investing in technology, etc. in order to enhance the firm performance. Investors could utilize the labor productivity and foreign ownership indicators to select stocks of good companies for investment. For Vietnamese government, relaxing the limit of foreign ownership and accelerating the divesting of State capital in State-owned enterprises could help increase the investment scale of foreign investors and resulting in positive effects on the firm performance.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.29-54
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• 2014

The purpose of this research is to identify the relation between OFDI (Outward Foreign Direct Investment) and wage inequality. In order to analyze various effects of OFDI on wages depending on the types of workers, the research classified laborers into four categories: permanent/skilled worker, permanent/unskilled worker, temporary/skilled worker, and temporary/unskilled worker. With controlling wage-determining factors such as education, labor union, individual fixed-effect, and industry-level effect, this paper examines whether OFDI attributes to the wage inequality among each type of workers. Moreover, this study also analyzes possible effects on wages that could vary according to the different characteristics of investments by classifying OFDI into two groups: OECD and non-OECD. The results reveal that OFDI makes certain differences according to skill-intensity and contract type in terms of influences on wages. It also shows that the effect of OFDI on wages is more subject to contract type than to skill-intensity. The classification of OFDI into OECD and non-OECD proves that effects on wages can vary by characteristics of the subject of investment.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.283-293
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• 2021

To verify the employment impact of two-directional FDI, the study analyzes panel data composed of 26 OECD countries from 2006 to 2018 by using the system GMM. Furthermore, we decompose domestic employment into types of industries and skill compositions to identify the heterogeneous employment impact. The results show that inward and outward FDI at lag one period promote domestic employment at the overall level. In terms of workers' skill levels, lagged inward FDI significantly persistently promotes high-skilled workers' employment, likewise, the positive employment impact also appears with a time lag in low-skilled labor subgroups. Outward FDI, on the other hand, initially inhibits both high- and low-skilled labor demand, but then changes to a positive effect in the highskilled labor subgroups. Although there is a time difference between inward and outward FDI, it has a significant and positive impact on employment in the manufacturing and service industries. The results indicate that the relationship between manufacturing and service employment is a mutual substitute. To attract international investors, governments should promote a favorable investment climate and maintain stable economic growth. Because low-skilled labor is more susceptible to changes in FDI, policy measures are required to ensure employment stability.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.95-124
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• 2013

This article empirically explore the effects of a training subsidies of corporate training investment and productivity improvement using enterprise data. I find that large sized enterprises don't have clear positive effects, but small&medium sized enterprises have, And the more enterprises have corporate training investment, the more positive effects of training subsidies decrease. So large sized enterprises with a relatively high level of corporate training investment have the restricted effect of training subsidies compare to small&medium sized enterprises.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.151-161
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• 2023

Purpose - In this study, we examine the factors related to the asset allocation decisions of individual investors who 1) directly invest in stocks or bonds, 2) indirectly invest in various fund products (excluding CMA and MMF), and 3) invest in both products. Design/methodology/approach - We collect a sample of 3,000 individual investors and investigate the factors influencing investment behavior, especially the diversification tendency in asset allocation, with the "Investor Behavior Survey" that is conducted jointly by the Korea Financial Investment Association and the Korea Gallup Research Institute in 2011 and 2012. Findings - Our regression analyses estimate the marginal effects of various factors such as the amount of total financial assets, monthly income, occupation, age, and gender. The results reveal that male investors with manual labor occupations were less inclined to diversify their investments compared to female investors in office jobs. Additionally, higher monthly income is associated with a greater inclination toward diversification. Therefore, if a positive relationship exists between income and educational level, we may suggest that higher educational levels lead to a greater tendency for diversification. Research implications or Originality - Interestingly, investors who engage in direct investments tend to exhibit a weaker diversification tendency as the amount of their direct investment increases. On the other hand, investors who engage in both direct and indirect investments show a weaker diversification tendency as the amount of total financial assets increases. This suggests that the investment style of investors is closely related to their diversification behavior.

• Agribusiness and Information Management
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.23-42
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• 2009

As technology develops, more advanced technologies involving GPS, GIS, RFID and sensor networks have been adopted in agriculture sector for u-Farm. However, technology adoptions have been evaluated as ineffective. Farmers and agri-business have low level of understanding on technology so it is not efficiently utilized. This study introduces a case of RFID/sensor networks of mushroom farm as a u-Farm case study, focusing on developing a framework for analysis of u-Farm investment returns. RFID and sensor networks improve real-time production control, processing management, and traceability. Integration of RFID and sensor networks leads to innovation into the mushroom farm, reducing labor cost, increasing productivity, and improving quality of the mushroom. The ROI which is used as an indicator of performance indicator is 413%.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.1-22
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• 2023

Purpose - Southeast Asia has been the focus of Korea's foreign investment. Korea has been helping developing countries in Southeast Asia achieve economic growth and win-win cooperation through capital exports. FDI is an important channel for technology diffusion. However, the impact of FDI on the bias of technological progress in the host country is dependent on the host country's own endowment structure and capital-labor factor substitution elasticity. Therefore, the central issue of this paper is to accurately evaluate the impact of Korea's FDI to the four Southeast Asian countries in various industries on their bias of technological progress. Design/methodology - The paper uses macroeconomic data for Korea and four East Asian countries to estimate capital-labor factor elasticities of substitution using nonlinear, seemingly uncorrelated regressions (NLSUR). Then, the biased technological change index (BTCI) is calculated for each country. Finally, panel data analysis is used to explore the impact of Korean FDI in various industries in the four Southeast Asian countries on their own directed technological progress, and a robustness test is conducted. Findings - There is a substitution relationship between capital and labor factors based on their elasticity in Korea, Singapore and the Philippines. There is a complementary relationship between capital and labor factors in Indonesia and Malaysia. According to the BTCI, there is a trend toward labor-biased technological progress in all countries. Korean investments in manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade in the host country trigger capital-biased technological change in the host country; investments in the finance, insurance and information and communication sectors trigger labor-biased technological change. In addition, this paper also confirms that directed technological progress can enable cross-country transmission. Originality/value - The innovation of this paper lies in three aspects. First, we estimate the BTCI for five countries and explore the trend and situation of directed technological progress in each country from each country's own perspective. Second, we explore the impact of Korean FDI in the host country on the bias to its technological progress at the industry level. Second, we explore the impact of Korean FDI in various industries in the four Southeast Asian countries on the four countries' own directed technological progress from a national perspective. Finally, we propose corresponding countermeasures for technological progress from the perspective of inverse factor endowment. These innovative points not only expand the understanding of technological progress and cross-country technology transfer in East Asia but also provide practical references for policy-makers and business operators.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.4
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• pp.467-473
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• 2013

The addition of disconnect switches to a distribution feeder or the replacement of the manual switches with the automatic switches do, in general, increase reliability by decreasing the duration of the outage of many to the customers on the feeder and reducing the outage section. However, the improvement of reliability in power distribution system causes an increase of the investment cost, for example, replacement costs, labor costs, and so on. For this reason - the balance between investment and reliability improvement - many studies about the appropriate level of investment have been conducted. In this paper, we suggest the algorithm for determining the reasonable switch automation rate in the power distribution system. We evaluate the customer interruption cost and reliability for several cases - these cases relate with the switch automation rate - in the domestic metropolitan power distribution system, estimate the effectiveness of changing the manual switch to automatic switch quantitatively. These results can help the determining on the disconnect switch's automation rate.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.151-162
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• 2019

The paper examines the effects of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on the economic growth of Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) between 1993 and 2015. The investigation is based on the influence of growth and economic absorptive capability determinants such as human capital, trade openness, and institutional quality. The methodological analysis uses a multivariate framework accounting capital stock, labor stock, FDI, human capital, trade openness, and institutional quality in regression of the Vector Autoregressive model. Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test, Johansen Cointegration test, and Granger Causality test were applied as parts of the econometric time-series analysis approach. The empirical results demonstrate the positive effects of FDI and trade openness, and the negative effects of human capital and institutional quality on the economic growth of the Lao PDR over the 1993 to 2015 period. The findings confirm that trade openness complemented by a sufficient level of infrastructure, education, quality institutions, and transparency significantly influence economic growth and attract more FDI. Research results lend credence to the need for the Lao PDR's government to focus on improving its economic absorptive capability and economic competitiveness regionally and globally by improving wealth and resource management strategies, as failure to take this course of action could lead to the Dutch Disease effects.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.26-31
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• 2014

High temperature fuel cell system, such as molten carbonate fuel cells(MCFC) and solid oxide fuel cells(SOFC), are capable of operating at MW rated power output. The power output change of high temperature fuel cell imposes the thermal and mechanical stresses on the fuel cell stack. To minimize the thermal-mechanical stresses on the stack and increase the systems reliability, we should divide the power plant configuration to several banks. However, the improvement of reliability in fuel cell power plant system causes an increase of the investment cost, for example, replacement costs, labor costs, and so on. For this reason - the balance between investment and reliability improvement - many studies about the appropriate level of investment have been conducted. In this paper, we evaluate the cost for operation and installation, the benefit for electric energy and thermal energy sales, and the system reliability for several cases : these cases relate with the bank configuration.