• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.107-134
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• 2004

This paper attempts to find out the economic roots of the increasing tendency not to choose the science and engineering (S&E) fields in the colleges. The analysis shows that the relative economic position of the S&E graduates measured in terms of employment quality is not significantly different from that of the non-S&E graduates. But the S&E graduates earn relatively low wage and self-employment income. Furthermore, the relative income of the top 5% bracket of the S&E graduates has been declining in the recent five years. The paper concludes that low relative income of the average S&E graduates as well as the increasingly lower relative income of the most able S&E personnel, coupled with the increasing compensating differential required for the S&E jobs, is the main reason for the 'avoidance' phenomenon of the S&E fields.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.79-108
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• 2017

Using data sets from the Korean Labour and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) for the period 2003-2015, this study shows that wages of nonunion workers are positively related to the percentage of unionized workers in the same geographic region. A 10 percentage point increase in a region's union density is associated with a 4.9 percent increase in the region's average wage of nonunion workers. It is also shown that this positive spillover effect is observed for various subgroups of nonunion workers, including women, youth, low-educated workers, small firm employees, and those employed under nonstandard work arrangements. In contrast, the average wage of union workers is found to respond insignificantly to changes in a region's union density.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.73-101
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• 2021

Employing bunching estimators of Cengiz et al. (2019) for data from the "Economically Active Population Survey," this paper estimates the effect of minimum wage increases on the volume of waged employment for the period 2009-2019. A bunching estimator, which exploits yearly changes in the hourly wage distribution due to the minimum wage hike, can be easily applied to the Korean labor market, which adopts the yearly single national minimum wage. The estimation results suggest that an increase in the annual minimum wage during the period from 2009 to 2019 had a negative effect on the volume of waged employment. A 10% increase in the (real) minimum wage leads to a 1.42~1.74% decrease in the volume of waged employment. Disemployment effects of minimum wage hikes are greater in the sector with a higher proportion of minimum wage workers. It is necessary to carefully consider disemployment effects in determining the level of the minimum wage.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.109-130
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• 2022

The Vietnamese government has proposed contract farming through a new type of cooperative as an institutional innovation which aims to restructure the agricultural sector. However, policy changes often impact farmers, who bear the primary effects of the transition process. Understanding households' strategies for land use and livelihood is crucial for policymaking in the agricultural development field. This study was conducted in the rural Binh Dao commune in Central Vietnam. We analyzed household members' labor force changes and their livelihood behaviors after their participation in a contract farming scheme using qualitative analysis methods combined with geographic information system (GIS) support, based on secondary data and in-depth interviews of 190 farmers. Simultaneously, we created a digital map of the cooperative's production area to investigate changes in land use and production activities. The findings show that contract farming shaped the vertical coordination of the value chain from the farmers to the cooperative and agricultural product trading companies. Subsequently, it encouraged land use and labor efficiency due to mechanical support. In addition, it also increased productivity and protected farmers from market risks. However, despite its positive effects on agricultural productivity in this case, the contract farming scheme could not achieve the restructuring of the rural labor force toward non-agricultural sectors. Ironically, farmers in the Binh Dao commune tended to increase cultivable land during the agricultural restructuring program, rather than switching their labor forces to non-agricultural sectors. The lack of stable non-farming job opportunities in rural Vietnam results in challenges to the efficiency of agricultural restructuring programs. Consequently, farmers in the Binh Dao commune are still smallholder farmers, depending on the family labor force.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.19
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• pp.49-81
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• 2006

The private college education plays a crucial role both in training and supplying manpower needed for national economic growth and in increasing employability and personal labor earnings of individual workers. In oder for private college education to effectively respond to the rapid changes in industrial and occupational structures, it is necessary to secure appropriate level of investment funds and manage them efficiently. For this, it is required to discuss the structure, magnitude and management mechanism of the current private college education finance, changes in future demand for private college education and resultant changes in budget estimates, and new financial resources and allocation schemes. This study attempted to analyze current status and problems of private college education finance in Korea and, based on this analysis, to suggest future policy directions to improve private college education finance system. In order to make the private college education system in Korea competent and competitive enough to survive in international market, it is prerequisite to provide enough budget for the private college education and to manage the private college education finance in more efficient ways. First, for securing the adequacy and stability of investment budget for the private college education, it is recommended to 1) increase the government budget and put emphasis on the private college education; 2) diversify financial resources and induce financial contribution from private sector such as school juridical persons and enterprises. Second, for higher efficiency of financial management, it is recommended 1) make valid allocation standards and mechanism; 2) introduce competition system; 3) develop and utilize evaluation mechanism for the private college education finance to check adequacy, efficiency, accountability, and effectiveness; 4) apply consumer-oriented financial management scheme. In addition to the above policy measures, it is necessary to 1) make scientific forecasts of industrial and occupational structures periodically and apply these analyses to medium & long-term the private college education planning; and 2) redesign budget accounting system and develop the private college education performance indicators for the evaluation of accountability of the private college education institutions and administration institutes.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.3-30
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• 1991

This paper examines Korea's exports of manufactures to the United States, Japan, and other OECD member countries in the 1974-89 period, focusing on the market share in the trade partners' imports. It decomposes the growth of exports into various effects, following the "constant-market-shares" analysis. For this purpose, the entire period is divided into three subperiods: 1974-78, 1978-83, and 1983-89. The paper also estimates a regression model of the market share determination, using the data of Korea's market share in U.S. imports. In the three subperiods under study, Korea's exports grew at different paces for varied reasons. The average annual growth rate was 28 %, 11 %, and 21 %, respectively. A large drop in the "competitiveness effect", that is, in the market-share growth rate, was mainly responsible for the decline in the export growth rate. The largest drop in the competitiveness effect was found in the light manufactures exports in the second period. The market share did not regain the rapid growth momentum. The main reason for the rise in export growth rate in the last subperiod was the "market-size effect"-a rise in the growth rate of the trade partners' imports. According to the regression results, high intensities in physical and human capital tended to lower the Korean manufacturing industries' market shares in the United States. This negative correlation was stronger in the case of human capital intensity, suggesting that Korea is relatively poorer in human capital endowment than in physical capital endowment when compared to the United States. This negative correlation between the market share and each of the two intensities became weaker overtime. This may be interpreted as the consequence of both physical and human capital accumulation which were faster than the labor force growth. Depreciation of the Japanese yen was estimated to have a negative influence on the Korean manufacturing industries' market share in the United States, and this negative influence became stronger each year in the 1980s. This seems to reflect the intensifying competition between the two countries' exports in U.S. import markets. The Heavy and Chemical Industry Policy of the 1970s, which promoted a number of selected industries by providing them with various incentives and inevitably discriminated against the rest of the industries, was estimated to have had strong negative effects on the export performance of the light manufacturing industries. This finding and the largest decline in the "competitiveness effect" -found in the light manufactures exports in the 1978-83 period-indicate that the Heavy and Chemical Industry Policy was mainly accountable for the drop in the export growth rate during the period. On the other hand, the rise in export growth rate during the subsequent subperiod was greatly impacted by the large scale exchange rate realignments of major currencies, especially by the appreciation of the Japanese yen, and other changes in international economic conditions.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.962-966
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• 2020

Monitoring the mutation dynamics of human severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is critical in understanding its infectivity, virulence and pathogenicity for development of a vaccine. In an "age of mobility," the pandemic highlights the importance and vulnerability of regionalization and labor market interdependence in Southeast Asia. We intend to characterize the genetic variability of viral populations within the region to provide preliminary information for regional surveillance in the future. By analyzing 142 complete genomes from South East Asian (SEA) countries, we identified three central variants distinguished by nucleotide and amino acid changes.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.71-97
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• 2015

This study examines the effects of several factors indicating economic openness-imported intermediate goods, total imports, IFDI (inward foreign direct investment), and foreign ownership-on regular, irregular jobs and the ratio of irregular employment to regular employment. Findings revealed that imported intermediate inputs and IFDI affected neither regular nor irregular job figures. However, an increase in total imports led to a decrease in the number of irregular jobs without affecting regular full time jobs, leading to a decrease in the ratio of irregular jobs to regular jobs. On the other hand, changes in foreign ownership structure had a contrary effect, that is, a decrease in the number of regular jobs and an increase in irregular ones, and, thus, an increase in the ratio of irregular jobs to regular jobs. Overall results showed that a rise in imports results in depressed overall employment, irregular employment in particular, while more IFDI results in more irregular jobs replacing regular ones, effectively exacerbating job insecurity. The implication of this analysis is that greater economic openness may have a negative impact on the South Korean labor market overall.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.819-830
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• 2003

Korea is facing great threat from other countries as a major global sourcing site for textile and apparel products. The threat has been augmented by changes in external environment such as advents of Trading Blocs and Free Trade Area(FTA) as well as internal environment such as hikes in labor cost and lack of flexibility in accommodating international buyers' needs. This study analyzed international buyers' sourcing activities in Korea for the purpose of developing strategies to enhance competitiveness of the Korean textile and apparel industries in the global market. The data used in this study were gathered by surveying 52 non-Korean textile and apparel product buyers with cooperation of the Korea Federation of Textile Industries (KOFOTI). The data were analyzed by mean, frequency, Pearson correlation coefficient, and ｘ$^2$ analysis. The results indicated that Korea is still attractive to many international buyers especially to those who have been engaged in global sourcing for longer periods of time with bigger purchasing budgets. However, in order to expand and solidify their customer bases, Korean companies should focus more on developing competitively priced value added products a step ahead of their foreign competitors, diversifying their marketing channels including internet.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.44
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• pp.117-145
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• 2001

This paper attempts to assess the impact and implication of globalization on social welfare in Korea. It is no easy task to give an exact definition of globalization and the concept has been used in many different senses, that is, economic, social, cultural, political globalization. In particular, the meaning of globalization is connected to the rise and expansion of neo-liberalism. Globalization tends to undermine national welfare systems by the social dumping, race to the bottom, privatization of social services, labor market flexibility. On the other hand, in many studies the negative impact of globalization on social welfare has been questioned. Instead of end or erosion of the welfare systems, it is emphasized that competitiveness and welfare may go hand in hand. We investigate the question what and how the social welfare system in Korea has been changed in globalization process. In order to answer, this paper examines the changes in welfare ideology, welfare programs, social stratification level after economic crisis. The result of analysis is that in contrast to globalist expectations which is to retrench social welfare, paradoxically, the welfare system in Korea has been reinforced in globalization process. Therefore, the alleged impact of globalization on social welfare will be independent on the structure of domestic institution, political legacies, and on the socialization of global politics such as IMF, World Bank, ILO, UNDP, etc., on the welfare politics of stakeholders in national state.