• International Area Studies Review
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.77-100
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• 2011

The Korean economy have experienced the remarkable decreases in factor prices such as bond yields, real wage since the IMF foreign exchange crisis. This paper investigates the effects of the price changes in the factor markets on determining the level and cyclicality of industrial markups in the manufacturing industry. For this purpose, we construct a markup equation in the small open economy based on the production function including foreign intermediate goods and assuming constant returns to scale technology and AR(1) process of technological coefficient. Empirical results are summarized as the followings. The empirical results shows that the increased markups after the IMF crisis can be explained by the price decreases in the factor markets which result in lowering marginal costs. And we also observed counter cyclicality of markup, labor share and interest rates while real wages, technical coefficients, and production price index proved to be pro-cyclical. In conclusion, the price changes in factor market have contributed to the stickiness in markup fluctuation in the manufacturing industry.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.85-116
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• 2016

The present study aims to explore the causes of employment difficulty on the basis of job applicant's interest from P-E (person-environment) fit perspective. Our approach relied on a textual analytic method to reveal insights from their situational interests in a job search during the change of labor market. Thus, to investigate the type of major interests and psychological responses, user-generated texts in a social community were collected for analysis between January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2015 by crawling the online-community in regard to job seeking and sharing information and opinions. The results of topic analysis indicated user's primary interests were divided into four types: perception of vocation expectation, employment pre-preparation behaviors, perception of labor market, and job-seeking stress. Specially, job applicants put mainly concerns of monetary reward and a form of employment, rather than their work values or career exploration, thus youth job applicants expressed their psychological responses using contextualized language (e.g., slang, vulgarisms) for projecting their unstable state under uncertainty in response to environmental changes. Additionally, they have perceived activities in the restricted preparation (e.g., certification, English exam) as determinant factors for success in employment and suffered form job-seeking stress. On the basis of these findings, current unemployment matters are totally attributed to the absence of pursing the value of vocation and job in individuals, organizations, and society. Concretely, job seekers are preoccupied with occupational prestige in social aspect and have undecided vocational value. On the other hand, most companies have no perception of the importance of human resources and have overlooked the needs for proper work environment development in respect of stimulating individual motivation. The attempt in this study to reinterpret the effect of environment as for classifying job applicant's interests in reference to linguistic and psychological theories not only helps conduct a more comprehensive meaning for understanding social matters, but guides new directions for future research on job applicant's psychological factors (e.g., attitudes, motivation) using topic analysis.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.37-71
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• 2018

Since 2016, public and political interest on basic income has been increased beyond academic interest. The recent debate on basic income has expanded on issues regarding to the concrete implementation of basic income moving further than the debate on conception of the basic income in the abstract level. This study examines major critiques of basic income which was raised from social policy area and makes a counter-argument on these critiques. Major points summarized as follows. First, the problem of jobs and social insurance exclusion is not serious enough to call for basic income. Second, existing social security systems will be crowded out by excessive financial burden if basic income is introduced. Third, policies to cultivate citizens' capacities to cope with a technological change should be given priority over basic income. This study disputes these critiques by counter arguing four points. First, it is necessary to reconstruct welfare state based on basic income, given the labor market changes, such as long-term trend of employment change, newly emerging employment of platform companies, and inconsistency of platform labor and social insurance. Second, hypothesis of crowding-out effect on social security system is just a criticism that can be applied to the basic income initiative of the right-wing. Also, it is unable to find a logical basis or evidence of this hypothesis from the historical process of welfare state development or previous studies. Third, it is necessary to discuss how to reconfigure existing social security system and basic income which are complementary to each other and also have consistency with labor market as a configuration, not as a matter of choosing between basic income and social security system. Fourth, de-laborization does not mean a refusal to labor but a free choice, and the basic principle of social security is not needs but right. In conclusion, in order to develop more productive debate on basic income, it requires more sophisticated discussion and criticism from the point of view of the distributive justice; the debate on the sustainability of social insurance-centered welfare states; and debates on the political realization of basic income.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.73-83
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• 2016

Purpose - The parcel delivery service(courier) industry all over the world has been expanding its market so far, but its growth has been declining in recent years. In this situation, most parcel delivery companies are having trouble with managing themselves because of the pressure from the customer to increase service level and decrease the rate. The purpose of this study is to provide ways to improve competitive advantages of the parcel delivery service industry by evaluating the multi-period operating efficiency of Korea, Japan and global service providers. Research design, data, and methodology - The data for the period of 2011 to 2014 were collected from the annual reports published by parcel delivery companies. In this study, we analyze the marketability (revenue), profitability (operating profits), and management conditions (net profits) of parcel service companies by combining information on human resources (number of employees) and material resources (total assets and equity). Therefore, the number of employees, total assets, and equity are selected as input variables, and revenue, operating profits, and net profits as the output variables. In this study, DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) is used to measure the comparative efficiency and MPI (Malmquist Productivity Index) is used to analyze the trend of change of the efficiency for a multi-year period. Results - The operational efficiency scores of medium-sized parcel delivery companies in Korea are higher than other larger competitors such as Korean, Japan and Global larger companies. As of 2014, Logen(1.878) was found to be the most efficient parcel delivery enterprise, followed by KGB (1.224), and Kyoungdong(1.002). Otherwise, Hanjin(0.235), CJ(0.262), Hyundai Logistics(0.657), DHL(0.611), UPS(0.766), FedEx(0.498), TNT(0.350), Yamato(0.762) and Sagawa(0.520), larger sized companies, were done inefficiently. The productivity of parcel delivery companies is influenced by endogenous factors as well as exogenous ones such as changes in business environment and technological advances. Conclusions - Korean medium-sized companies have relatively high efficiency scores in operation. That is why they still survive the competitive market in Korea where market restructuring on the industry has been expected to be conducted for many years. The reason why medium-sized couriers had higher efficient scores than larger couriers is that most of couriers spend more operating expenses versus unit price of delivery which is the amount of money that is needed in order to send a package by parcel service. So the delivery unit price must be taken into account by all the expenses associated with the cost of fuel, labor and maintenance expenses for facilities, etc. therefore, the unit price must be increased to strengthen business competitive power. In order for the industry to have more competitive advantage, the companies need to make profits by increasing demand volume and raising the delivery rate to provide high-quality delivery service to customers. And both endogenous and exogenous change must take precedence in order to strengthen their competitiveness.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.578-592
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• 2001

Based on a survey sample of farm households in three provinces of Korea, this article reports the perspectives of fuel-time farmers regarding trade liberalization, its effects on their lives, and the future of small-scale farming. While the agricultural sector is being transformed under neoliberal policies, farmers, with life or no preparation for a global market order, are forced to modernize their farming operations. The findings from the survey indicate that farmers accede to terms of global integration in principle while disapproving state rural policies in practice. The survey data also confirm that intra-regional differences in farmers'perceived satisfaction with living conditions, government farm policies, and socio-economic/labor issues. Disparities in the degree of discontent with government policies and socio-economic well-being are explicit between the relatively diversified region of Kyonggi Province and the farming-dependent regions of Chunbuk and Kyongbuk Provinces. The overall findings uphold that most farmers who have not been fully exposed to free market mechanisms are confronted by increased uncertainties and economic hardships. The findings propound that agricultural/rural policies need to reflect long-term, macroeconomic changes, and regionally/locally-based agricultural structure.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.127-153
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• 2013

The trend of China's industry has been changed from manufacturing industry based on cheap labor market to service industries gradually as a whole. The investment of Korean corporations toward Chines service industry is gradually being increased. The importance of Chinese service industry related taxations such as business tax and value-added tax are growing. This study, therefore, examines the changes of investment environment and does the business tax and VAT of growing importance in China. From the point of view that the taxation on services is mainly related to the business tax or VAT, this study, also, examines the changes of present condition of investment and corresponding trends of the Korean corporations, in accordance with the domestic investment environment changes tied to the business tax and the VAT in China. With regard to the business tax and the VAT, this study looks into their features and tax requisition and also makes comparison between them and VAT of Korea. This study examines the problems and situations from the cases of separation, integration and trial integration of the business tax and VAT, and also does the development direction of the above two taxation and the corresponding strategy of Korea and her companies The purpose of this study is to provide information about the changing trends of investment environment and the business tax and VAT and to present corresponding plan for the corporations advancing into China.

• Korean Business Review
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.29-45
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• 2007

In today's rapidly changing business environment, corporations need to have flexibility in order to survive. This was especially true of Korean firms that were affected by the policies of the International Monetary Fund(IMF) since 1997. IMF requirements became a catalyst that helped Korean firms design their HR practices more rational and efficient. Although these changes increased the firms flexibility and global competitiveness, they also brought some harmful effects. Job insecurity is one of the most serious problems in Korean firms and in the greater Korean society, As today's organizations no longer lifelong employment, individuals put stress on psychological satisfaction with the need to manage one's career and employability in the open labor market rather than rapid promotion or high compensation in a organizations. Theoretically and empirically, the topics of career choice and career development were extensively developed. On the other hand, the issue of career commitment received little attention. The purpose of this study is to examine the preceding factors career commitment among public officials in Korea.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.275-285
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• 2013

As the world economy has been changed into the knowledge-based society, all economic activities have globalized and intensified competition in the marketplace, and the forces of these changes are even more aggressively pressuring today's business. According to many businesses are focused on the core competence and various functions are outsourced by service providers, many firms pay heavily attention to business service. Although the importance of business service, domestic business service industry shows a low labor productivity. On the other hand, foreign business service companies in korea take a substantial portion of business service market. Thus, domestic business service needs to increase a competitiveness because of potential growth opportunities. This study attempts to find out the ripple effect of business service industry on other industry.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.561-572
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• 1997

This paper attempts to analyze the changes of the contents in foreign area research carried out by Korean geographers, and discuss the task of the new regional geography in a global-local context. As compared with domestic area research, only a scant of foreign area research has been carried out. In the 1990's, the research interests are paid to how an open economy affects the regional economy, especialy the production technique, division of labor, industrial mix, market strategy, industrial location and organization, and so on. Unfortunately, however, the boundaries between economic geography and regional economy are gradully disappearing.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.701-716
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• 2000

This study examines patterms of wage inequality across ownership types and its regional structure in post-reform China in order to understand an emerging process of inequality. Using industrial wage data, I explored historical changes of cross-ownership wage inequality and its spatial differentiation during the reform period. This stuy found that pattems of wage inequality need to be understood in the context of changing redistributive economy which shapes state-enterprise relation in china's industrial sector. This relationship in turn determines labor market outcomes during the reform period including wage inequality. Regional structure of cross-ownership wage inequality also needs to be understood in terms of the differentiated process in which reqional wage levels are related to different wage factors. The findings have significant implications for understanding new patterns of soical and spatial inequalities in post-reform China.