• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.109-137
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• 2007

One of the key features of the Korean labor market is that, even though the central axis of employment has shifted from manufacturing sector to service sector, the ratio of part-time work is very low. Its major reasons are low wage rate, insufficient fringe benefits including social insurance, and deficient job security, even though part-time work has positive characteristics. This study examines whether part-time work would be a decent one and an alternative to full-time work by answering two questions: one is who chooses part-time work and another is whether part-time work is satisfactory. Analyses of 3,971 wage workers in the 8th wave of the Korea Labor and Income Panel Survey reveal that, as expected, part-time work is prevalent among the young, married women, and the old supporting the results from previous studies and that choosing part-time work on one's initiatives has a significant positive effect on job satisfaction for women while it is not for men. Form the result, it can be concluded that part-time work can be an appropriate alternative for full-time work if one chooses it voluntarily.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.58-69
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• 2017

Recently, with the increase in the number of private health insurance subscribers, interest in overuse of the medical service is increasing. This study analyzed the impacts of private health insurance (PHI) on medical institution selection in outpatient service utilization among persons with arthritis. In order to control patients' health status, we extracted outpatient episodes with the same disease (KCD6, M13) from Korea Health Panel. The unit of analysis was an outpatient visit with arthritis in 2014 (n=23,363). In the light of insurance coverage, we redefined three type of private health insurance (ex, indemnity, fixed benefit, and non-insured) as a test variable and two type of medical institution (ex, hospital and physician visit) as a dependent variable. We conducted a probit regression analysis to identify the impacts of PHI on medical institution selection controlling for heteroscedasticity. The results of this study showed that the insured with indemnity were more likely to choose hospital departments than clinics (marginal effect=0.0475, p=0.000). The impact of participation of fixed benefit PHI was not as clear as that of indemnity type (marginal effect=0.0162, p=0.047). In conclusion, this study confirmed that PHI, particularly indemnity type has a significant impact on the selection of medical institutions. Healthcare policy makers should consider that PHI not only affects the overall quantitative increase in healthcare utilization, but also influences the selection of medical institutions.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.504-516
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• 2015

This study addresses one of the curent issues in modern finance, which investigates financial profile on the levels of the chaebol firms' cash hoardings in the domestic capital market. Iit may be imperative to search for robust and consistent financial determinants of cash holdings as well as identifying any changes or trend of the determinants affecting the corporate cash reserves in the post-era of the global financial turmoil, considering that interest parties at the government and corporate levels, still seem to have a controversy or debate on excess cash savings. Two hypotheses were postulated and empirically tested for the chaebol firms in the study, such as any transitional changes of the relevant factors on cash holdings and unique attributes of financial factors discriminating between the different type of domestic stock markets.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.59-85
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• 2021

This study aims to examine whether the characteristics such as a start-up company, possessing a research organization, and benefiting from government R&D programs significantly contributed to the conversion of marginal companies to normal companies, from the viewpoint of technological innovation. The result shows supporting government R&D programs to start-up companies that have become a marginal company positively contributes to the transition to a normal company, centering on the high-tech industry. In addition, it was confirmed that the research organization of marginal companies positively contributed to the transition to a normal company. These results imply that a paradigm shift from the existing industrial policy focusing on restructuring of marginal companies to a selective support policy for marginal companies with a high possibility of transition to normal companies is strongly needed. It is also necessary to strengthen the strategic use of government R&D programs to support the transition of a marginal company to a normal company.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.339-351
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• 2018

Background: The purpose of this study is to estimate empirically whether there is a difference in medical use among income groups, and if so, how much. This study applies econometric model to the most recent year of Korean Medical Panel, 2015. The model consists of outpatient service and inpatient service models. Methods: The probit model is applied to the model which indicate whether or not the medical care has been used. Two step estimation method using maximum likelihood estimation is applied to the models of outpatient visits, hospital days, and outpatient and inpatient out-of-pocket cost models, with disconnected selection problems. Results: The results show that there was the inequality favorable to the low income group in medical care use. However, after controlling basic medical needs, there were no inequities among income groups in the outpatient visit model and the model of probability of inpatient service use. However, there were inequities favorable to the upper income groups in the models of probability of outpatient service use and outpatient out-of-pocket cost and the models of the number of length of stay and inpatient out-of-pocket cost. In particular, it shows clearly how the difference in outpatient service and inpatient service utilizations by income groups when basic medical needs are controlled. Conclusion: This means that the income contributes significantly to the degree of inequality in outpatient and inpatient care services. Therefore, the existence of medical care use difference under the same medical needs among income groups is a problem in terms of equity of medical care use, so great efforts should be made to establish policies to improve equity among income groups.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.291-302
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• 2023

Objectives: Disability weights require regular updates, as they are influenced by both diseases and societal perceptions. Consequently, it is necessary to develop an up-to-date list of the causes of diseases and establish a survey panel for estimating disability weights. Accordingly, this study was conducted to calculate, assess, modify, and validate disability weights suitable for Korea, accounting for its cultural and social characteristics. Methods: The 380 causes of disease used in the survey were derived from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Collaborative Network and from 2019 and 2020 Korean studies on disability weights for causes of disease. Disability weights were reanalyzed by integrating the findings of an earlier survey on disability weights in Korea with those of the additional survey conducted in this study. The responses were transformed into paired comparisons and analyzed using probit regression analysis. Coefficients for the causes of disease were converted into predicted probabilities, and disability weights in 2 models (model 1 and 2) were rescaled using a normal distribution and the natural logarithm, respectively. Results: The mean values for the 380 causes of disease in models 1 and 2 were 0.488 and 0.369, respectively. Both models exhibited the same order of disability weights. The disability weights for the 300 causes of disease present in both the current and 2019 studies demonstrated a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.994 (p=0.001 for both models). This study presents a detailed add-on approach for calculating disability weights. Conclusions: This method can be employed in other countries to obtain timely disability weight estimations.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.232-241
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• 2019

This study examines one of the conventional and controversial issues in modern finance. Specifically, this study identifies financial determinants of corporate R&D intensity for firms belonging to Korean Chaebols. Empirical estimation procedures are applied to derive more robust results of each hypothesis test. Static panel data, Tobit regression and stepwise regression models are employed to obtain significant financial factors of R&D expenditures, while logit, probit and complementary log-log regression models are used to detect financial differences between Chaebol firms and their counterparts not classified as Chaebols. Study results found the level of R&D intensity in the prior fiscal year, market-value based leverage ratio and firm size empirically showed their significance to account for corporate R&D intensity in the first hypothesis test, whereas the majority of explanatory variables had important power on a relative basis. Assuming that the current circumstances in the domestic capital market may necessitate gradual changes of Korean Chaebols in terms of their socio-economic function, the results of this study are expected to contribute to identifying financial antecedents that can be beneficial to attain optimal level of corporate R&D expenditures for Chaebol firms on a virtuous cycle.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.86-98
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• 2014

This study examined a long-standing issue with its perverse results in the Korean capital markets, such as any variant financial profiles over time, affecting capital structure for the firms belonging to the chaebols. It may be of interest to identify these components from the perspectives of international investors and domestic policy makers to implement their contingent strategies on the target leverage, since the U.S. financial turmoils in the late 2000s. Regarding the evidence from the three hypothesis tests on the firms in the chaebols, this research found that the control variabels measuring profitability, business risk, and non-debt tax shields, showed their statistically significant relationships with the different types of a debt ratio. While FCFF(free cash flow to the firm) showed its significant influence to discriminate between the firms in the chaebols and their counterparts, not belonging to the chaebols, BDRELY as the ratio of liabilities to total assets, comprising the enhanced 'Dupont' system, only showed its statistically significant effect on leverage in the context of the parametric and nonparametric tests. In line with the results obtained from the present research, one may expect that a firm in the Korean chaebol, may control or restructure its present level of capital structure to revert to its target optimal capital structure towards maximizing the shareholders' wealth.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.43-75
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• 2007

This study reviews the trend of job separation rates for three years from 2002 to 2005 and investigates the various elements which influence this trend, especially the role of the labor unions, by using Korean Labor Panel data. In the basic statistics, the job retention rate of union members were higher by an average of 28.3% points compared to non-union members, but in the results of controlling the observed variables of individual influences in changing jobs, it was estimated that unions increase the job retention rate by 11% to 13% points. To investigate the effect of unions on the job stability of workers in detail, the non-linear decomposition method developed by Fairlie (2003) was used in the analysis. In examining the difference of job separation rates between union members and non-union members through observed variables of workers in explainable parts and unexplainable parts by using the non-linear decomposition technique, the contribution of the explainable part was estimated to be 67% to 74% and the unexplainable part accounted for the rest which was 26% to 33%. This suggests that not only does the union contribute to the job stability of its members, but the propensity to change jobs for a worker who is a union member is on average lower than that of a worker who is not a union member or who works at an establishment that does not have a union. The results of the empirical analysis show that the job stability effect of labor unions is limited within the boundary of a maximum 7% to 9% points. The reason for the effect of labor unions on job stability being so low is due to various reasons such as collective bargaining structure by company, intensified business competition after the financial crisis, and labor market segmentation.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.248-258
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• 2021

The study analyzed the financial determinants of corporate R&D intensity that require more attention from academics and practitioners in the Korean capital market. Domestic small and medium enterprises (SMEs) may face with developing substitutes by making more R&D investments in scale and scope, given the unprecedented economic conditions such as the limitation of importing core components and materials from other nation(s). KOSDAQ-listed SMEs were selected as sample data, whose R&D expenditures may be less than those of large firms during the post-global financial turmoil period (2010~2018). Static panel data model was applied, along with Tobit and stepwise regression models, for examining the validity of results. Logit, probit, and complementary log-log regressions were also employed for a relative analysis. R&D expenditures in the prior year, the interaction effect between the previous R&D intensity and high-tech sector, firm size, and growth rate were significant to determine R&D intensity. Moreover, a majority of explanatory variables were found to change between the years 2011 and 2018, while time-lagged effects between the R&D intensity and growth rate exist. Results of the study are expected to be used for future research to detect optimal levels of R&D expenditures for the value maximization of SMEs.