• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.279-309
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• 2016

The proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a free trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries whose joint gross domestic products (GDPs) account for 36 percent of world GDP and whose mutual trade accounts for approximately 24 percent of world trade. As for most proposed free trade agreements (FTAs), trade economists have provided ex ante computable general equilibrium (CGE) estimates to predict the trade, employment, and real per capita income effects of this agreement, such as ITC (2016). This paper-intended to complement these studies-examines the potential impacts of TPP beyond such traditional CGE estimates, taking a broader economic, governance, and historical perspective. First, we contrast these traditional CGE trade and welfare estimates that treat all firms within an industry as homogeneous with more recent CGE analyses that allow firms' productivities to be heterogeneous. We show that the latter models' trade predictions are much more consistent with ex post empirical evidence of average trade effects of FTAs. Second, empirical evidence now strongly confirms the existence of FTA "contagion." We review this evidence and show that predictive models of the evolution of FTAs indicate that the TPP should be formed. With China now having formed 12 FTAs and negotiating five new ones (including a sixteen member Asia-Pacific FTA), the United States would likely face considerable trade diversion without the TPP. Third, we examine empirical evidence on the likely further economic growth implications of FTAs by reducing firms' uncertainty over trade relations and trade policies. Fourth, we examine empirical evidence on the additional impact of FTAs on consolidating democratic institutions in countries. The TPP would likely help consolidate some of the less mature democracies. Fifth, we examine empirical evidence on the reductions of conflicts (and enhanced peace) between countries owing to the formations of FTAs. We conclude the paper noting that the potential net benefits to member countries of the proposed TPP extend well beyond the real income gains to households based upon traditional CGE models.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.79-90
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• 2018

Fish ages are critical information in fish stock assessments because they are required for age-structure models such as virtual population analysis and stochastic catch-at-age models, whose outputs include recruitment strengths, a spawning stock size (abundance or biomass), and the projection of a fish population size in future. However, most countries other than the developed countries have not identified ages of fish caught by fisheries or surveys in a consistent manner for a long time (e.g.,>20 years). Instead, data about fish body sizes (e.g., lengths) have been well available because of ease of measurement. To infer age compositions of fish in a target group using fish length data, we intended to improve the length frequency analysis (LFA), which Schnute and Fournier had introduced in 1980. Our study was different in two ways from the Schnute and Fournier's method. First we calculated not only point estimates of age compositions but also the uncertainty in those estimates. Second, we modified LFA based on the von Bertalanffy growth model (vB-based model) to allow both individual-to-individual and cohort-to-cohort variability in estimates of parameters in the vB-based model. For illustration, we used data about lengths of Korean mackerel Scomber japonicas caught by purse-seine fisheries from 2000-2016.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.300-313
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• 2020

The Bayesian approach can be used to estimate hydrologic model parameters from the prior expert knowledge about the parameter values and the observed data. The purpose of this study was to compare the performance of the two Bayesian methods, the Metropolis-Hastings (MH) algorithm and the Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) method. These two methods were applied to the TANK model, a hydrological model comprising 13 parameters, to examine the uncertainty of the parameters of the model. The TANK model comprises a combination of multiple reservoir-type virtual vessels with orifice-type outlets and implements a common major hydrological process using the runoff calculations that convert the rainfall to the flow. As a result of the application to the Nam River A watershed, the two Bayesian methods yielded similar flow simulation results even though the parameter estimates obtained by the two methods were of somewhat different values. Both methods ensure the model's prediction accuracy even when the observed flow data available for parameter estimation is limited. However, the prediction accuracy of the model using the MH algorithm yielded slightly better results than that of the GLUE method. The flow duration curve calculated using the limited observed flow data showed that the marginal reliability is secured from the perspective of practical application.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.327-341
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• 2022

Cloud removal is often required to construct time-series sets of optical images for environmental monitoring. In regression-based cloud removal, the selection of an appropriate regression model and the impact analysis of the input images significantly affect the prediction performance. This study evaluates the potential of Gaussian process (GP) regression for cloud removal and also analyzes the effects of cloud-free optical images and spectral bands on prediction performance. Unlike other machine learning-based regression models, GP regression provides uncertainty information and automatically optimizes hyperparameters. An experiment using Sentinel-2 multi-spectral images was conducted for cloud removal in the two agricultural regions. The prediction performance of GP regression was compared with that of random forest (RF) regression. Various combinations of input images and multi-spectral bands were considered for quantitative evaluations. The experimental results showed that using multi-temporal images with multi-spectral bands as inputs achieved the best prediction accuracy. Highly correlated adjacent multi-spectral bands and temporally correlated multi-temporal images resulted in an improved prediction accuracy. The prediction performance of GP regression was significantly improved in predicting the near-infrared band compared to that of RF regression. Estimating the distribution function of input data in GP regression could reflect the variations in the considered spectral band with a broader range. In particular, GP regression was superior to RF regression for reproducing structural patterns at both sites in terms of structural similarity. In addition, uncertainty information provided by GP regression showed a reasonable similarity to prediction errors for some sub-areas, indicating that uncertainty estimates may be used to measure the prediction result quality. These findings suggest that GP regression could be beneficial for cloud removal and optical image reconstruction. In addition, the impact analysis results of the input images provide guidelines for selecting optimal images for regression-based cloud removal.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.98-120
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to elicit preference for drug listing decision criteria and to estimate the ICER threshold in South Korea using the discrete choice experiment (DCE) method. To collect the data, a DCE survey was administered to a subject sample either educated in the principle concepts of pharmacoeconomics or were decision makers within that field. Subjects chose between alternative drug profiles differing in four attributes: ICER, uncertainty, budget impact and severity of disease. The orthogonal and balanced designs were determined through computer algorithm to take the optimal set of drug profiles. The survey employed 15 hypothetical choice sets. A random effect probit model was used to analyze the relative importance of attributes and the probabilities of a recommendation response. Parameter estimates from the models indicated that three attributes (ICER, Impact, Severity of disease) influenced respondents' choice significantly(p${\pm}$0.001). In addition, each parameter displayed an expected sign. The Lower the ICER, the higher the probability of choosing that alternative. Respondents also preferred low levels of uncertainty and smaller impact on health service budget. They were also more likely to choose drugs for serious diseases rather than mild or moderate ones. Uncertainty however is not statistically significant. The ICER threshold, at which the probability of a recommendation was 0.5, was 29,000,000 KW/QALY in expert group and 46,500,000 KW/QALY in industry group. We also found that those in our sample were willing to accept high ICER to get medication for severe diseases. This study demonstrates that the cost-effectiveness, budget impact and severity of disease are the main reimbursement decision criteria in South Korea, and that DCE can be a useful tool in analyzing the decision making process where a variety of factors are considered and prioritized.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.221-233
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• 2018

Recently, the flood damage by the localized heavy rainfall and typhoon have been frequently occurred due to the climate change. Accurate rainfall forecasting and flood runoff estimates are needed to reduce such damages. However, the uncertainties are involved in guage rainfall, radar rainfall, and the estimated runoff hydrograph from rainfall-runoff models. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the uncertainty of rainfall by generating a probabilistic radar rainfall ensemble and confirm the uncertainties of hydrological models through the analysis of the simulated runoffs from the models. The blending technique is used to estimate a single integrated or an optimal runoff hydrograph by the simulated runoffs from multi rainfall-runoff models. The radar ensemble is underestimated due to the influence of rainfall intensity and topography and the uncertainty of the rainfall ensemble is large. From the study, it will be helpful to estimate and predict the accurate runoff to prepare for the disaster caused by heavy rainfall.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.23-36
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• 2022

We present a method to determine nitrogen abundance ratios with respect to iron ([N/Fe]) from molecular CN-band features observed in low-resolution (R ~ 2000) stellar spectra obtained by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST). Various tests are carried out to check the systematic and random errors of our technique, and the impact of signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios of stellar spectra on the determined [N/Fe]. We find that the uncertainty of our derived [N/Fe] is less than 0.3 dex for S/N ratios larger than 10 in the ranges T_eff = [4000, 6000] K, log g = [0.0, 3.5], [Fe/H] = [-3.0, 0.0], [C/Fe] = [-1.0, +4.5], and [N/Fe] = [-1.0, +4.5], the parameter space that we are interested in to identify N-enhanced stars in the Galactic halo. A star-by-star comparison with a sample of stars with [N/Fe] estimates available from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) also suggests a similar level of uncertainty in our measured [N/Fe], after removing its systematic error. Based on these results, we conclude that our method is able to reproduce [N/Fe] from low-resolution spectroscopic data, with an uncertainty sufficiently small to discover N-rich stars that presumably originated from disrupted Galactic globular clusters.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.39-39
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• 2012

Data assimilation techniques have received growing attention due to their capability to improve prediction in various areas. Despite of their potentials, applicable software frameworks to probabilistic approaches and data assimilation are still limited because the most of hydrologic modelling software are based on a deterministic approach. In this study, we developed a hydrological modelling framework for sequential data assimilation, namely MPI-OHyMoS. MPI-OHyMoS allows user to develop his/her own element models and to easily build a total simulation system model for hydrological simulations. Unlike process-based modelling framework, this software framework benefits from its object-oriented feature to flexibly represent hydrological processes without any change of the main library. In this software framework, sequential data assimilation based on the particle filters is available for any hydrologic models considering various sources of uncertainty originated from input forcing, parameters and observations. The particle filters are a Bayesian learning process in which the propagation of all uncertainties is carried out by a suitable selection of randomly generated particles without any assumptions about the nature of the distributions. In MPI-OHyMoS, ensemble simulations are parallelized, which can take advantage of high performance computing (HPC) system. We applied this software framework for several catchments in Japan using a distributed hydrologic model. Uncertainty of model parameters and radar rainfall estimates is assessed simultaneously in sequential data assimilation.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.327-347
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• 2008

This study proposes a new answering mechanism of deciding whether to purchase or not under uncertainty-real risk answering mechanism (R-RAM) for real transaction and hypothetical risk answering mechanism (H-RAM). It IS also. shown that the traditional answering mechanism (TAM) assumed in most of existing contingent valuation methods should be applied in a real transaction without uncertainty. While the willingness to pay (WTP) being simply compared with the bidding price m TAM, the mean of WTP should be greater than the bidding pnce at least by the risk premium for a purchase decision m R-RAM and H-RAM. Only difference between R-RAM and H-RAM is risk premium. The H-RAM takes a smaller risk premium than the R-RAM. This study proposes the contingent valuation method (CVM) with H-RAM could be an alternative to reducing the under-or over-estimation of WTP by comparing the WTP estimates obtained from three different CVMs with TAM, R-RAM and H-RAM.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.73-79
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• 2013

Purpose - This study examines the impact of oil price volatility on economic activities in Korea. The new millennium has seen a deregulation in the crude oil market, which invited immense capital inflow into Korea. It has also raised oil price levels and volatility. Drawing on the recent theoretical literature that emphasizes the role of volatility, this paper attends to the asymmetric changes in economic growth in response to the oil price movement. This study further examines several key macroeconomic variables, such as interest rate, production, and inflation. We come to the conclusion that oil price volatility can, in some part, explain the structural changes. Research design, data, and methodology - We use two methodological frameworks in this study. First, in regards to the oil price uncertainty, we use an Exponential-GARCH (Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity: EGARCH) model estimate to elucidate the asymmetric effect of oil price shock on the conditional oil price volatility. Second, along with the estimation of the conditional volatility by the EGARCH model, we use the estimates in a VECM (Vector Error Correction Model). The study thus examines the dynamic impacts of oil price volatility on industrial production, price levels, and monetary policy responses. We also approximate the monetary policy function by the yield of monetary stabilization bond. The data collected for the study ranges from 1990: M1 to 2013: M7. In the VECM analysis section, the time span is split into two sub-periods; one from 1990 to 1999, and another from 2000 to 2013, due to the U.S. CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) deregulation on the crude oil futures that became effective in 2000. This paper intends to probe the relationship between oil price uncertainty and macroeconomic variables since the structural change in the oil market became effective. Results and Conclusions - The dynamic impulse response functions obtained from the VECM show a prolonged dampening effect of oil price volatility shock on the industrial production across all sub-periods. We also find that inflation measured by CPI rises by one standard deviation shock in response to oil price uncertainty, and lasts for the ensuing period. In addition, the impulse response functions allude that South Korea practices an expansionary monetary policy in response to oil price shocks, which stems from oil price uncertainty. Moreover, a comparison of the results of the dynamic impulse response functions from the two sub-periods suggests that the dynamic relationships have strengthened since 2000. Specifically, the results are most drastic in terms of industrial production; the impact of oil price volatility shocks has more than doubled from the year 2000 onwards. These results again indicate that the relationships between crude oil price uncertainty and Korean macroeconomic activities have been strengthened since the year2000, which resulted in a structural change in the crude oil market due to the deregulation of the crude oil futures.