• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.473-498
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• 2017

This study examines the effect of environmental regulation considering the endogeneity on the productivity of Korean manufacturing industry based on the Porter hypothesis using data from the Mining and Manufacturing Survey, Survey of Research and Development in Korea, and Environmental Statistics Portal from 2003 to 2013 with fixed effect model. In order to eliminate the bias of the missing variables that may occur in the existing studies, we analyze factors affecting productivity such as market competition, R&D investment as explanatory variables. And, in order to eliminate measurement error and inverse causality, we use instrumental variable approach. The main results are as follows. First, our findings that the environmental regulation improve the productivity of Korean manufacturing in the long-run support the Porter hypothesis. Second, our findings suggest that measurement error and reverse causality are main sources of the endogeneity, while omitted variable is not. Finally, environmental technology R&D has reduced productivity in the short-run.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-34
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• 2020

Purpose - In this study, we investigate determinants of hedging with derivatives and its effect on firm value and firm risk for Korean firms. Design/methodology - To avoid the endogeneity problem pointed out in previous studies, we use a two-stage analysis by using gains and losses from derivatives as instrument variable for hedging with derivatives. Findings - Our analysis on the determinants of hedging shows that firms that are more leveraged and less profitable, and with more growth opportunities are likely to hedge through derivatives. Additionally, large firms, firms less diversified into industry, and firms more diversified geographically are likely to use derivatives. Our two-stage analysis shows that indicators of hedging with derivatives have an insignificant effect on firm value, and the indicator of futures/forwards use and of swaps use have significant negative effect on firm value. Whereas, the extent of hedging with derivatives has positive effect on firm value for all types of foreign currency derivatives, which suggests that moderately low hedgers use derivatives inefficiently, but extensive hedgers use derivatives properly. With regard to firm risk, hedging with derivatives increases market-based risk, but decreases accounting-based risk. Thus, we conclude that Korean firms use derivatives to manage operational volatility rather than to manage market risk, and accounting-based risk reduction through hedging is not directly translated into higher firm value. Originality/value - This is not the first study to investigate hedging behavior of Korean firms, but the sample period that that this study analyzed is the longest and various method are used to control the endogeneity problem. We investigate not only total foreign currency derivatives but also by types of derivatives, including futures/forwards, options, and swaps.

• Economic Analysis
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.30-51
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• 2011

Since the previous studies on the effects of trade liberalization implicitly assume that trade liberalization affects economic performance only in any point in time, they inevitably are static. Static evaluations fail to account for cumulative dynamic effects of trade liberalization that affect continuously economic performance. This paper tries to fill this gap of the previous studies in this field, estimating cumulative effects of trade liberalization on economic performance by employing an dynamic version of empirical model. One of important empirical issue is controlling bias from endogeneity. To resolve this problem, this paper employes system GMM that uses lagged first-differences as instruments for level equations and lagged levels as instruments for first-differences equations. It improves upon cross-section estimators because it controls for the potential bias induced by the omission of industry-specific effects and the endogeneity of all regressors. This study investigates the effects of trade liberalization in Korean manufacturing for the period from 1988 to 2005 and finds that cumulative dynamic effects of trade liberalization are present and bigger than static effects.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.33-69
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• 2021

This study estimates the employment relationship of domestic and foreign workers by establishing 16 municipal and provincial panel data for the period 2010-2018. It attempts to analyze industry-specific (manufacturing and construction), scale-specific (5-29, 5-29, 5-299 and 5 above) and uses the foreign worker's national share (foreigner's concentration index) as an instrumental variable to control the endogeneity of foreign workers. Finally, it compares the results of panel GLS, which does not consider the endogeneity of foreign workers, with the results using instrumental variable method that considers it. As a result of the analysis, the complementary relationship between domestic and foreign workers was confirmed in the panel GLS analysis. However, although the employment relationship between domestic and foreign workers was not statistically significant in the instrumental variable method, the analysis of the combination of manufacturing and construction industry showed a statistically significant substitute relationship. This study is highly regarded for the first time in Korea that an instrumental variable method was created to identify and control the endogeneity of foreign workers in estimating employment relationships between domestic and foreign workers.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.259-268
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• 2020

This study aims to provide empirical evidence on the causal relationship between bribery and firm innovation. To this end, we use a micro-dataset of small and medium firms in Vietnam surveyed in 2015. Given the binary nature of the dependent variable, a simple probit regression model is employed. However, as bribery variable is potentially endogenous, a simple probit regression may give biased estimates. We deal with the potential endogeneity by making use of the bivariate probit model. A property of the bivariate probit model is that it can produce efficient estimates of a typical probit model with endogenous binary explanatory variable. A Hausman-like likelihood ratio test is implemented following the estimation to test the existence of endogeneity. We find that bribery significantly undermines firm innovation. Also, firms run by household appear less innovative. The probability of innovation diminishes significantly if firm owners or managers have previous experience in firm products. As expected, larger firms seem to be more innovative. Exporters tend to be more innovative compared to non-exporters. Our findings provide support to the hypothesis that bribery is detrimental to firm innovation and, thus, innovation may be a mediating channel, through which, bribery impedes firm long-term performance.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.35-57
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• 2020

Using the Korea Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS), this study analyzes the effects of profit sharing on employer-provided training. The estimation results of the fixed effect model that controls for endogeneity show that the workers of profit-sharing firms have a 6.7%-6.8%p higher probability of receiving employer-provided training than the workers of firms without profit sharing. They also show that the workers of profit-sharing firms have a 3.3%p higher likelihood of having employer-provided OJT than their counterparts. The impacts of profit-sharing on employer-provided training appear consistently regardless of the estimation models and in the subsamples. These findings support the hypothesis that profit-sharing promotes employer-provided training.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.101-113
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• 2014

This paper examined the effects of private health insurance(PHI) on the health care utilization among the Korean. The used data was the three waves of Korea Health Panel (2008, 2009, 2010), and the number of subjects was 13,951 persons. Authors employed two-stage least square panel model where the instrument variables for controlling for endogeneity of PHI were number of insurance planner per 100,000 in resident area and whether subject worked on financial profession. The results showed that healthcare expenditure of outpatients who purchasing PHI was higher than that of outpatients without PHI, and there was no difference in admission between the two groups. This article recommended the Korean government to monitor the effects of PHI on the health care utilization in order to improve the efficiency of health care finance.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.225-231
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• 2020

The paper aims to investigate the impact of trade integration on business cycle synchronization for the East Asian countries during 2005- 2017 based on the endogeneity hypothesis of Optimum Currency Area criteria. We test the determinants of business cycles by calculating bilateral trade, financial integration, and business cycle synchronization. Applying the system Generalized Method of Moments for dynamic panel data models, the results show that business cycle synchronization is highly associated with trade and financial integration. These findings confirm the endogeneity hypothesis that more trade integration will mitigate asymmetric shocks, and have a positive impact on the business cycle synchronization. The increased trade intensity and financial linkage lead to more correlated business cycles in East Asia. Apart from trade and financial integration, the trade structure differential, monetary policy similarity also influence the business cycle comovement. The significantly negative impact of trade structure differential on business cycle synchronization suggests that countries with less similar structures are more likely to undergo asymmetric shocks. The results also indicate that monetary policy matters for output comovement. This study recommends that the East Asian countries should focus on bilateral trade as well as financial integration with each other to reap benefits from the integration process.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.39-55
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• 2022

Purpose - This study empirically examines the effect of the Korean government export promotion program (EPP) on small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) export performance using firm-level data. Unlike most previous studies that investigated some specific samples of firms, this study analyzes a vast amount of SME data of the Korean Small and Medium Business Administration over the period 2005 to 2008. Design/methodology - An endogeneity problem arises when a firm's probability of being selected is correlated with the likelihood of successfully implementing EPPs. To control for the endogeneity of the EPPs in a relatively short-period sample, we employ 2-Stage Residual Inclusion (2SRI) RE-Tobit and bivariate Tobit procedure. Findings - Analyses show that Korean government EPPs have positive significant effects on SME exports. Empirical results also show that SME export activities are significantly encouraged by R&D investment and capital intensity, but not obviously by labor productivity. Originality/value - This study provides evidence that SME capital intensity, R&D investment, and the number of workers are significant determinants to SME exporting activities, whereas per worker labor cost and employee education are not. These results imply that even for SMEs, firm size is a major factor in promoting exporting activities.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.365-375
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• 2022

This study examines the relationship between board gender diversity and financial performance. The annual data of Palestinian nonfinancial listed enterprises from 2015 to 2019 was analyzed using a longitudinal panel analysis for the study's purposes. When conditional mean regression methodologies were used in the study, the results indicate that there is an insignificant relation between board gender diversity and firm financial performance. However, when analyzing women directors' effect on a firm's financial performance, endogeneity is always a concern, therefore, we test for endogeneity by employing the Darbin-Wu Housman test and then by using 2SLS. Nevertheless, when looking at the dispersion of a firm's performance using quantile regression, the results show that having women on the board improves financial performance slightly, especially for high-financial-performing firms. The findings indicate that there is a legal significant gap hindering the protection of gender diversity in boardrooms, and limiting the existence and representation of women in leadership positions, specifically, board of directors. The results of this study contribute to corporate governance and business culture literature by shedding the light on the importance of board gender diversity, to improve the firm financial performance, and hence, protect the interests of all shareholders' categories.