• Title/Summary/Keyword: local exchange and trading system

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A LETS (Local Exchange and Trading System) Policy Proposal for Revitalizing the Healthy Family Support Center's Family-Cooperative Activities (Pumasi) Project (건강가정지원센터의 가족품앗이사업 활성화를 위한 정책적 제안 - 지역화폐 도입을 중심으로-)

  • Cha, Sung-Lan
    • Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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    • v.16 no.3
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    • pp.67-82
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    • 2012
  • The first local exchange trading system(LETS), established in Comox Valley in Canada, aimed at facilitating the regional economy. However, in Korea, LETS was adopted to encourage mutual aid and promote community spirit among residents. This study examines the feasibility of LETS as a revitalization initiative for Pumasi and suggests a number of policies that can be implemented to support the project. The findings are as follows: First, the LETS credit system was found to complement social capital initiatives among Pumasi participants in the early stages of the Pumasi project. Second, combining LETS and Pumasi initiatives was found to consolidate community spirit and encourage a cooperative way of life among participants due to the fact that LETS enlarges the scope of local residents' participation and diversifies the services being exchanged. A number of policy suggestions are made for combining LETS with Pumasi. First, the project must define a vision of its long-term purpose and outcomes. Second, local residents should be employed as assistants to facilitate the project. Third, Pumasi participants should ensure that childcare exchange services are of the highest quality by providing an educational program on parenting. Fourth, the project manager's employment conditions and working environments must be guaranteed.

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Energy Perspective of Sugar Industries in Pakistan: Determinants and Paradigm Shift

  • Siddiqui, Muhammad Ayub;Shoaib, Adnan
    • Journal of Distribution Science
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    • v.10 no.2
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    • pp.7-17
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    • 2012
  • The aim of this study is to empirically explore micro and macroeconomic factors affecting the Pakistani sugar industries and searching the energy potential of this industry, through the survey of literature. The empirical part has been explored by employing Vector Autoregression (VAR), Granger Causality tests and simultaneous equation models through quarterly data for the period of 1991q2-2008q4. The study also aims to devise policies for the development of sugar industries and identify its growing importance for the energy sector of Pakistan. Empirical tests applied on the domestic prices of sugar, domestic interest rates, and exchange rate, productive capacities of sugar mills, per capita income, world sugar prices on cultivable area and sugar production reveal very useful results. Results reveal an improvement of productive capacity of the sugar mills of Pakistan on account of increasing crushing capacity of this sector. Negative effect of rising wholesale prices on the harvesting area was also observed. Profit earnings of the sugar mills significantly increase with the rise of sugar prices but the system does not exist for the farming community to share the rising prices of sugar. The models indicate positive and significant effect of local prices of sugar on its volume of import. Another of the findings of this study positively relates the local sugar markets with the international prices of sugar. Additionally, the causality tests results reveal exchange rate, harvesting area and overall output of sugarcane to have significant effects on the local prices of sugar. Similarly, import of sugar, interest rate, per capita consumption of sugar, per capita national income and the international prices of sugar also significantly affect currency exchange rate of Pakistani rupee in terms of US$. The study also finds sugar as an essential and basic necessity of the Pakistani consumers. That is why there are no significant income and price effects on the per capita consumption of sugar in Pakistan. All the empirical methods reiterate the relationship of variables. Economic policy makers are recommended to improve governance and management in the production, stock taking, internal and external trading and distribution of sugar in Pakistan using bumper crop policies. Macroeconomic variables such as interest rate, exchange rate per capita income and consumption are closely connected with the production and distribution of sugar in Pakistan. The cartelized role of the sugar industries should also be examined by further studies. There is need to further explore sugar sector of Pakistan with the perspective of energy generation through this sector; cartelized sugar markets in Pakistan and many more other dimensions of this sector. Exact appraisal of sugar industries for energy generation can be done appropriately by the experts from applied sciences.

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A Study on the Meaning of Consumption Culture of Community Currency Movement: Focusing on "Hanbat-LETS" Participants' Consumer Behavior (지역화폐운동의 소비문화적 의미 연구: "한밭레츠" 참여자의 소비행동을 중심으로)

  • Chun, Kyung-Hee;Rhee, Kee-Choon
    • Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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    • v.14 no.4
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    • pp.593-611
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    • 2005
  • The purpose of this study is to explore the consumption cultural meaning of Community Currency Movement - a substitute currency institution - through an analysis of consumption behaviors and attitudes of Hanbat-LETS participants, who are recognized as the most active among Korea Community Currency Movements. The analytical method adopted in this study is the participation and observation method, along with the Focus Group Interview. Major findings are as follows: Hanbat-LETS participants experienced the following consumption behaviors and attitudes: economical consumption behavior creating the currency value, sustainable consumption behavior, consumption behavior shared with community, consumption behavior free from the need of competition and ownership, satisfaction from offering one's property, equal status and relationship among members, merry and happy attitude toward life. Community Currency Movement implies the consumption cultural meaning as followings: emergence of alienation through the realization of community society, practice of environment-friendly value, activation of region economy, development of one's ability and means of redemption of unemployment, construction of trustworthy society via trust.

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Development Strategies for Local Assemblers of Agricultural Products (농산물 산지유통인의 제도권 편입 방안)

  • Kim, Dong-Hwan
    • Journal of Distribution Research
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    • v.16 no.5
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    • pp.1-18
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    • 2011
  • Local assemblers of agricultural products perform important distribution functions such as providing sales outlets, labor forces, market information, and financing, forward contracting, farming, physical distribution, and etc. However, their business activities are not transparent and producers are not effectively protected from unfair practices done by local assemblers. In order to enhance transparency and to increase effectiveness of governmental policies, local assemblers, which are mostly private management, should be organized as corporations. In order to organize corporations, the government should emphasize the importance of education and should provide corporations with governmental funds for improvement of agricultural distribution. Corporations should be developed to marketing cooperatives in the long run, and are requested to form their federations. It is also necessary to have transparent forward contracting system by local assemblers. In order to have transparent system, producers and local assemblers are guided to use standard contract forms and to operate offices handling unfair trade practices by local assemblers. We also need a place to exchange forward contracts, which can be developed to a futures market in the long run. In summary, local assemblers of agricultural products, which are mostly private management, should be developed to corporations and be operated by a transparent manner in order to protect agricultural producers and increase efficiency of trading.

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E-Commerce in the Historical Approach to Usage and Practice of International Trade ("무역상무(貿易商務)에의 역사적(歷史的) 어프로치와 무역취인(貿易取引)의 전자화(電子化)")

  • Tsubaki, Koji
    • THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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    • v.19
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    • pp.224-242
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    • 2003
  • The author believes that the main task of study in international trade usage and practice is the management of transactional risks involved in international sale of goods. They are foreign exchange risks, transportation risks, credit risk, risk of miscommunication, etc. In most cases, these risks are more serious and enormous than those involved in domestic sales. Historically, the merchant adventurers organized the voyage abroad, secured trade finance, and went around the ocean with their own or consigned cargo until around the $mid-19^{th}$ century. They did business faceto-face at the trade fair or the open port where they maintained the local offices, so-called "Trading House"(商館). Thererfore, the transactional risks might have been one-sided either with the seller or the buyer. The bottomry seemed a typical arrangement for risk sharing among the interested parties to the adventure. In this way, such organizational arrangements coped with or bore the transactional risks. With the advent of ocean liner services and wireless communication across the national border in the $19^{th}$ century, the business of merchant adventurers developed toward the clear division of labor; sales by mercantile agents, and ocean transportation by the steam ship companies. The international banking helped the process to be accelerated. Then, bills of lading backed up by the statute made it possible to conduct documentary sales with a foreign partner in different country. Thus, FOB terms including ocean freight and CIF terms emerged gradually as standard trade terms in which transactional risks were allocated through negotiation between the seller and the buyer located in different countries. Both of them did not have to go abroad with their cargo. Instead, documentation in compliance with the terms of the contract(plus an L/C in some cases) must by 'strictly' fulfilled. In other words, the set of contractual documents must be tendered in advance of the arrival of the goods at port of discharge. Trust or reliance is placed on such contractual paper documents. However, the container transport services introduced as international intermodal transport since the late 1960s frequently caused the earlier arrival of the goods at the destination before the presentation of the set of paper documents, which may take 5 to 10% of the amount of transaction. In addition, the size of the container vessel required the speedy transport documentation before sailing from the port of loading. In these circumstances, computerized processing of transport related documents became essential for inexpensive transaction cost and uninterrupted distribution of the goods. Such computerization does not stop at the phase of transportation but extends to cover the whole process of international trade, transforming the documentary sales into less-paper trade and further into paperless trade, i.e., EDI or E-Commerce. Now we face the other side of the coin, which is data security and paperless transfer of legal rights and obligations. Unfortunately, these issues are not effectively covered by a set of contracts only. Obviously, EDI or E-Commerce is based on the common business process and harmonized system of various data codes as well as the standard message formats. This essential feature of E-Commerce needs effective coordination of different divisions of business and tight control over credit arrangements in addition to the standard contract of sales. In a few word, information does not alway invite "trust". Credit flows from people, or close organizational tie-ups. It is our common understanding that, without well-orchestrated organizational arrangements made by leading companies, E-Commerce does not work well for paperless trade. With such arrangements well in place, participating E-business members do not need to seriously care for credit risk. Finally, it is also clear that E-International Commerce must be linked up with a set of government EDIs such as NACCS, Port EDI, JETRAS, etc, in Japan. Therefore, there is still a long way before us to go for E-Commerce in practice, not on the top of information manager's desk.

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