• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.38-47
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• 2006

This study analyzes the expense structure of the air transport industry, based on the cost and income data of 18 major airlines, estimates the economic effectiveness of scale and conducts comparative analysis. As for the method of analysis, Translog cost function and the Fourier flexible function were used. The result showed that big companies had the economy of scale based on the Translog cost function, while the Fourier flexible function led to a estimation that expanding the input is not recommended, for the expansion of scale entails the poor economy of scale. It can be presumed that the economy of scale was estimated according to the U shape of the Translog cost function in the given data. On the other hand, the Fourier flexible cost function approaches the unknown function, as it is a Fourier series, and correctly infers the economy of scale based on the analyzed data. As for the flag carrier's economy of scale, it was inferred that the economy of scale existed by any of two functions. Therefore, the conclusion was that further expanding the scale will not cause any problem.

• 한국항공운항학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.47-52
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• 2006

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.1559-1569
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to estimate the degree of cost inefficiency for the urban railway lines of a metropolitan city operated by public institutions in Korea and identify the causes of this inefficiency. To this end, we assume that the urban railway lines produce the output of train-km by putting three production factors of labor, electric power and maintenance and set the variable cost function model with the translog function to make a stochastic cost frontier analysis. Based on estimated result, we conclude that the cost savings for 6 years of all lines are about 6,672 hundred million won and top five lines with high inefficiency are Busan Line1, Daegu Line1, Daejeon Line1, Gwangju Line1, and Daegu Line2. The causes of inefficiency are attributable to labor and maintenance factors. The results of this study can be useful in case of finding the priorities of measures and specific plans for reducing labor and maintenance costs in the urban railway operation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.159-173
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• 2004

Using a generalized translog multiproduct cost function model, this paper examines economies of scale and scope in the vertically-integrated Korean railway industry. The paper then conceptualizes that the Korea National Railroad (KNR) produces four outputs (passenger-kilometers, ton-kilometers of freight, average length of passenger trips, and average length of freight haul) using three input factors(labor, fuel and maintenance, and rolling stock and capital). Using time series data collected from the KNR's annual records for the years from 1977 to 2002, the simultaneous equation system consisting of a cost function and two input share equatins is estimated with the Zellner's iterative seemingly unrelated regression. The findings show that the cost function corresponding to a non-Cobb-Douglas, non-homothetic, and non-homogeneous production technology adequately represents the KNR's cost structure. On the other hand, the Korean railway industry experiences sizeable overall scale economies, which result from substantial product-specific scale economies associated with passenger-kilometers and freight ton-kilometers and from scope economies associated with their joint production. In addition, the magnitude of economies of scope is influenced largely by the ratio of passenger trips, and has increased over time as the former has increased while the latter has decreased.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.81-105
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to estimate the cost-saving effect of R&D investment in the ICT industry. As is well known, the R&D investment induces both the product innovation and the process innovation, in turn leads the effect of creating profit and cutting cost. However, it appears that studies concerned with the cost-saving effect of R&D investment have been unproductive, while most existing studies concentrate on the topic involved with the creating profit of R&D investment. Therefore, we extend the effect of R&D investment to a framework of the cost-saving focusing on the ICT industry. To empirically analyze the effect, we built a simultaneous three-equation model comprising a translog cost function and two cost share equations, and employed the SUR analysis. As a result, we found out that the cost-saving effect on the total cost is statistically significant. In addition, we examined relationships between the R&D investment and each cost of production elements. The results show that on the one hand, the R&D investment and the intermediate good cost have the substitution relationship. On the other hand, the complementary relationship is observed between the R&D investment and each labor or capital cost.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.633-658
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• 2010

In this paper, we estimate the Translog cost function in Korean manufacturing, using capital (K), labor (L), material (M), electricity (E), fuel (F) data over the period from 1970 to 2005. Especially, this paper investigates the impact of imposing concavity in the estimation of a Translog cost function. Although the value of log-likelihood is somewhat reduced in a concavity imposed function rather than a function which is not, a concavity imposed function satisfies regularity conditions (monotonicity, positivity, concavity) at all data points. We also calculate price elasticities using a concavity imposed Translog cost function. Electricity complements capital so electricity demand increases as capital demand increases. Meanwhile, electricity substitutes labor, fuel, and material. These results show that Korean manufacturing experienced a structural change of increase in electricity demand.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.175-198
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• 2006

Analyzing the effects of information technology(IT) in the life insurance Industry is important in establishing the direction for future information technology investment. In this research, the cost-elasticity of IT capital stock was measured by the SUR technique, using the second-order translog cost function, which was drawn out by a Taylor expansion of the multi-product joint cost function. Analysis was made based on data from 1991 to 2003 collected from 33 life insurance firms. The results show that although the effects of information technology investment vary according to individual life insurance firms, half of the life insurance firms surveyed reduced their costs by investing in information technology. The research also revealed that although large life insurance firms reduced their costs by investing in information technology medium & small life insurance firms and foreign ,life insurance firms increase their costs. Additionally, although both information capital and information labor increase as the information budget increases, the increase in information capital is larger than one in information labor. Because the price of information capital is decreased rapidly more than one of information-related labor.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.5843-5849
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• 2015

This study analyzes the factor demand structure of sweet persimmon as a part of finding out cost cutting measures. Income and cost data from 2001~2013 Agricultural Income Survey are used for placing the translog cost function and estimating price elasticies and cross elasticities of labor, capital and intermediate input. The result shows that own price elasticities of all factors are small in absolute terms. Additionally the result indicates capital and intermediate input cannot be a substitution for labor, which is a top-line cost-share. It means that the demand for labor cconstitutionally can't be reduced in a short time. This implies that cost reduction should be done focusing on intermediate input, particularly on fertilizer and materials which have higher price elasticity of demand.

• Ocean policy research
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.1-28
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to analyze the substitution among production factors of Korean distant water longline fisheries in IATTC waters. In the analysis, the translog function which have one output variable of total cost and input variables of labor, fuel, fishing gear, and capital was established and it was transformed into simultaneous equations by each cost. Then, variables of equations were estimated by SUR (seemingly unrelated regression) model. Since distant water longline fisheries is a fishing type with high fuel usage, substitution of fuel with other factors was mainly analyzed. Results showed a substitute relation between fuel and labor as well as fuel and fishing gear, while a complementary relation between fuel and capital. In addition, it was analyzed that magnitude of fuel elasticity with other factors would be inelastic.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.89-102
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• 2001

Using a multiproduct translog cost function model, this paper examines the existence or absence of scale and scope economies in Seoul's urban bus industry. The Paper then conceptualizes that the bus firm produces three outputs (city, seat and local bus-kilometers) using low input factors(labor, capital, fuel and maintenance). Using 1996 annual observations for 81 Seoul's bus firms, the equation system consisting of a cost function and three input share equations is estimated with the nonlinear iterative Zellner method. The findings show that the cost function corresponding to a non-homothetic production technology with separability between local bus outputs and inputs adequately represents the structure of cost for Seoul's bus firms, and that the demand lot all input factors is quite inelastic with respect to their own price. On the other hand, nearly all firms experience mild overall economies or scale, but rather marked product-specific economies of scale with respect to all the three outputs. In addition, there appear to be substantial economies or scope associated with the joint production of city and seat bus services, while considerable diseconomies of scope associated with that of city and local bus services. These results indicate that the merger of smaller firms into larger firms with a fleet of approximately 200 buses would result in more cost-efficient bus services.