• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.137-144
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to measure the cost-benefit of a road construction project in Vietnam through international development cooperation, which includes private grants and Official Development Assistance(ODA). In developing countries, it is difficult and costly to use data on markets, the CVM(Contingent Valuation Method) to measure the WTP(Willingness-to-Pay) as the benefits of road construction are used. A total of 232 villagers in 16 villages of Lao Cai Province in Northern Vietnam have been surveyed. It is found that the Benefit-Cost Ratio(B/C) in all 3 models are found to be well over 1.0, ranging from 2.8 to 3.64 with the discount rate of 0.06. These BC ratios imply the road construction project in Lao Cai can be justified. Also, it is found that the shortened travel time is the most relevant factor for WTP among direct benefits and the enhanced academic achievement of the children is the most relevant factor among indirect benefits, due to easier and faster access to schools, which in turn increase the school attendance rate. The result of this study can be used to justify other similar projects in Vietnam, even though the benefits may have to be reassessed in other countries.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.205-218
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• 2014

Background: Most studies on the national health insurance benefit expansion policy have focused on policy tools or decision-making process. Hence there was not enough understanding on how policies are actually implemented within the specific policy context in Korea which has a national mandatory health insurance system with a dominant proportion of private providers. The main objectives of this study is to understand the implementation process of the benefit coverage expansion policy. Unlike other implementation studies, we tried to examine both the process of implementation and decision making and how they interact with each other. Methods: Interviews were conducted with the ex-members of the Health Insurance Policy Review Committee. Medical doctors who implement the policy at the 'street-level' were also interviewed. To figure out major variables and the degree of their influences, the data were analyzed with Winter's Policy Implementation Model which integrates the decision making and implementation phases. Results: As predicted by the Winter model, problems in the decision making phase, such as conflicts among the members of committee, lack of applicable causal theories application of highly symbolic activities, and limited attention of citizen to the issue are key variables that cause the 'implementation failure.' In the implementation phase, hospitals' own financial interests and practitioners' dependence on the hospitals' guidance were barriers to meeting the policy goals of providing a better coverage for patients. Patients, the target group, tend to prefer physicians who prescribe more treatment and medicine. To note, 'fixers' who can link and fill the gap between the decision-makers and implementers were not present. Conclusion: For achieving the policy goal of providing a better and more coverage to patients, the critical roles of medical providers as street-level implementers should be noted. Also decision making process of benefit package expansion policy should incorporate its influence on the implementation phase.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.1-12
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• 2013

Present study examines the gender disparity in terms of its beneficiaries or benefit amount of National Pension of South Korea from the perspective of gender sensitivity. National Pension system has been manipulated and developed in order to maximize its universality. However, substantial gender differences are still found in terms of beneficiary number and benefit amount in the program. Benefit condition and benefit structure are determined assuming that male is the primary breadwinner in household and the primary regular full time worker in labor market. Women are only counted as dependents or excluded as unstable workers. As a result, women are fully or partially excluded from the program as they are excluded in other public sector such as labor market. Women's work (such as caring and housekeeping) are not taken into account in National Pension program. Policy suggestions for the National Pension of South Korea are also provided as the last part of this paper.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.81-113
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• 2009

This study conducted a regulatory impact analysis regarding the introduction of the Korean version of REACH(Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals). The direct cost of the Korean REACH is estimated at a total of 101 billion Korean won over the 11 year period. The cost includes pre-registration, testing, registration, Chemical Safety Assessment(CSA) and Chemical Safety Report(CSR), evaluation, and the authorization costs of 15,223 chemical substances produced and imported more than 1 ton per year in Korea in 2006. With regard to the benefit, the only public health benefit is included in the estimation. Based on the available foreign and domestic data, this study estimated that the economic values of public health benefits are in the range of 33.2~138.6 billion Korean won if only the savings of the National Health Expenditures are considered and it reaches 203.9~1,640.3 billion Korean won if the willingness to pay(WTP) for disease prevention is included. This study proved that the Korean REACH passed the cost/benefit criteria. The benefit-cost ratio of the Korean REACH, however, is estimated to be lower than its EU counterpart. Thus it is suggested that a rigorous study to reduce the costs to industry be required before the Korean government introduces the Korean REACH.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.91-99
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• 2013

PURPOSES : This study aims at proposing the methodology for benefit evaluations in pavement maintenance methods and timings using KoPMS(Korean Pavement Management System) software which was developed for efficient pavement management. METHODS : This study classified pavement sections into 4 clusters considering AADT(Annual Average Daily Traffic) and ESAL(Equivalent Single-Axle Load) using cluster analysis and used the deterioration models in each cluster. Increased user costs due to pavement deterioration as time goes by and agent costs for maintenance were estimated. Based on deterioration model and KoPMS software, Methodology for benefit evaluation was proposed in pavement maintenance methods and with/without implementation using real pavement section data. RESULTS : This study verified that considering agent costs only would be constrained to decide pavement maintenance methods and timings, and ascertained that decision making with agent and user costs would be effective. In addition, this study revealed that pavement maintenance methods and timings can be affected by AADT and ESAL and frequent pavement maintenances can be more efficient for benefits in pavement sections with more AADT and ESAL. Also this study found that user costs would be more affected to decision making than agent costs. Moreover, Delay of conducting pavement maintenance caused increased vehicle operating costs and environmental costs because of poor conditions of pavements. CONCLUSIONS : This study proposed LCCA and benefit estimation methodology of pavement with considering agent and user costs. The results of this study can be used for baseline data of efficient pavement asset management.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.443-468
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• 2020

Broad effects of fuel-transition in all type of ground transportation have occurred with the help of the advances in electric vehicle (EV) technologies and the increases in EV supply. This research estimates the economic benefit of air environmental improvements, which results from the fuel-transition of high-mileage business cars(taxies) in metropolis. If we consider power production sector for EV operation, some air pollutants will be produced. In this respect, this research takes both the mixture of power sources in power production level and the driving pattern of business cars into account when investigating the economic benefit in air environment resulted from the fuel-transition of business cars(taxies). According to our results, the business cars' fuel transition from LPG to electricity brings about 21.5￦/km (8.6million won/year) of economic benefit in air environment. These results emphasize the necessity and appropriateness of public polices for expanding power production with renewable energies and facilitating EV distribution.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.433-461
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• 2011

This study investigated changes and determinants of public pension generosity and pension spending in welfare states during the last retrenchment period. Path-dependency thesis, industrialization theory and power resources model were examined with the twelve welfare states from 1980 to 2007. The main results are as follows. First, the developments of benefit generosity and pension spending have been differently presented according to pension structure. Second, the cross-national pooled-time series analysis confirmed that pension structure is the most significant factors to determine the level of benefit generosity and pension spending. Third, the positive effect of population ageing on pension spendings were proved even without any changes of pension generosity. New social risks, however, have restrained the pension spending. Fourth, the power of the left party and labor union did not affect the pension policy, which implies that power resources theory cannot explain the development of pension policy in this retrenchment period.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.343-353
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• 2009

The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of the water quality improvement by water discharge through dams and to provide a benefit estimation methodology, taking domestic situation into consideration, by the replacement cost approach analyzed with a sewage treatment plant instead of an alternative dam. To this end, facility that alternates a dam must have same functions of the discharged water from the dam and the two facilities must be able to be compared objectively. To estimate the benefit, estimation methodology of alternative facility's cost is established and criteria of cost.benefit analysis that are duration period and ratio of large scale repairing expense was presented. As a case study, the water quality improvement benefit of Song-Li-Won dam was evaluated, which is planned to be built on Nae-Sung stream in Nak-Dong River system. The results of applying this methodology to Song-Li-Won dam are 644,006 million won of the annual average discharge and 1,351,526 million won of maximum discharge. The usage of the framework in this study is expected for estimation of water quality improvement benefit in case water quality improvement project is performed.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.329-341
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• 2014

This study examined the effects of cultural communication on the fashion distribution type and the shopping benefit in fashion cultural complex space. Surveys period was from Sep. 17th to Sep. 21st in 2012. The Subjects of this study were the young 207 people who had shopping experiences in fashion cultural complex space in their 20s~30s. The data were analyzed by a reliability analysis(Cronbach's ${\alpha}$), factor analysis and regression analysis. The main results of this study were summarized as follows. First, cultural communication in fashion cultural complex space were impacted by cultural brand, cultural display, cultural support and beneficial effect of culture. Second, customers pursued the shopping benefits to get social value, personal pleasure, individual style and economic value. Third, the preference of fashion outlet was effected by cultural brand and cultural display. The beneficial effect of culture and cultural brand influenced on department store preference. The preference of fashion multi-brand shop was impacted by cultural brand, cultural support and beneficial effect of culture. Fourth, cultural communication in fashion cultural complex space had an effect on pursuing shopping benefits. Fifth, customer's demographic characteristics impacted on cultural brand, cultural display and beneficial effect of culture. Especially, these 3 cultural communications were effected by monthly average fashion spending than age/total income.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.242-250
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• 2012

This study investigates the benefits consumers seek in buying and using bedding, sub-dimensions of lifestyle, and the relationship between those of the benefits and the dimensions of lifestyle. This study conducted a survey to verify benefits consumers seek in buying bedding. A questionnaire was developed to collect data to measure lifestyle, benefits sought for the bedding, and demographic variables. Research was conducted on married women aged between 20 and 59. Total 294 responses were analyzed using factor analysis, correlation analysis, t-test, and one-way ANOVA with SPSS 18.0. A factor analysis identified three dimensions of benefits sought for the bedding: utilitarian benefits, social benefit, and aesthetic benefit. Lifestyle consists of five dimensions: health seeking, social symbol seeking, leisure/country-living seeking, aesthetics seeking, and economy seeking. All dimensions underlying benefits consumers seek in buying bedding and all dimensions of lifestyle were correlated. As consumers get older, they tend to seek more utilitarian and social/psychological benefits of bedding.