• Title/Summary/Keyword: Consumer Welfare

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The Government Policies of New Tobacco Products: Strategies for Managing Electronic Cigarettes and Heated Tobacco Products (신종담배의 출현과 정책방향: 전자담배 및 가열담배에 대한 전략)

  • Park, Myung-Bae
    • Health Policy and Management
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    • v.29 no.1
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    • pp.4-10
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    • 2019
  • The term new tobacco products (NTPs) refers to the new alternatives to conventional cigarettes. There are several kinds of NTPs in South Korea. The present study discusses the most widely used NTPs namely electronic cigarette (ECs) and heated tobacco products (HTPs). The aims of this study are to evaluate the risk related to the use of ECs and HTPs, introduce policy examples across different countries of management of this issue, and finally, present some policy implications of the problem and our response strategies. Since the advent of ECs, there has been a lot of debate about its risk. Some studies have reported that ECs are less harmful than conventional cigarettes and that they are effective in aiding smoking cessation. Nevertheless, the efficacy of ECs in smoking cessation and its potential health risks are still unclear. However, the obvious fact is that it is not harmless. Regulations on ECs differ from country to country. In many countries, they are strictly regulated as tobacco or toxic substances; however, in the United Kingdom, the use of ECs are included as part of their smoking cessation policy, and in Japan, they are treated as a form of medication. On the other hand, HTPs are the most recently introduced NTPs and they have attained sensational popularity because of the wrongly held belief that they are less harmful to health. So, what about our policy response to these two tobacco products? The research on ECs requires more systematic statistical monitoring, such as monitoring the ratio of dual-users. Further, the new EC smokers should be identified taking into account that the arguments for the use of ECs often emphasize smoking cessation or less risks to health, the government should further strengthen its policy to prevent those claims. The HTPs market experienced a very sharp growth and continues to grow because the government policy is too passive. Taking this as a lesson, it is necessary to approach NTPs, such as HTPs, proactively and increase their contribution to the National Health Promotion Fund by imposing greater taxes on them. Finally, considering the likelihood of NTPs being promoted as a less harmful tobacco product, it is essential to strictly regulate tobacco companies' publicity from the very beginning to ensure that potential consumer s are not mislead.

Relationship between Stock Market & Housing Market Trends and Liquidity (주식시장과 주택시장의 동향 및 유동성과의 관계)

  • Choi, Jeong-Il
    • Journal of Digital Convergence
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    • v.19 no.6
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    • pp.133-141
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    • 2021
  • Governments of each country are actively implementing fiscal expansion policies to recover the real economy after Corona 19. In Korea, the stock market and housing market are greatly affected as liquidity in the market increases due to the implementation of disaster subsidies and welfare policies. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between stock market and housing market trends and liquidity. Data were collected by the Bank of Korea and Kookmin Bank. The analysis period is from January 2000 to December 2020, and monthly data are used. For empirical analysis, the rate of change from the same month of the previous year was calculated for each variable, and numerical analysis, index analysis, and model analysis were performed. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the stock index showed a positive(+) relationship with the house price, while a negative(-) relationship with M2. Previous studies have suggested that, in general, an increase in liquidity affects the stock market and the housing market, and inflation also rises. In this study, it was found that the stock market and the housing market had an effect on each other. However, it was investigated that liquidity showed an inverse relationship with the stock market and had no relationship with the housing market. Through this, this study estimated that there is a time difference in the relationship between liquidity and the stock market & housing market.

Interest on Beauty of Beauty Salon Customers' and Beauty Shop Consumption Sentiment according to COVID-19 (미용실 고객의 뷰티에 대한 관심도 및 코로나 19에 따른 뷰티샵 소비심리)

  • Shin, Kum Soon;Lee, Keun Kwang
    • Journal of Naturopathy
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.51-61
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    • 2022
  • Background: There was a need to investigate the interest in beauty and consumption sentiment in beauty shops on COVID-19 among beauty customers in their 20s and older in Daejeon Metropolitan City. Purpose: To investigate the degree of interest in beauty and consumption sentiment of beauty shops according to COVID-19 targeting beauty customers. Methods: A survey was conducted targeting beauty customers in their 20s or older in Daejeon. A total of 263 questionnaires were analyzed using the SPSS 27.0 program. Results: Beauty customers' interest in beauty was above average in hair style, makeup, skin care and body shape management, but nail care was below average. In addition, it was found that there were some statistically significant differences or no difference in beauty shop consumer sentiment due to COVID-19 according to gender, marital status, age, and occupation. It was found that there was a positive (+) correlation between interest in beauty and consumption sentiment of beauty shops due to COVID-19. Conclusion: The beauty interest in beauty of the customers in their 20s or older in Daejeon Metropolitan City and the consumption sentiment of beauty shops on COVID-19 outbreak indicated some statistically significant differences depending on gender, marital status, age, and occupation, or seems no difference. Therefore, it is evaluated that the results will serve as basic data for research in this field.

A Suggestions of Future Direction of the Integrated Community Care Business for Improvement of the Elderly's Life Care (노인의 라이프케어 향상을 위한 지역사회 통합돌봄사업 미래 방향에 대한 제시)

  • Yang, Seung-Hoon
    • Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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    • v.15 no.8
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    • pp.423-432
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    • 2021
  • In this study, we investigated and the following conclusions are presented by identifying the current status and problems in order to expand the future's value of the community care project introduced and implemented to improve the quality and care for the elderly's life. First, the needs analysis of the elderly receiving services is composed of patient-centered rather than investigator-centered, and in particular, medical management through medical staff visits should be strengthened, and specialized service items according to gender, age, disability type, and personal preference should be strengthened. This will have to be gradually strengthened. Second, by analyzing the satisfaction, redundancy, and effectiveness of service items, we save money, and consider the consumer-oriented service item composition and application of items necessary for new services. Third, through the introduction of an integrated schedule management system, it is necessary to specialize in pre-booking and visit schedule management between the elderly and the direct service organizations that provide services. Fourth, as an effort to solve the financial problem, it is necessary to prepare a rational resource sharing system with health and medical finance, long-term care insurance system, and social welfare financial project. and it may consider that putting the medical personnel who are from local public medical college input. Through these proposals, the community care business will be able to complete and have future value as a universal aged care system.

Intergenerational proximity and financial support to older parents (세대 간 거주근접성과 중고령 부모에게 제공하는 경제적 지원)

  • Choi, Heejeong;Nam, Boram;You, Soo-Bin
    • 한국노년학
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    • v.41 no.2
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    • pp.253-270
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    • 2021
  • We examined if intergenerational proximity might be associated with upstream financial transfer from adult children to older parents, and whether adult child gender might moderate the association. We considered siblings' proximity to parents, as well as that of the adult child. Prior work conducted in the US and other countries has suggested that children living further from parents might provide financial support to compensate for instrumental support provided more by siblings living closer to parents. Data were drawn from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2014). Our analytic sample consisted of older adults 60+ and their children aged 35 and 55. None of the children co-resided with parents. Parental households consisted of either widowed individuals or married couples. For within-family analyses, fixed effects and random effects regression models were estimated. Results suggest first, sons living within a 30-minute distance, or within an hour to two-hour distance provided more monetary support to married parents compared to daughters. Second, contrary to existing findings, greater financial assistance was provided by sons and daughters when no children lived within an hour distance from their parents. For widowed parents living alone, intergenerational proximity was not associated with the amount of financial transfer from adult children.

Analysis of contribution and related factors of the elderly: Comparison between Korea and Canada (노인의 생산활동수준 및 관련변수의 분석: 한국과 캐나다 비교)

  • Joung, Soon Hee
    • 한국노년학
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    • v.25 no.2
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    • pp.155-170
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    • 2005
  • The purpose of study is to compare the level of participation of the elderly people in the activity of production between Korea and Canada and to identify the factors related to the participation of the elderly people in the activity of production between Korea and Canada. In order to conduct a comparative culture study two data sets were used; one was the 1999 Survey of Time Use collected by Korean Statistics Office and the other was 1998 Survey of Time Use collected by Canadian Statistics Office. Many countries have been collected a time use survey and used to study labor, welfare, and culture. Total number of 17,730 Korean and 2,729 Canadian between 55 and 84 were included to analyze the data. It is clear from the results that older people engage in various productive behaviors, particularly when the definition of activities is broadened to include unpaid work. It is also clear the overall productive contributions are higher among older Koreans than among older Canadians. While the focus in this study has been strictly on productive activities, the aging well literature suggests that the ability to remain independent in later life is enhanced through continued engagement in productive activities. It is thus critical that we better understand the nature of later-life activities and in particular the wide-ranging contributions made by older people. This is an important area of further exploration.

A Study on Self-Esteem and Life Satisfaction of the Elderly - Focused on whether the Elderly Participated in the Elderly Employment Promotion Project or not - (노인일자리사업 참여여부에 따른 노인의 자아존중감과 생활만족도에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, So-Hyang;Lee, Shin-Suk
    • 한국노년학
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    • v.29 no.1
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    • pp.309-327
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    • 2009
  • This research reviewed on the effect of elderly employment promotion project to their self-esteem and life satisfaction and got positive verification about the effectiveness of the project. The survey was conducted on 389 elderly people in Suncheon City. Some were participants on the project and others were not. SPSS Win 10.0 program was used for data analysis, and t-test, one-way ANOVA, correlation analysis, multiple regression were conducted. The results are as follows. First, elderly people who participated in the employment project had higher self-esteem and life satisfaction compare to those who did not participated in the project. Second, the job for elderly people had the most positive effect on elderly people to increase self-esteem and life satisfaction, and age, education background, income, family, and health were followed by. Third, participation on the employment for elderly was the highest correlation variable in self-esteem and life satisfaction, and health, education background, marriage status, residence type, living expense per month, economic status, and housing had significant correlations. Fourth, variables such as participation on job, education background, economic status, and age explained 32% of self-esteem, and 48% of life satisfaction. In order to increase self-esteem and life satisfaction of elderly people, we need to realize the importance of employment for elderly people, and promote projects that let elderly people to participate in job.

Status and Characteristics of the Newly Established Cooperatives in Agricultural Sector (농업분야 신생 협동조합의 현황과 유형별 특징)

  • Choi, Kyung Sik;Nam, Gi Pou;Hwang, Dae Yong
    • Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.967-1006
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    • 2014
  • This study attempted to provide policy recommendations in promoting new cooperatives established in agriculture based on the 2012 Cooperative Act. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 195 newly established cooperatives as the policy target of this study. The new cooperatives were classified as three kinds namely as 'Business' Cooperatives', 'Consumers' Cooperatives', 'Social Cooperatives' based on their member attributes and objectives. Interesting to note that, all of these new cooperatives born by the new Act has taken the marketing business as their main stream business. Among the three types, 'Business Cooperatives' are ranked the highest amount of capital shares per person in average, having about 30 members in size. In categorization, 'Business Cooperatives' include farmer cooperatives as majority and employee cooperatives. They are usually involved in both production and marketing and even in processing activities, and have tried to secure their business performance by e-commerce and stable business contracts. Their diverse activities are highly associated with their local community. Consumers' Cooperatives include consumer cooperatives and stakeholder cooperatives in achieving welfare of members. This type has lower share in capital but has over 30 members in a cooperative, taking marketing (distribution) business as main and often take advantage of their social network and physical store. Regional relationships are less than producer cooperatives. 'Social Cooperatives' are established by public interest and have around 10 members and lowest per capital. their business and community activity is similar to the consumer cooperatives. This study recommends the needs of designing suitable business models by these three types of cooperatives in the future, while appropriating their membership size for their tangible business operations. The government policy direction should aim to develop their new business opportunities and its management stabilization, especially in conjunction with the existing agricultural cooperatives (Nonghyup). It must be rather than to provide simply policy supports for establishment. An in-depth study is recommended in this regard.

The Critical Factors on Improvement of Medical institution Competitiveness (의료기관 경쟁력 향상에 영향을 미치는 핵심 요인)

  • Yeom, Jae-Kwang;Kang, Chang-Yeol
    • Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.1-30
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    • 2007
  • The study carried out a survey with employees of hospitals located in Daejeon, Chungnam, and Chungbuk from Sep. 12 to Sep. 30, 2005 in order to derive primary elements that affect the improvement of hospital's competitiveness. The study investigated and analyzed the employees' recognition on the change of competitive environment caused by the change of medical environment. The study also analyzed the elements that affect the hospital's competitiveness and the competitive strategies of the hospitals. The conclusion of this study can be summarized as follows. 1. Summary 1) Most of the employees responded that there is a rival in the competitive environment and the competitive is intense. Especially when the employees are married, live in urban areas, have an education level of university graduate or are managers, they tend to think the competitive is very intense. Also, they said that the competitive is based upon the quality of medical service. They mentioned the element that has the biggest effect on the competitiveness is the element of medical consumer and they recognized that the medical services in university and general hospitals have more competitiveness than the one-department hospitals. 2) It was investigated that the medical technique service has the most effect on the hospital's competitiveness. Also, the external service of medical techniques also has a large effect on the hospital's competitiveness. 3) When they were asked for the factors that affect the patients' decision on selecting a hospital, most of them responded "capability and technique of the medical staffs." Also, they said that "sufficient explanation from doctors" and "special center and clinic" are the factors that have big effects on the patients' decision. 4) In the SWOT analysis, most of them responded that the strength is the hospital's characteristics and the weakness is insufficient and obsolete equipment. They said the opportunity is the demands for professional medical service and the risk is the intense competitive among the hospitals. 5) In the SWOT strategy, they emphasized the strategy that uses the opportunity and the strength and the strategy that uses the opportunity while overcoming the weakness. 6) As for the basic competition strategy, most of them thought of the strategy of professionalizing the medical service most importantly. Next, they focused on the strategy of distinct service and the strategy of lower prime cost. 2. Conclusion 1) Because service competition between hospitals is happening seriously, need competitiveness security through right awareness transfer and satisfaction upgrade about medical consumer. 2) For medical technique service upgrade that equip Hospital's competitiveness but affects most, must solidify the countermeasure because professionalizing the medical service and newest medical technique induction should be achieved first, and compose task force for the external service of medical techniques improvement. 3) To improve SWOT of hospital, opportunity and the strength strategy choice that rescue hospital's characteristics heightening professionalizing the medical service level is fancied. 4) As for the basic competition strategy, will have to try in phase triangular position of hospital which is trusted medical level upgrade and excellent manpower security and finance independence through upgrade. The study was only done with hospitals in Daejeon, Chungnam and Chungbuk. Also, it is a study from the side of suppliers of medical service so there are limitations. However, the significance of the study is to present the basic data for improvement of hospital's competitiveness by examining the importance of medical techniques and external service of medical techniques that are the main effects on the improvement of hospital's competitiveness.

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Impact of Net-Based Customer Service on Firm Profits and Consumer Welfare (기업의 온라인 고객 서비스가 기업의 수익 및 고객의 후생에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Eun-Jin;Lee, Byung-Tae
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.123-137
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    • 2007
  • The advent of the Internet and related Web technologies has created an easily accessible link between a firm and its customers, and has provided opportunities to a firm to use information technology to support supplementary after-sale services associated with a product or service. It has been widely recognized that supplementary services are an important source of customer value and of competitive advantage as the characteristics of the product itself. Many of these supplementary services are information-based and need not be co-located with the product, so more and more companies are delivering these services electronically. Net-based customer service, which is defined as an Internet-based computerized information system that delivers services to a customer, therefore, is the core infrastructure for supplementary service provision. The importance of net-based customer service in delivering supplementary after-sale services associated with product has been well documented. The strategic advantages of well-implemented net-based customer service are enhanced customer loyalty and higher lock-in of customers, and a resulting reduction in competition and the consequent increase in profits. However, not all customers utilize such net-based customer service. The digital divide is the phenomenon in our society that captures the observation that not all customers have equal access to computers. Socioeconomic factors such as race, gender, and education level are strongly related to Internet accessibility and ability to use. This is due to the differences in the ability to bear the cost of a computer, and the differences in self-efficacy in the use of a technology, among other reasons. This concept, applied to e-commerce, has been called the "e-commerce divide." High Internet penetration is not eradicating the digital divide and e-commerce divide as one would hope. Besides, to accommodate personalized support, a customer must often provide personal information to the firm. This personal information includes not only name and address, but also preferences information and perhaps valuation information. However, many recent studies show that consumers may not be willing to share information about themselves due to concerns about privacy online. Due to the e-commerce divide, and due to privacy and security concerns of the customer for sharing personal information with firms, limited numbers of customers adopt net-based customer service. The limited level of customer adoption of net-based customer service affects the firm profits and the customers' welfare. We use a game-theoretic model in which we model the net-based customer service system as a mechanism to enhance customers' loyalty. We model a market entry scenario where a firm (the incumbent) uses the net-based customer service system in inducing loyalty in its customer base. The firm sells one product through the traditional retailing channels and at a price set for these channels. Another firm (the entrant) enters the market, and having observed the price of the incumbent firm (and after deducing the loyalty levels in the customer base), chooses its price. The profits of the firms and the surplus of the two customers segments (the segment that utilizes net-based customer service and the segment that does not) are analyzed in the Stackelberg leader-follower model of competition between the firms. We find that an increase in adoption of net-based customer service by the customer base is not always desirable for firms. With low effectiveness in enhancing customer loyalty, firms prefer a high level of customer adoption of net-based customer service, because an increase in adoption rate decreases competition and increases profits. A firm in an industry where net-based customer service is highly effective loyalty mechanism, on the other hand, prefers a low level of adoption by customers.