• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.1-40
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• 2008

In this paper, I examine the welfare effects of various revenue-neutral tax reforms in the case of two vertically-related oligopolies(downstream and upstream), where the upstream industry is polluting. I show analytically when and how government can improve welfare by initiating various tax reforms, regardless of either the feasibility of a lump sum transfer or the availability of a tax on pollution. The profit wedge that is the difference between the unit price and the unit cost and the marginal environmental damages(MED) becomes important to decidethe direction of a tax reform and is crucial to determine the direction of welfare-improving tax-subsidy schemes. I also show that a tax on pollution(Pigouvian tax) is superior to a tax on intermediate good even in the case of vertically-related oligopolies, because the former always brings in positive welfare effect from the upstream firms' input substitutability, which a tax on intermediate good cannot provide. Some policy implications for 'reducing environmentally-harmful subsidies' are also discussed.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.397-425
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• 2003

This paper develops a simple theoretical model that is consistent with the empirical evidence of an inverted U-shpated relationship between pollution and per capita income, which is so-called environmental Kuznets curve in this literature. Also, by incorporating the issue of environmental externality into an endogenous growth model, I investigate the circumstances under which growth can be sustained with the optimal control of pollution, and hence the sustainable development can be achieved. In order to study the problem of implementing the social optimum in a market economy, I examine the optimality of three different kinds of environmental policy instruments; pollution tax, pollution-permit trading system (pollution voucher), and direct regulation. This paper shows that the optimum can be implemented with a pollution tax or with a voucher system. Also, it is shown that the socially optimal rate of pollution tax should increase proportionally to the growth rate of consumption.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.531-559
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• 2022

It is necessary to study the need for introduction of nuclear energy tax in Korea to internalize the externality cost of nuclear power and to make more balanced taxation system considering LNG and coal power. This study adopts choice experiment method to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) for possible new tax on nuclear power. The finding is that the tax on nuclear fuel is more preferable to other tax base with KRW2.19/kWh of WTP, compared to KRW1.46/kWh for nuclear waste. The WTP for using the tax revenue to facilitate economic activity is KRW6.39/kWh compared to KRW6.12/kWh of WTP for funding climate change investment. The finding suggests that the design of nuclear power taxation needs to focus more on the use of tax revenue than on the choice of tax base.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.109-119
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• 2017

This paper is to analyse empirically using the data collected from Korea portal Naver's ad management system and show online ad platform may not be two-sided market. It is aim of this study to propose the appropriate approach to define the market, based on the empirical result. Here are two research questions to be reviewed. First, is there any consistency between business model of search advertising and definition of two-sided market which Rochet-Tirole proposed in 2006? Second, do indirect network externalities exist significantly in search advertising market? if so, this study is going to estimate the level of it through empirical measurement. Based on Luchetta's paper which suggested that google may be one-sided market, it performed the correlation & regression analysis to prove his suggestion. The result is that online search advertising costs increased by more than 50 won when advertisers increased by one unit. However, there was no significant correlation and regression between the search frequency and online search advertising cost. It means that there is little possibility to identify two-sidedness in online search advertising service(market) because of no(or little) indirect network externalities which are a necessary condition for two-sided market. This result has three implications, such as the availability to adapt traditional market definition tools to online search advertising market, the possibility enhancement to find the fundamental competition elements in defined market and promotion of the powers of persuasion in competitive market reality. It is significant that the gap between legal scholars including regulatory practitioners and economists can be overcome to some extent. who have shown the different perspective on the two-sided market.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.257-266
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• 2011

The establishment of Culture Technology Institute is now under discussion. In case of advanced countries (including USA, Japan and EU) practices market-oriented policies in the area of culture and entertainment industry. Therefore it is hard to find out Government-funded Institute which Korea could benchmark. In this situation, there are many different opinions about its organizational structure, size of organization and budget, and when the institute should be established. This study proposed a Consolidated-Decentralized model as a proper organizational structure after evaluating 4 different models based on 4 criterion. And based on results produced by the model developed for our research, this study suggested proposals that the number of research personnel and the size of budget should be larger than 300 persons and 1200 billion won respectively. However, the establishment of institute should be decided by not only economic factor but also various factors such as political element, externality, private company investment and effect on production inducement etc. If new institute focused on different area from ETRI, then the time and size of the institute could be decided by the result of policy analysis.

• Information Systems Review
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.137-158
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• 2018

Online platforms recently expanded their connectivity through an authing service. The growth of authing services enabled consumers to enjoy easy log in access without exerting extra effort. However, multiple points of access increases the security vulnerability of platform ecosystems. Despite the importance of balancing authing service and security, only a few studies examined platform connectivity. This study examines the optimal level of authing service of a platform and how authing strategies impact participants in a platform ecosystem. We used a game-theoretic approach to analyze security problems associated with authing services provided by online platforms for consumers and other linked platforms. The main findings are as follows: 1) the decreased expected loss of consumers will increase the number of players who participate in the platform; 2) linked platforms offer strong benefits from consumers involved in an authing service; 3) the main platform will increase its effort level, which includes security cost and checking of linked platform's security if the expected loss of the consumers is low. Our study contributes to the literature on the relationship between technology convenience and security risk and provides guidelines on authing strategies to platform managers.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.99-128
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• 2008

Nearly all Koreans are insured through National Health Insurance(NHI). While NHI coverage is nearly universal, it is not complete. Coverage is largely limited to minimal level of hospital and physician expenses, and copayments are required in each case. As a result, Korea's public insurance system covers roughly 50% of overall individual health expenditures, and the remaining 50% consists of copayments for basic services, spending on services that are either not covered or poorly covered by the public system. In response to these gaps in the public system, 64% of the Korean population has supplemental private health insurance. Expansion of private health insurance raises negative externality issue. Like public financing schemes in other countries, the Korean system imposes cost-sharing on patients as a strategy for controlling utilization. Because most insurance policies reimburse patients for their out-of-pocket payments, supplemental insurance is likely to negate the impact of the policy, raising both total and public sector health spending. So far, most empirical analysis of supplemental health insurance to date has focused on the US Medigap programme. It is found that those with supplements apparently consume more health care. Two reasons for higher health care consumption by those with supplements suggest themselves. One is the moral hazard effect: by eliminating copayments and deductibles, supplements reduce the marginal price of care and induce additional consumption. The other explanation is that supplements are purchased by those who anticipate high health expenditures - adverse effect. The main issue addressed has been the separation of the moral hazard effect from the adverse selection one. The general conclusion is that the evidence on adverse selection based on observable variables is mixed. This article investigates the extent to which private supplementary insurance affect use of health care services by public health insurance enrollees, using Korean administrative data and private supplements related data collected through all relevant private insurance companies. I applied a multivariate two-part model to analyze the effects of various types of supplements on the likelihood and level of public health insurance spending and estimated marginal effects of supplements. Separate models were estimated for inpatients and outpatients in public insurance spending. The first part of the model estimated the likelihood of positive spending using probit regression, and the second part estimated the log of spending for those with positive spending. Use of a detailed information of individuals' public health insurance from administration data and of private insurance status from insurance companies made it possible to control for health status, the types of supplemental insurance owned by theses individuals, and other factors that explain spending variations across supplemental insurance categories in isolating the effects of supplemental insurance. Data from 2004 to 2006 were used, and this study found that private insurance increased the probability of a physician visit by less than 1 percent and a hospital admission by about 1 percent. However, supplemental insurance was not found to be associated with a bigger health care service utilization. Two-part models of health care utilization and expenditures showed that those without supplemental insurance had higher inpatient and outpatient expenditures than those with supplements, even after controlling for observable differences.