• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.141-157
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• 2007

This paper evaluates the effects of privatization and deregulation on the firm-specific efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the Korean and Japanese railways. Using a stochastic frontier approach and a generalized translog functional form, the paper specifies the equation system consisting of a multiproduct variable cost function and input share equations which is estimated with Zellner's iterative seemingly unrelated regression and the corrected least squares method. The Korean and Japanese railway firms are assumed to produce three outputs (Shinkansen passenger-kilometers, incumbent railway passenger-kilometers, ton-kilometers of freight) using three input factors (labor, fuel, maintenance and rolling stock). A monetary value of the ways and fixed installations held by the railroad firm is also included as a quasi-fixed input. The empirical results indicate that the average estimate of cost inefficiency is 2.57% for the total sample and on the average, JNR and JR Kyushu are found to be worst efficient while the most efficient railway firm in the sample is JR West. Also the cost efficiency levels of seven JRs have been improved after the reform and privatization of JNR. The findings also indicate that TFP growth of the privately-owned JRs are higher than those of the government-owned KNR and JNR. Three-island JRs and JR Freight have slightly higher TFP growth than Honshu JRs as well. Thus, the results suggest that managerial autonomy and increased competition via deregulation have improved efficiency and TFP growth.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.155-187
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• 1999

The East Asian Region has experienced remarkable economic growth and transformation of interurban networking over the past three decades, and urban competiti veness for a networking hub in this region has become a critical issue confronting cities. Competitiveness of the Seoul capital region for a networking hub in Northeast Asia is outstripped by other competing cities in East Asia, notwithstanding its geo-politically and geo-economically advantageous location in this region. In this paper, we aim to appraise the Seoul capital region's competitiveness in terms of logistics distribution, financial function and logistics distribution, financial function and agglomeration of transnational corporations (especially of RHOs and other managerial functions), and to advance the networking strategies of the region for a Northeast Asia hyb. As a result of analysis, we suggest that the Seoul capital region be developed as a Northeast Asian center for regional headquarters or leading global corporations and financial services for being a strategic nodal point in Northeast Asia in the 21st century. A recent survey shows that where to locate an RHQ is influenced by various factors, such as potential market and manufacturing site in the city's hinterland, quality of life, such things as culture, health, safety, education, a well-educated, English-speaking population, reliable air transport, state-of-the-art communications, and an active policy to offer foreign companies generous incentives. The Seoul capital region, which is located at a strategic nodal point advantageous as a springboard for its Northeast Asian hinterland, cannot meet the other conditions mentioned above. To overcome these drawbacks in attracting transnational capital and to create competitiveness as a strategic hub of RHQs in Northeast Asia, it is urgent to initiate a structural reform of the Korean economy, politics, and overall society, to minimize the regulation of FDI, and to provide various incentives for foreign investment. Moreover, we propose the construction of an 'International Business Town' in the Seoul capital region, as a medium to intermediate these strategies and to shape them in a spatial scale. The projected 'International Business Town(IBT)' will be a 'free city' open to international business in which liberal economic activities are guaranteed by special legislation and administration, infrastructures needed for international and improved accessibility to the airport are furnished, and the preference of foreign high-income investors for cultural and living environment are satisfactorily met. IBT is conspicuously differentiated from a raft of other cities' incentives in that it combines deregulation and incentive programs to attract the investment of transnational capital, with a spatial program of offering an urban environment preferred by the high-income investors for cultural and living environment are satisfactorily met. IBT is conspicuously differentiated from a raft of other cities' incentives in that it combines deregulation and incentive programs to attract the investment of transnational capita, with a spatial program of offering an urban environment preferred by the high-income and managerial class. Furthermore, it can be an excellent way of overcoming the xenophobia that has spread among the Korean population by concentrating foreign businesses and their lifestyles in a specific foreign businesses and their lifestyles in a specific zone. In conclusion, 'International Business Town', in line with other legislative and administrative incentive programs, will function as a driving force to make the Seoul capital regional more competitive as a regional business hub in Northeast Asia.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.42 no.1 s.118
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• pp.41-62
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• 2007

This paper aims to interpret the changes of the regional inequality between Seoul Metropolitan Area(SMA) and Non-SMA after 1981 on the regulationist approaches that examine institution changes and power dynamics that motivate regional disparities in South Korea. Despite the restrict laws and aims that alms to reduce the concentration into SMA before 1988, the acts were not executed effectively due to the structural selectivity of the bureaucratic authoritarian state of those years. Thus, the regional concentration phenomena of SMA was intensified in the 1980s. However, the democratization in 1987 invoked Non-SMA regions to claim their regional development and it also forced the state to mediate the conflicting interests between the regional agents protesting the SMA concentration and the Capital agents supporting the SMA deregulation. From the early 1990s. the state launched a series of national strategies and policies to diminish regional inequality. They included execution of the existing acts mitigating SMA concentration and construction of industrial complexes in the underdeveloped areas of Non-SMA. Thus, the equalizing polities led the reduction of the concentration of SMA from 1989 to 1997. However, the financial crisis of Korea in 1997 intensified the claims of the Capital agents to deregulate the SMA control. The circumstance also forced the state towards the Capital side that request the deregulation of SMA control. As the result, the regional disparity between SMA and Non-SMA has been enlarged again since 1998.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.255-268
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• 2016

At present, Ganghwa County and Ongjin County of Incheon Metropolitan City are under the application of a different land use regulation like military regulations, etc. due to distinct characteristics of a border area; moreover, these two Counties have degenerated into the deepening area of economic backwardness and decline with the overlapping application of various land use regulations on the ground that these areas belong to a metropolitan area in view of an administrative district. In addition, different support is also implemented for border areas, such as 'the Special Act on Border Area Support' for the border areas, and development projects for special situation areas, etc.; however, realities are that the border areas are not free from regulations as yet due to the problems of unreality of support projects, and hierarchy of ordinances, etc. Accordingly, this study implemented this research under the judgment that it's about time to mitigate overlapping regulations on regional characteristics of the border areas of Incheon Metropolitan City, i.e. different land use regulation as a border area. It is required that general land use regulations should be mitigated through f lexible deregulation & management of the military regulation on the border areas of Incheon-si, mitigation of regulations under the Metropolitan Area Readjustment Planning Act, and relaxation of the preservation area of cultural properties; particularly, it's necessary to minimize the damage to border areas of Incheon-si caused by overlapping regulations on the areas by exempting the areas from the range of a metropolitan area through acknowledgment of the difference between the distinct characteristics of the border areas and regional, cultural conditions of a metropolitan area.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.138-160
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• 2009

The urban housing market in Korea, especially in Seoul and the Capital region, has been revitalized with massive urban (re)developments and expanding real estate finance after the IMF crisis. This brought about a boom of housing price during the mid-2000s, which has been virtually stabilized by strong regulation policies of the previous government. But with impacts of the recent international financial crisis together with some inherent problems, the housing market of Korea faces with a worry of collapse in relation with the financial market volatility and the serious depression of real economy, and hence the current government attempts to implement strong deregulation policies on the housing market. In this paper it is argued that this kind of volatility of urban housing market seems to be caused by strategies of capital which involve continuous massive urban (re)development, residential segregation and appropriation of monopoly rent(or capital gain), and fictitious capitalization of real estates and integration of real estate market and financial market. In these reasons, the current tendency of urban housing price shows a slow downward, which seems to give the current neoliberal government a rationale for deregulation policies to prevent the downward tendency. But this paper suggests that such a slow downward of housing price shift would have positive effects on the housing market in particular and social and economic situations in general, and hence an alternative housing policy is required to realize such positive effects.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.169-178
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• 2001

Numerous regulations have been introduced and a various kinds of institutional intervention have been made by government against the occupational safety and health problems. However, it was serious issue to the workers that what can be claimed by those who meet with apparently harmful and risky working conditions in their social systems. In the view point of employees, their right to be free from unacceptable risk and hazards has not been clearly defined. Therefore, workers have very limited rights to take any actions unless employer or government do their actions. It is believed that this undesirable conditions resulted from Jack of legal definition of workers' right to work in the safe and healthy environment. It has been found increased social pressure to make intervention to the industry to protect workers' health. Also, increased pressure has been kept for deregulation. This conflict lay the current situation in dilemma. The concept of the working environmental right has been developed and discussed in this study to overcome this trade-off confliction. It should be clearly separated between legal aspects and administrative and Policy area to make the regulations effective. Strong enforcement to the industry based on the law should be minimum, however, it should be practically effective in the aspect of workers' right. Administration and policy should be focused on supportive and leading activities to achieve the ultimate goal, safe and healthy working environment. It is concluded that establishment of working environmental right would satisfy workers and industry and it would result in improvement workers' environment and conditions.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.254-257
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• 2012

Hedge funds can be established in Korea after the deregulation about setting up private equity funds on September, 2011. Although the variety of asset allocation strategies is the strength of hedge funds, most of Korean hedge funds uses only the equity long/short strategy. Therefore, it is need to introduce other strategies into Korea hedge funds, however all strategies can not be adopted at once because of the infrastructure of Korea financial market. In this paper, we find the optimal introductive order of strategies for Korea hedge fund in view of individual or institutional investors. For this analysis, HFRI data are used for the historical return of each hedge fund strategy and three methods (network visualization, principle component analysis and efficient frontier optimization) are used for finding the optimal order.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.17
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• pp.135-160
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• 2005

In the 1990s, university environment is changing rapidly(especially, difficulty of student registration which are originated student's decrease and various deregulation) and university get ready for the new ways of management culture. This new ways are management innovation strategies. The purpose of this study is to suggest the direction of effective innovation(to search application possibility of management innovation strategy), solving the problems occurred by the enlargement and change in the environments of universities. From early in the 1990s, korean corporations perform actively many management innovation strategy including benchmarking, restructuring, downsizing, zero-based budgeting, BPR, learn organization and total quality management. But korean most universities performed hardware management innovation strategies such as corporate portfolio restructuring(including outsourcing, M&A, MBO etc.) and organization restructuring. Therefore korean universities have got to concerns about more software management innovation strategy such as total quality management and learn organization. Also we have seen another problems such as that universities try to merely duplicate certain management innovation strategies which are used by another university. rather than to make various effort to adequate their own organizations. In conclusion, korean universities are to play an important roles in the development of knowledge society. The management innovation and individual competence development in the university are required to overcome crisis of university.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.4571-4573
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• 2014

Diabetes, a comprehensive genetic disease, is principally due to the deregulation of glucose levels in the blood. In addition to contemporary epidemiological studies, systematic substantiation suggests that long-term diabetes leads to cancers due to a variety of reasons. In this study, blood samples were collected with informed consent from confirmed type I diabetic (T1DM, n=25) and type II Diabetic patients (T2DM, n=25) with equal numbers of controls. Further depending on the lifestyle habits they were subdivided into smokers/non-smokers and alcoholics/non-alcoholics. Chromosomal assays were performed for these cases and it was found that there was a significant increase in chromosomal aberration frequency in diabetic patient groups who are exposed to smoking and alcohol than that of normal diabetic groups (T1DM and T2DM). On the other hand, patient groups who were non-smoking and non-alcoholics also showed higher chromosomal aberrations when compared to that of controls. While the mechanisms for these increased chromosomal aberrations in diabetic groups are not clear, they may be due to increased oxidative stress leading to oxidative damage and resulting in genomic instability, which in turn may contribute to an increased risk for cancer.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.27-43
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• 2016

This study initiates from the question of whether current advertising regulations are appropriate to be applied to the market. It confirms the relationship between misleading online advertisements of weight-loss food and consumer damages. This study argues that it is necessary to enforce monitoring and regulating (strengthening monitoring) for situations where misleading advertisements are exposed in the market with subsequent consumer damages. However, deregulation is needed for advertisements exposed in the name of misleading advertisements but with no consumer damages. In conclusion, the regulations of current weight loss foods are properly established $vis-{\grave{a}}-vis$ the market situation. However, misleading advertisements are prevalent for all regulated types: Type I (product quality and effect), Type II (endorsement and warranty), Type III (ways to use and safety), Type IV (comparison and superiority), and Type V (company information). Promotion targeting businesses, market monitoring and control are necessary to ensure that advertising regulations (which have existed only as an institution) can be appropriately applied. It is also confirmed that 'comparison advertising' (applicable to Type IV where consumer damages were not shown compared to other regulations) does not have an actual effect as a consumer protection regulation that should be considered in regulation revisions. Consumers also did not recognize Type III and V in the purchasing stage while consumer damages were demonstrated; consequently, this implies that consumers need to check and become attentive to these types.