• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.13-38
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• 2001

The question about whether a shorter workweek may increase employment has been a serious issue and been furiously debated among collective bargainers. The advocators recommend publicly that a reduction in standard working hours will provide benefits to the unemployed through the provision of new jobs, and also can improve the quality of life workers. The opponents argue that a shorter workweek will increase labor costs and induce firms to reduce their production levels, and consequently cut back their demand for labor. Although the debate is still continuing, considerable has been made toward achieving the goal workweek reduction. The analytical framework of this paper is a Putty-clay-model, in which the short-and long-term impacts of changes in working time on the employment associated with the interrelations of wages, prices, hourly labour productivity, the firm's labor demand, business cycle and economic growth etc. must be analyzed.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.39-42
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• 1972

A field experiment was conducted in a moderately well drained paddy field doveloped in a narrow strip of a valley in order to observe changes of potassium requirement in paddy production when lime is applied. The results obtained are as follows; 1. The response of paddy to potassium (K) and lime (L) is represented mathematically as follow; $Y=462.78+11.582K-0.058L-0.768K^2-0.000015L^2+0.2204KL$. It is considered that the increase of potassium reqirement when slaked lime is applied, is partially due to the increased growth of plant accomplished by the improvement of soil conditions such as the reduction of respiration inhibitors and cationic balance in soil solution. 2. An economic analysis of the use of potassium and slaked lime applying the costs, 80 won per kg of paddy, 19 won per kg of potassium and 4 won per kg of slaked lime to the response function above, showed that the slaked lime without potssium brought a large loss, whereas the use of the lime together with potassium increased the profit remarkably. The profit increased when 10kg of potassium per 10 a is applied in addition to 200kg slaked limn, per 10kg is amounted 4,685 won. 3. A linear relationship between the economic optimum dose of potassium (y) and the amount of slaked lime (x) in paddy production, is obtained as follow; $$y=7.48+\frac{2.77}{200}x$$ It is, however, considered that the amount of potassium to he used might differ according to the soil conditions such as the potassium content and cation exchange capicity of the soil.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.141-161
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• 1991

Resale price maintenance has long been employed in book distribution, perhaps longer than for any other product. Another unusual practice in the book trade that has proven to be quite durable in spite of its substantial cost in real resources is the returns policy. Publishers typically grant the right to return unsold books within a stipulated time for full credit against future orders. This paper investigates the functions and effects of resale price maintenance in the book trade, and argues that resale price maintenance and returns are substitute methods of providing the same economic function. Resale price maintenance can be used to compensate booksellers for initially stocking books with uncertain prospects and for providing a conduit through which manufacturers acquire information about consumer demand (market testing services). Permitting the return of unsold books for full credit places a floor under retail prices and transfers a considerable portion of the cost of introducing a new product line back to the publisher. Both reflect publishers' needs to have their books displayed. In the U.S. returns privileges were first proposed in 1913, roughly coincident with the Macy decision outlawing RPM. Publishers slowly granted return privileges, which become nearly universal by 1970. The decline in margins in recent years has been accompanied by an increase in returns as the return policy served to substitute for lost margins on successful titles as a methods of compensating full-line booksellers. In contrast, returns privileges are unusual in countries where price maintenance in books has been practiced. These observations are consistent with our analysis. In Korea, resale price maintenance of books is practiced under an exception to Korean antitrust law. The availability of effective price maintenance is likely to reduce the use of returns programs. Since consumers prefer to obtain books at outlets where they know the books are likely to be stocked rather than taking a chance on stores that carry a more limited line, it also provides a strong incentive for booksellers to expand. But the privilege of resale price maintenance should be confined to books which publishers want to be price maintained. Resale price maintenance and returns system differ in the transactions costs associated with inventory holding, and publishers' judgement on the comparative advantage of the two schemes should be honored. Publishers should also remain free to authorize sales at discount at any time not to impair the ability of booksellers to dispose of product variants that prove unpopular.

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.153-180
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• 2020

This study is meaningful in finding out what legal and policy issues need to be improved in order to foster the aircraft industry, which is relatively underdeveloped compared to the fact that some heavy industries, such as the automobile industry and shipbuilding industry, have achieved a high level of production and technology globally. Korea's aircraft industry has been growing at a slower pace than other industries, largely due to the country's economic growth and the lack of a market structure to properly use variables such as the level of development in related industries, aircraft technology and demand for aircraft manufacturing. While most industries are privately led by the market structure of the competition system, heavy industries such as the aircraft industry generally grow under the market structure of the incomplete competition system, because only by securing huge initial investment costs, high technology, and sufficient demand, they can maintain minimum economic feasibility. The Korean aircraft industry was focused on developing and mass-producing military aircraft focusing on military demand, but it sought to turn the tide by signing the BASA (Bileral Aviation Safety Agreement) with the U.S. A preliminary feasibility study was conducted in 2010 to develop next-generation medium-sized aircraft, but was cancelled due to differences in position with Canada's Bombardier, which is subject to the concourse, and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) is pushing for the production of Bombardier's Q400 license on its own. Compared to the mid-to-large sized civil aircraft that are facing difficulties in development, KAI and KARI are successfully developing technologies to unmanned aerial vehicles and civil helicopters. In addition, the unmanned aerial vehicle sector is not yet suitable for manufacturers that have an exclusive global influence, so we believe that it is necessary to pursue government-led research and development projects with a focus on the areas of commercial helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles in order to foster the aircraft industry in the future. In addition, since military aircraft such as KT-1 and T-50 are currently being exported smoothly, and it cannot be overlooked that the biggest demand for aircraft manufacturing in the Korea is the military, it is necessary to push forward national R&D projects and defense R&D program simultaneously to enable both civilian-military development. However, there are many differences between the two projects in the way they are implemented, the department in charge and the royalty system. Through this study, we learned about the technology ownership and implementation rights of national R&D projects and defense R&D programs, as well as the royalty system. In addition, problems with the system were identified and improvement measures were derived.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.31-57
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• 1991

Korean firms of all sizes, from virtually every industry, have used and are using the term "excessive competition" to describe the state of their industry and to call for government interventions. Moreover, the Korean government has frequently responded to such calls in various ways favorable to the firms, such as controlling entry, curbing capacity investments, or allowing collusion. Despite such interventions' impact on the overall efficiency on the Korean economy as well as on the wealth distribution among diverse groups of economic agents, the term "excessive competition", the basis for the interventions, has so far escaped rigorous scrutiny. The objective of this paper is to clarify the notion of "excessive competition" and "over-investment" which usually accompanies "excessive competition", and to examine the circumstances under which they might occur. We first survey the cases where the terms are most widely used and proceed to examine those cases to determine if competition is indeed excessive, and if so, what causes "excessive competition". Our main concern deals with the case in which the firms must make investment decisions that involve large sunk costs while facing uncertain demand. In order to analyze this case, we developed a two period model of capacity precommitment and the ensuing competition. In the first period, oligopolistic firms make capacity investments that are irreversible. Demand is uncertain in period 1 and only the distribution is known. Thus, firms must make investment decisions under uncertainty. In the second period, demand is realized, and the firms compete with quantity under realized demand and capacity constraints. In the above setting, we find that there is "no over-investment," en ante, and there is "no excessive competition," ex post. As measured by the information available in period 1, expected return from investment of a firm is non-negative, overall industry capacity does not exceed the socially optimal level, and competition in the second period yields an outcome that gives each operating firm a non-negative second period profit. Thus, neither "excessive competition" nor "over-investment" is possible. This result will generally hold true if there is no externality and if the industry is not a natural monopoly. We also extend this result by examining a model in which the government is an active participant in the game with a well defined preference. Analysis of this model shows that over-investment arises if the government cannot credibly precommit itself to non-intervention when ex post idle capacity occurs, due to socio-political reasons. Firms invest in capacities that exceed socially optimal levels in this case because they correctly expect that the government will find it optimal for itself to intervene once over-investment and ensuing financial problems for the firms occur. Such planned over-investment and ensuing government intervention are the generic problems under the current system. These problems are expected to be repeated in many industries in years to come, causing a significant loss of welfare in the long run. As a remedy to this problem, we recommend a non-intervention policy by the government which creates and utilizes uncertainty. Based upon an argument which is essentially the same as that of Kreps and Wilson in the context of a chain-store game, we show that maintaining a consistent non-intervention policy will deter a planned over-investment by firms in the long run. We believe that the results obtained in this paper has a direct bearing on the public policies relating to many industries including the petrochemical industry that is currently in the center of heated debates.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.207-212
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• 2016

This work was carried out to investigate the ability of thirteen crossbreds for production of commercial chicken (CC) of Korean native chicken to be cut out for Korean circumstance. Total of one thousand three hundred of crossbreds were divided thirteen groups (100 birds/group) that were twelve groups (1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, 5A, 5B, 6A, 6B) to crossbreed with two sires (A, B) and six dams (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) of parent stock (PS) of Korean native chicken and one group (HH) as commercial Korean native chicken. Experimental diets were starter diet (0~7d; CP 22.0% ME 3,150 kcal/kg), early diet (8d~Wt 800 g; CP 19.0% ME 3,150 kcal/kg) and finished diet (Wt 800 g~12 wk; CP 18.0% ME 3,150 kcal/kg). Fertility of 1B group was higher than other groups. Hatchability per fertilization eggs and hatchability per setting eggs were 87.5~89% and 87.9~96.3%, respectively, and those of 4B and 6B groups were lower compared to other groups. Weekly body weight of HH group was lower than other groups. CV values of body weight of thirteen groups were showed over 12% as 12.5~18.2%, and especially, those of 2B, 3B, 5B, HH groups were lower compared to other groups. Weekly feed conversion ratios (FCRs) of 13 crossbreds were 1.7~2.3, 2.1~2.5, 2.4~2.7 and 2.7~3.2 at the age of 6, 8, 10 and 12 weeks, respectively. Weekly production indexes of 2A, 3A and HH groups were the lower than other groups and those of thirteen groups decreased following weeks. Feed costs per body weight gain (kg) were 1,069~1,255 won, 1,100~1,263 won, and 1.468~1,696 won at starter, earlier and finished period of broilers. These results leaded down to conclusion to be possible selection of new Korean native commercial chicken that have the excellent performance and economics.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.177-201
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• 2011

Myanmar had fallen behind other southeast asian nations since Burmese way to Socialism settled down. However, historically second election in Myanmar hold in 2011 and dramatic changes in areas such as Special Economic Zone announcement, the very huge inflows of foreign direct investment in a year of 2009, the infrastructure building projects, a permit of the right to strike for Labour Organization in Myanmar etc. Particularly, Foreign investments and trade with neighbouring countries are actively growing and also with Korea. But investments of Korea in Myanmar relatively are not diversity, with limited sectors such as mining and sewing manufacturing. In this point of view, this paper is trying to make implications for strategies of entry and investments of Korea in Myanmar by using previous papers related to Myanmar economies, trade and foreign investments with updated statistical data. The implications for Korea is that recently Myanmar economy is in its early stages of development. Although it can occur huge demand of railway, road, communications and constructions related to social infrastructures essentially needed for development of a country, these sectors relatively need huge investments. On the other hands, textile and sewing industry relatively need smaller investments in which investors can utilize low labour cost and a position for export to third countries. But those firms which set up for those purpose in Myanmar might have trouble creating domestic markets in future. Moreover, due to demand which occur in the early stage of growth in Myanmar, trade volume tend to increase and trading is also possible to invest but Myanmar still have lots of problems with infrastructure such as road and logistics and we need to make pre-survey for the costs and benefits of our products Finally, Myanmar government is trying to promote and encourage some of industries such as export-oriented industry, import substitution industry and labour-intensive industry. It can also means they will accumulate capital which can be sources for Myanmar economic growth.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.135-149
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• 1990

Housing owners in Korea have a variety of tax advantages such as income tax exemption for the imputed rent of owner-occupied housing, exemption from the capital gains tax and deduction of the estate tax for one-house households. These tax reliefs for housing owners not only conflict with the principle of horizontal and vertical equity, but also lead to resource misallocation by distorting the housing market, and thus bring about regressive distribution effects. Particularly in the case of Korea with its imperfect capital market, these measures exacerbate the inter-class inequality of housing ownership as well as inequalities in wealth, by causing the affluent to demand needlessly large housing, while the poor and young experience difficulties in purchasing residential properties. Therefore, the Korean tax system must be altered as follows in order to disadvantage owner-occupiers, especially those owners of luxury housing. These alterations will promote housing-ownership, tax burden equity, efficiency of resource allocation, as well as the desirable distribution of income. First, income tax deductions for the rent payments of tenants are recommended. Ideally, the way of recovering the fiscal equivalence between the owner-occupiers and tenants is to levy an income tax on the former's imputed rents, and if necessary to give them tax credits. This, however, would be very difficult from a practical viewpoint, because the general public may perceive the concept of "imputed rent" as cumbersome. Computing the imputed rent also entails administrative costs, rendering quite reasonable, the continued exemption of imputed rent from taxation with the simultaneous deduction in the income tax for tenants. This would further enhance the administrative efficiency of income tax collection by easing assessment of the landlord's income. Second, a capital gains tax should be levied on the one-house household, except with the postponement of payments in the case that the seller purchases higher priced property. Exemption of the capital gains tax for the one-house household favors those who have more expensive housing, providing an incentive to the rich to hold even larger residences, and to the constructors to build more luxurious housing to meet the demand. So it is not desirable to sustain the current one-house household exemption while merely supplementing it with fastidious measures. Rather, the rule must be abolished completely with the concurrent reform of the deduction system and lowering of the tax rate, measures which the author believes will help optimize the capital gains tax incidence. Finally, discontinuation of the housing exemption for the heir is suggested. Consequent increases in the tax burden of the middle class could be mitigated by a reduction in the rate. This applies to the following specific exemptions as well, namely, for farm lands, meadows, woods, business fields-to foster horizontal equity, while denying speculation on land that leads to a loss in allocative efficiency. Moreover, imperfections in the Korean capital market have disallowed the provision of long term credit for housing seekers. Remedying these problems is essential to the promotion of greater housing ownership by the low and middle income classes. It is also certain that a government subsidy be focused on the poorest of the poor who cannot afford even to think of owning a housing.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.167-178
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to analyze the direct investment decision factors in the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Vietnam, and to contribute to the creation of domestic jobs and the revitalization of the inter-Korean economy. According to the analysis, most of the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Vietnamese investment companies are entering the complex for the purpose of utilizing cheap labor, cheap factory locations, sales/development of local markets, and bypass export production bases in third countries. This can be divided into production-efficient investors using differences in production price such as labor costs and market-oriented investors to sell and expand the local market, which seems to be consistent with global direct investment patterns such as Nike, Apple, and Amazon. However, even if the North Korea-U.S. denuclearization talks ease or lift sanctions, Vietnamese investors' willingness to invest in the North Korea has been most burdened by the possibility of closing special economic zones due to political risks. Last but not least, it is important to note that those willing to invest in North Korea are mostly smaller enterprises in textiles, sewing, footwear and leather industries-those that benefit from low-cost labor. Since their size is small, they need policy support in financing, especially in the early stages of their business. Even after they grow past the early stages, those without collateral would still need state guarantee letters to get financing. Thus, it is worth considering to use the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund to compensate commercial banks for bad loan loss or for low-interest loans for smaller SMEs. The interviews with SMEs found that red-tape is one of the biggest difficulties they face. Thus, it is recommended that a one-stop service agency should be established to cover all processes and issues related to inter-Korean economic cooperation to eliminate redundancy and expediate government support for SMEs.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.163-177
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• 2010

This study analyzes the economies of photovoltaic systems in an apartment complex of 1,185 households, in cases of feed-in tariff and subsidy for solar home program of the government. When including the revenue only from electricity sales, NPVs of subsidy and that of feed-in tariff are -560 million KRW and -87 million KRW respectively. With the avoided social cost included without the revenues from CERs, NPVs of subsidy and feed-in tariff are -556 million KRW and -84 million KRW respectively. With the revenues from CERs, NPV of subsidy is -526 million KRW and NPV of feed-in tariff is -54 million KRW. As results of sensitivity analysis based on the changes in capital costs and discount rates, while all scenarios with subsidy including the revenues from CERs are not commercially viable, all scenarios with feed-in tariff exclusive of the revenues from CERs are commercially viable when discount rate is less than 7.2% or capital cost is less than 6,840 thousand KRW/kW. In the cases that include the avoided social cost, while all scenarios with subsidy including the avoided social cost as well as the revenues from CERs are not commercially viable, all scenarios with feed-in tariff are commercially viable without the revenues from CERs when discount rate is less than 7.2% or capital cost is less than 6,856 thousand KRW/KW. The results indicate that the changes in discount rates do not influence the revenues from CERs, but the revenues from electricity sale. Considering that the number of apartment complex and the positive environmental and social benefits from PV system, government needs to promote its diffusion.