• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.91-132
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• 2014

We investigate the effect of ICT capital on the demands for labor and energy in manufacturing and electricity gas water industries of Korea, US, and UK. Assuming ICT capital, non-ICT capital, labor, electricity, fuel, and material as input factors for manufacturing and ICT capital, non-ICT capital, labor and energy material as input factors for electricity gas water industry, we estimate the Morishima elasticities of substitution. Considering the relative price changes of input factors, ICT capital has substituted labor in manufacturing and electricity water gas industries of the three countries. ICT capital has substituted both electricity and fuel in US and UK manufacturing. Although ICT capital has substituted electricity and fuel each other in Korean manufacturing, ICT capital is unlikely to decrease the demands for electricity and fuel when considering their relative price changes. ICT capital has substituted energy material in electricity gas water industries of the three countries.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.159-181
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• 2004

This study examines the realities and causes of youth and new college graduate unemployment, and seeks some assignments for mitigating youth and new college graduate unemployment. An analysis of the realities and causes of youth and new college graduate unemployment is summarized as follows. First, youth unemployment rate, which rapidly increased after the IMF economic crisis, slowly decreased after 2000, but was still somewhat higher in 2002 than that before the IMF. Second, new college graduate unemployment rate, which rapidly increased after the IMF economic crisis, slowly decreased after 2000 and became a similar level to that before the IMF economic crisis, but the number of the unemployed new college graduates highly increased after the IMF. Third, an analysis of the causes of youth unemployment shows that economic growth and the employment elasticity of economic growth negatively affect the unemployment rate, and the rate of entrance into colleges positively affects the unemployment rate. Fourth, an analysis of the causes of new college graduate unemployment demonstrates that economic growth and the employment elasticity of economic growth negatively affect the unemployment rate, and the increase rate of new college graduates, the college graduate/youth population ratio, and the time trend positively affect the unemployment rate. These results suggest several implications for mitigating the unemployment rate of the youth and new college graduates. First, in order to increase labor demand, emphasis must be placed on preparing economic conditions which can raise economic growth rate and on fostering industries and occupations which have high employment elasticity. Second, in the aspect of labor supply, it is necessary to adjust the number of new college graduates corresponding to labor demands in industries. Third, in order to redress the mismatch between the demand and the supply of the youth labor market, attention should be paid to remedying educational systems such as the activation of vocational education and training in middle and high schools and the reformation of college education to match the education and training provided in colleges and the skills requirements of the world of work, and preparing a unified program to support the youth unemployed systematically and synthetically.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.5564-5577
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• 2014

This study examined how the differences in household characteristics influence consumer expenditure patterns. The Price-Scaling AIDS model with household income and expenditure survey data were used for the analysis. The results showed that the income elasticity of the service items is greater than non-service items, indicating an increase in higher demand of service items with the same increase in household income. The household expenditure patterns vary according to the commodities, holding age and income level. The so-called traditional pattern, which emphasizes spending for non-service items, changed to the one with a higher expenditure ratio for service items. Such a change in household expenditure patterns naturally derives the expansion of the relevant service market; hence, the growth of the related service industry. This highlights the need to formulate an appropriate response from the supply side that deals with the changes in the service market.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.99-116
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• 2004

This study estimates the determinants of national health expenditures of OECD countries using panel regression method. The data used are OECD Health Data(2003) covering 33 countries and from 1970 to 2001. This study shows several important different results compared to the previous studies. Further this study estimates the determinants of Korean case using data from 1m to 2000, and compare with the results of OECD panel. The main findings are as follows. The income elasticity of health expenditures is estimated below 1.0, but is shown above 1.0 when the different health systems of each country are controlled. The women's labor participation influences strongly positive effect on the health expenditures. The diffusion of new technologies is positively related with the increasing expense. The increasing government expenditures have a tendency not to contain health expenses, but to increase expenses. The expansion of public health insurance holders is containing the expenses, and the increasing number of doctors is pushing expenditures. This implies the health expenditures are influenced more by the induced demand of providers rather than the moral hazard of patients. However, the above result is opposite in Korean case. The existence of primary care doctors affects slightly up warding rather than containing expenditures. Finally the determinants are seriously depending upon which factors are included in the model and which statistical model is chosen. Therefore it must be cautious to interpret the results of statistical model.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.129-152
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• 2006

The purpose in this study is to analyze the effect of expected public pension assets (or social security wealth) and retirement incentives on retirement behaviors of two wage earners households. For the purpose of the study, an empirical analysis was conducted. In the empirical step, it was found that the empirical results were significant for men, but not for women namely, statistically asymmetric if behaviors of two couples are interdependent. The cause for the statistically asymmetric results were then determined. The Bivariate Probit model was used for estimation in the first step and the KLIPS(Korean Labor and Income Panel Study) was used as data for estimation. According to the empirical analysis, the results showed statistically significant asymmetry for men, however not for women, in expected public pension assets and other retirement incentives, non-wage assets, age difference, spouse's health status, spouse's monthly wages per hour and aging of their spouse In this study, cause of statistically asymmetric result in asymmetric complementarities of leisure of couples were found, then explained through different methods of comparison from the most recent studies. First, spouse's cross wage elasticity of self leisure demand(retirement) was calculated and determined whether complementarities of leisure of couples is positive or negative. Then, the degree of complementarities of leisure was distinguished in comparison with the relative size of two cross elasticities. Thus, men have relatively strong complementarities of leisure. But for women, it may roughly cancel out due to the substitution effect and the income effect. Therefore, women have relatively weak complementarities of leisure.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.117-128
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• 2021

In order for the users (shipping firms and shippers) and suppliers (stevedoring firms) in the container terminal industry to win-win, it is necessary to have some appropriate diverse market conditions for the industry. This study analyses the basic conditions and demand and supply characteristics of the industry and investigates the market performance of Busan container ports. First, this article analyses the basic characteristics of demand and supply. As the demand characteristics, there are five ones such as 1) exogeneity of demand, 2) function as export/import transportation and hub for transshipment, 3) increase of users' bargaining power, 4) high substituting elasticity, 5) reduction of volume growth. As the supply characteristics, there are seven ones such as 1) inelasticity of supply, 2) homogeneity of stevedoring services, 3) over-supply, 4) adoption of cutting-edge stevedoring technology, 5) scale economy and impossibility of storage, 6) labor market rigidity, 7) enhancing port's role in SCM. In addition, this study conducts the so-called structure-conduct-performance analysis. For the structure analysis, 1) lacks of scale economy in stevedoring companies, 2) high entry barrier, 3) strengthening of shipping firms' bargaining power, 4) transitory permission scheme for tariff are analyzed. For the conduct analysis, 1) price discrimination between export/import and transshipment, 2) mid-term length of terminal use contract, 3) continuous investment in equipment, 4) low level of cooperation among terminal operating firms are derived. For the performance analysis, 1) inequality in profitability, 2) reduction of export/import cost, 3) delay in adopting cutting-edge technology, 4) idle equipment are analyzed. Following this logical flow, the hypothesis that the market structure influences the market conduct is tested based on the actual dataset. As a future agenda in the conclusion, this article recommends the so-called port industrial policy.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.39-45
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• 2016

This study analyses the macroeconomic effects of the direct payment system (DPS) for environment-friendly agriculture in Korea. We utilized the applied general equilibrium model (AGE model) for the general agricultural sector as well as the environmentally-friendly agricultural sector. We considered several scenarios based on various direct payment amounts to measure and analyze economic impacts. Scenario 1 considers the current direct payment system. Scenario 2 examines an additional 5% increase from the direct payment amount in scenario 1. Scenario 3 reviews an increase of 10% in direct payment amount while Scenario 4 considers an additional increase of 15% compared with Scenario 1. Lastly, scenario 5 examines a 20% increase in direct payment amounts compared with scenario 1. In addition, the baseline considers conditions prior to the introduction of the direct payment system. The simulation analysis results show that capital formation, production volume, and labor productivity increased in the environment-friendly agricultural sector. In contrast, employment in the environment-friendly agricultural sector decreased. The price of environment-friendly agricultural products following the introduction of the DPS remain consistent with the price of environment-friendly agricultural product before introducing the DPS. This results from price elasticity of supply and demand are inelastic, and there is no change in the income of consumers during the analysis period. However, additional research is necessary for improvement of the model using complementary statistical data for the environmental-friendly agriculture sector.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.27-45
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• 1990

Two opposing views prevail regarding the economic impact of rural out-migration on the rural areas of origin. The optimistic neoclassical view argues that rapid rural out-migration is not detrimental to the income and welfare of the rural areas of origin, whereas Lipton (1980) argues the opposite. We developed our own alternative model for rural to urban migration, appropriate for rapidly developing economies such as Korea's. This model, which adopts international trade theories of nontraded goods and Dutch Disease to rural to urban migration issues, argues that rural to urban migration is caused mainly by two factors: first, the unprofitability of farming, and second, the decrease in demand for rural nontraded goods and the increase in demand for urban nontraded goods. The unprofitability of farming is caused by the increase in rural wages, which is induced by increasing urban wages in booming urban manufacturing sectors, and by the fact that the cost increases in farming cannot be shifted to consumers, because farm prices are fixed worldwide and because the income demand elasticity for farm products is very low. The demand for nontraded goods decreases in rural and increases in urban areas because population density and income in urban areas increase sharply, while those in rural areas decrease sharply, due to rapid rural to urban migration. Given that the market structure for nontraded goods-namely, service sectors including educational and health facilities-is mostly in monopolistically competitive, and that the demand for nontraded goods comes only from local sources, the urban service sector enjoys economies of scale, and can thus offer services at cheaper prices and in greater variety, whereas the rural service sector cannot enjoy the advantages offered by scale economies. Our view concerning the economic impact of rural to urban migration on rural areas of origin agrees with Lipton's pessimistic view that rural out-migration is detrimental to the income and welfare of rural areas. However, our reasons for the reduction of rural income are different from those in Lipton's model. Lipton argued that rural income and welfare deteriorate mainly because of a shortage of human capital, younger workers and talent resulting from selective rural out-migration. Instead, we believe that rural income declines, first, because a rapid rural-urban migration creates a further shortage of farm labor supplies and increases rural wages, and thus reduces further the profitability of farming and, second, because a rapid rural-urban migration causes a further decline of the rural service sectors. Empirical tests of our major hypotheses using Korean census data from 1966, 1970, 1975, 1980 and 1985 support our own model much more than the neoclassical or Lipton's models. A kun (county) with a large out-migration had a smaller proportion of younger working aged people in the population, and a smaller proportion of highly educated workers. But the productivity of farm workers, measured in terms of fall crops (rice) purchased by the government per farmer or per hectare of irrigated land, did not decline despite the loss of these youths and of human capital. The kun having had a large out-migration had a larger proportion of the population in the farm sector and a smaller proportion in the service sector. The kun having had a large out-migration also had a lower income measured in terms of the proportion of households receiving welfare payments or the amount of provincial taxes paid per household. The lower incomes of these kuns might explain why the kuns that experienced a large out-migration had difficulty in mechanizing farming. Our policy suggestions based on the tests of the currently prevailing hypotheses are as follows: 1) The main cause of farming difficulties is not a lack of human capital, but the in­crease in production costs due to rural wage increases combined with depressed farm output prices. Therefore, a more effective way of helping farm economies is by increasing farm output prices. However, we are not sure whether an increase in farm output prices is desirable in terms of efficiency. 2) It might be worthwhile to attempt to increase the size of farmland holdings per farm household so that the mechanization of farming can be achieved more easily. 3) A kun with large out-migration suffers a deterioration in income and welfare. Therefore, the government should provide a form of subsidization similar to the adjustment assistance provided for international trade. This assistance should not be related to the level of farm output. Otherwise, there is a possibility that we might encourage farm production which would not be profitable in the absence of subsidies. 4) Government intervention in agricultural research and its dissemination, and large-scale social overhead projects in rural areas, carried out by the Korean government, might be desirable from both efficiency and equity points of view. Government interventions in research are justified because of the problems associated with the appropriation of knowledge, and government actions on large-scale projects are justified because they required collective action.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.71-130
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• 2008

Using data from the Korean Labor & Income Panel Study (KLIPS), this study investigates private income transfers in Korea, where adult children have undertaken the most responsibility of supporting their elderly parents without well-established social safety net for the elderly. According to the KLIPS data, three out of five households provided some type of support for their aged parents and two out of five households of the elderly received financial support from their adult children on a regular base. However, the private income transfers in Korea are not enough to alleviate the impact of the fall in the earned income of those who retired and are approaching an age of needing financial assistance from external source. The monthly income of those at least the age of 75, even with the earning of their spouses, is below the staggering amount of 450,000 won, which indicates that the elderly in Korea are at high risk of poverty. In order to analyze microeconomic factors affecting the private income transfers to the elderly parents, the following three samples extracted from the KLIPS data are used: a sample of respondents of age 50 or older with detailed information on their financial status; a five-year household panel sample in which their unobserved family-specific and time-invariant characteristics can be controlled by the fixed-effects model; and a sample of the younger split-off household in which characteristics of both the elderly household and their adult children household can be controlled simultaneously. The results of estimating private income transfer models using these samples can be summarized as follows. First, the dominant motive lies on the children-to-parent altruistic relationship. Additionally, another is based on exchange motive, which is paid to the elderly parents who take care of their grandchildren. Second, the amount of private income transfers has negative correlation with the income of the elderly parents, while being positively correlated with the income of the adult children. However, its income elasticity is not that high. Third, the amount of private income transfers shows a pattern of reaching the highest level when the elderly parents are in the age of 75 years old, following a decreasing pattern thereafter. Fourth, public assistance, such as the National Basic Livelihood Security benefit, appears to crowd out private transfers. Private transfers have fared better than public transfers in alleviating elderly poverty, but the role of public transfers has been increasing rapidly since the welfare expansion after the financial crisis in the late 1990s, so that one of four elderly people depends on public transfers as their main income source in 2003. As of the same year, however, there existed and occupied 12% of the elderly households those who seemed eligible for the National Basic Livelihood benefit but did not receive any public assistance. To remove elderly poverty, government may need to improve welfare delivery system as well as to increase welfare budget for the poor. In the face of persistent elderly poverty and increasing demand for public support for the elderly, which will lead to increasing government debt, welfare policy needs targeting toward the neediest rather than expanding universal benefits that have less effect of income redistribution and heavier cost. Identifying every disadvantaged elderly in dire need for economic support and providing them with the basic livelihood security would be the most important and imminent responsibility that we all should assume to prepare for the growing aged population, and this also should accompany measures to utilize the elderly workforce with enough capability and strong will to work.