• 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.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.137-153
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• 2020

On February 14, 2019, the government of Korea formally decided to consider the feasibility of joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and has since been conducting bilateral consultations with individual member countries. In terms of the impact estimation, the CPTPP is actually a Korea-Japan FTA, and the most sensitive issue in the FTA is the opening of the auto industry market to Japan. Despite these circumstances, previous studies have predicted that the auto industry will be a beneficiary industry when joining the CPTPP. However, the Korean auto industry is opposed to joining the CPTPP. In order to investigate the cause of this discrepancy, this paper examines the problems of previous studies in estimating the impact of joining the CPTPP and found that the preceding study did not consider the industrial characteristics of the auto sector, especially in the context of Japan-Korea trade, and was heavily dependent on the Armington elasticity (structure) in the demand function of the GTAP CGE model. As a result, the domestic auto sector could lower prices and increase exports when joining the CPTPP. This paper attempts to precisely re-estimate the impact of joining the CPTPP on the auto sector in a way that corrects these problems by changing the CGE model and reflecting the major characteristics of the industry, with policy implications for the negotiation of CPTPP accession.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.85-91
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• 2022

The demand for electric vehicles has increased because of environmental regulations. The lithium-ion battery, the most widely used type of battery in electric vehicles, is composed of a cathode, an anode, and an electrolyte. It is manufactured according to the pole plate, assembly, and formation processes. To improve battery performance and increase manufacturing efficiency, the manufacturing process must be optimized. To do so, simulation can be used to reduce wasted resources and time, and a finite-element method can be utilized. For high simulation quality, it is essential to reflect the material properties of the electrode by considering the pores. However, the material properties of electrodes are difficult to derive through measurement. In this study, the representative volume element method, which is a homogenization method, was applied to estimate the representative material properties of the electrode considering the pores. The representative volume element method assumes that the strain energy before and after the conversion into a representative volume is conserved. The method can be converted into one representative property, even when nonhomogeneous materials are mixed in a unit volume. In this study, the material properties of the electrode considering the pores were derived. The results should be helpful in optimizing the electrode manufacturing process and related element technologies.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.8
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• pp.433-442
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• 2021

This research examines the financial performance of Village and Urban Community Funds (VFs). The study also explores the beneficial effects of the biggest microfinance programs in the world in the lower and lowest income provinces; specifically, whether VFs change household economic status or not. The data is collected uniquely from the village funds in four provinces of each region in Thailand which considerably reflect the government achievement. Accordingly, several financial ratios have been applied to evaluate the financial efficiency of the village funds, and the ordered logit model has been used to estimate the impact on economic variables of the poor. The findings show that the village funds do not improve the savings, income, consumption, and asset of VFs' members, although such funds have a higher financial performance. Furthermore, the VFs are a good substitute compared to the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) credit because the cross-price elasticity of quantity of demand for such loans is positive. In particular, the loans from village funds are insignificantly correlated with the debt, income, asset, and economic status of VF members. This implies that Thai Village Funds do not alleviate definitely the serious problem about the financial situation in rural provinces. Thus, this microfinance does not change the economic well-being of the poor.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.1069-1080
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• 1994

For complying with the demand of developing high strength concrete, the high strength concrete with higher cement contents and lower water-cement ratio using high range water reducing admixture has been manufactured. In this study, for the purpose of improving the strength of concrete, concrete with silica fume and gypsum was produced so that it was acquired to high compressive strength of $1,058kg/cm^2$, $1,170kg/cm^2$ at age 28 and 91 days, respectively. But neither tensile strength nor modulus of elasticity were highly improved although the compressive strength of the concrete increased. And it was concluded that a higher slump loss of fresh high strength concrete and interior temperature increment of concrete in according to elapsed time than convential concrete should be solved.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.9-16
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• 2018

Recently, the demand for eco-friendly parts has increased to reduce materials and parts that use fossil fuels. This has exacerbated the increase of energy prices and the enforcement of regulations by environmental agencies. Currently, polylactic acid (PLA) is a solution, as a common and eco-friendly material. PLA is a biodegradable material that can replace traditional petrochemical polymers. PLA has great advantages since it is resistant to cracking and shrinkage. When it is manufactured, there are few harmful byproducts. Improvement in the brittleness characteristics is another important task to be monitored throughout the production of industrial parts. Improvement in the brittleness property of products lowers the tensile strength and tensile elasticity modulus of the parts. This study focused on the mechanical properties of 3D-printed PLA parts. Tensile tests are performed while varying the infill print parameters to evaluate the applicability of PLA in several industrial areas.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.30 no.1 s.107
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• pp.91-96
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• 2006

Recently, the development construction of New Masan Container Terminal (1-1 Phase) with private investment would be set for opening in the 2011 year in Masan Port, Korea However, as new container terminals of the Pusan New Port and 'the New Ulsan Container Terminal neighboring Masan Port will be also planned to open around the time, the strategy establishment for Masan Port is required for a keen competition among these ports. To provide it with strategic points, we applied SP model used for customers' behavior method to analyze customer's preference changes with the shifts of the ports' conditions for customers.

• 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 Energy Engineering
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.9-16
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• 2015

As electricity is an indispensable input to human's existence and industrial production, economic benefits arise from consumption. The economic benefits of the electricity consumption are useful information in various fields of electricity-related policy. Therefore, this study attempts to value the economic benefits from electricity use. The economic benefit of electricity consumed is the area under the demand curve which made of the sum of the actual consumer expenditure and the consumer surplus. Consumer expenditure can be easily observed but the information on price elasticity of demand is necessarily required to compute consumer surplus. This study derives the estimates for price elasticities through literature review. The price elasticities of the electricity demand for residence, industry, and commercial are estimated to be -0.332, -0.351, and -0.263, respectively. Because the consumer surplus of the electricity consumption for residence, industry, and commercial are computed to be 191.54, 143.44, and 231.91 won per kWh, respectively. Given that average prices of electricity use were 127.02, 100.70, and 121.98 won per kWh for the year 2013, the economic benefit are calculated to be 318.56, 244.14, and 353.89 won per kWh, respectively. We can convert the values to 321.96, 246.75, and 357.67 won per kWh in 2014 constant price, respectively, using consumer price index. They can be used in the economic feasibility analysis of a new electricity supply project.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.41-53
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• 1986

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. One is to investigate the determinants of the demand supply of labor, and another is to project long-term demand and supply of labor. The paper consists of three parts. In the first part, theoretical models and important hypotheses are discussed: for the case of a labor supply model, issues regarding discouraged worker model, permanent wage hypothesis, and relative wage hypothesis are examined and for the case of a demand model, issues regarding estimating an employment demand equation within the framework of an inverted short-run produc- tion function are inspected. Particularly, a theoretical justification for introducing a demographic cohort variable in a labor supply equation is also investigated. In the second part, empirical results of the estimated supply and demand equations are analyzed. Supply equations are specified differently between primary and secondary labor force. That is, for the case of primary labor force groups including males aged 25 and over, attempts are made to explain the variations in participation behavior within the framework of a neo-classical economics oriented permanent wage hypothesis. On the other hand, for the case of females and young male labor force, variations in participation rates are explained in terms of a relative wage hypothesis. In other words, the participation behavior of primary labor force is related to short-rum business fluctuations, while that of secondary labor force is associated with intermediate swings of business cycles and demographic changes in the age structure of population. Some major findings arc summarized as follows. (1) For the case of males aged 14~19 and 2O~24 groups and females aged 14∼19, the effect of schhool enrollment rate is dominant and thus it plays a key role in explaining the recent declining trend of participation rates of these groups. (2) Except for females aged 20∼24, a demographic cohort variable, which captures the impact of changes in the age structure on participation behavior, turns out to show positive and significant coefficients for secondary labor force groups. (3) A cyclical variable produce significant coefficients for prime-age males and females reflecting that as compared to other groups the labor supply behavior of these groups is more closely related to short-run cyclical variations (4) The wage variable, which represents a labor-leisure trade-off turns out to yield significant coefficients only for older age groups (6O and over) for both males and females. This result reveals that unlike the experiences of other higer-income nations, the participation decision of the labor force of our nation is not highly sensitive with respect to wage changes. (5)The estimated result of the employment demand equation displays that given that the level of GNP remains constant the ability of the economy to absord labor force has been declining;that is, the elasticity of GNP with respect to labor absorption decreasre over time. In the third part, the results of long-term projections (for the period of 1986 and 1995) for age-sex specific participation rates are discussed. The participation rate of total males is anticipated to increase slightly, which is contrary to the recent trend of declining participation rates of this group. For the groups aged 25 and below, the participation rates are forecast to decline although the magnitude of decrease is likely to shrink. On the other hand, the participation rate of prime- age males (25 to 59 years old) is predicted to increase slightly during 1985 and 1990. For the case of females, except for 20∼24 and 25∼34 age groups, the participation rates are projected to decrease: the participation rates of 25∼34 age group is likely to remain at its current level, while the participation rate of 20∼24 age group is expected to increase considerably in the future (specifi- cally, from 55% in 1985 to 61% in 1990 and to 69% in 1995). In conclusion, while the number of an excess supply of labor will increase in absolute magnitude, its size as a ratio of total labor force is not likely to increase. However, the age composition of labor force is predicted to change; that is, the proportion of prime-age male and female labor force is projected to increase.