• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.73-91
• /
• 2010

The objective of this study is to examine the hedging effectiveness of shrimp futures market. Hedging effectiveness is measured by OLS model based on rolling windows. Analysis data are obtained from Kansai Commodities Exchange in Osaka and are weekly data of frozen shrimp futures and cash prices in the time period from July 9, 2003, to May 9, 2007. The empirical results are summarized as follows:First, the correlation coefficients between the nearby futures price changes and the cash(16/20) price changes are very low and have range from 0.141 to 0.208 values. Second, the minimum variance hedge ratios($\hat{\beta}$) are all statistically different from 0 at the 5% level and range from 0.0477 to 0.5039 values excluding Indian shrimps(26/30). Ex post hedging effectiveness, as measured by the coefficient of determination, $R^2$, is relatively very low and range from a low of 0.4% for west-south Indian shrimps(26/30) to a high 4.3% for Vietnamese shrimps(16/20). Third, ex ante hedging effectiveness, as measured by out-of-sample hedging period, is also very low and range from a low of -4.4% for west-south Indian shrimps(21/25) to a high of 3.4% for Vietnamese shrimps(16/20). This indicates that the shrimp futures market doesn't behave as risk management instrument of shrimp spot.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
• /
• v.67
• /
• pp.163-186
• /
• 2015

This study attempts to analyze the trade costs of domestic firms utilizing the FTAs in terms of burden of expenses in managing the rules of origin. In doing so, we classify the managing costs of FTA rules of origin into three categories (that is, (i) ex ante costs from acquiring necessary information and building the infrastructure in the advance stage before the FTAs, (ii) the actual costs of the origin management in the application stage of FTA preferential treatment, (iii) ex post management cost in the preparation stage of origin verification) and perform a survey on the greater details on each category. Using the comprehensive results from the survey regarding domestic firm's use of FTAs, this paper also discusses the issues related to small and medium-sized firms and addresses the concerns involved with their managing costs of FTA rules of origin. Importantly, this paper emphasizes the importance of government supports to reduce inefficiency induced by the additional costs that domestic firms face in their use of FTAs and proposes the various policy implications regarding the managing costs of rules of origin.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.117-131
• /
• 2015

Conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA) models require that inputs and outputs are given as crisp values. Very often, however, some of inputs and outputs are given as imprecise data where they are only known to lie within bounded intervals. While a typical approach to addressing this situation for optimization models such as DEA is to conduct sensitivity analysis, it provides only a limited ex-post measure against the data imprecision. Robust optimization provides a more effective ex-ante measure where the data imprecision is directly incorporated into the model. This study aims to apply robust optimization approach to DEA models with imprecise data. Based upon a recently developed robust optimization framework which allows a flexible adjustment of the level of conservatism, we propose two robust optimization DEA model formulations with imprecise data; multiplier and envelopment models. We demonstrate that the two models consider different risks regarding imprecise efficiency scores, and that the existing DEA models with imprecise data are special cases of the proposed models. We show that the robust optimization for the multiplier DEA model considers the risk that estimated efficiency scores exceed true values, while the one for the envelopment DEA model deals with the risk that estimated efficiency scores fall short of true values. We also show that efficiency scores stratified in terms of probabilistic bounds of constraint violations can be obtained from the proposed models. We finally illustrate the proposed approach using a sample data set and show how the results can be used for ranking DMUs.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.39-54
• /
• 2015

To assess an economic value of Cheonggyecheon river restoration project, an in-depth exit survey data was collected to apply travel cost method in this study. Poisson model, Negative Binomial, Zero-truncated Poisson, and Zero-truncated Negative Binomial model were executed due to the nature of count data. Empirical results showed that regressors were statistically significant and corresponded to general consumer theory. Since our survey data showed over-dispersion, Zero-truncated Negative Binomial was selected as an optimal one to analyze travel demand of Cheonggyecheon by model goodness of fit test among those aforementioned empirical models. Estimating an economic value of Cheonggyecheon river restoration project, which is known as an ecological river restoration project, we used annual visit of individual traveler and an optimal model. Suffice to say that the annual economic value of Cheonggyecheon river restoration project was estimated as 193.4 billion won in 2013.

• Korea Trade Review
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.177-197
• /
• 2018

This paper aims to analyze the effects of external uncertainty on the entry modes decision of multinational firms. On the basic assumption that the entry modes of the firms are dependent on ex-ante or ex-post perceived risk, we empirically analyzed the impacts of perceived risk factors on the investment patterns of firms. We found that the larger the population, the higher the level of GDP per capita, and the larger the trade volume as a ratio of GDP resulted in increased M&A FDI and greenfield FDI. The economic growth rate variables were found to be significantly positive effect on only greenfield entry mode. Regarding the main variables, lower levels of corruption and increased stability regarding political issues resulted in the host country receiving increased M&A investment. However, we found only a positive statistical significance of the political stability variable on the explaining greenfield FDI. Results show that M&A entry mode is affected by both corruption and political instability level. However, the greenfield FDI featuring sunk costs, seems more responsive to political instability.

• Journal of Korea Trade
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.21-42
• /
• 2023

Purpose - This paper investigates the trade effect of the Korea-China Free Trade Agreement (KCFTA) which coincides with political conflicts between the two countries due to the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in Korea. The two events occurred in the same year and both are likely to affect trade between two countries but in opposite directions. Therefore, it is crucial to distinguish between the trade effects from the KCFTA event and those from the THAAD event to evaluate the true FTA effects. However, this would be difficult when using only annual data. Accordingly, ex post studies to examine the trade effects of KCFTA are lacking in trustworthiness while many ex ante studies that conjecture the positive trade effects neglect the THAAD deployment impact. This paper aims to fill that gap. Design/methodology - Given that the KCFTA and THAAD events occurred in the same year but in different months, we use the monthly data from 2000 to 2019 of Korea's exports to bracket this period. We employ the difference-in-difference (DID) method within a gravity equation specification that uses hi-dimensional fixed effects to address various endogeneity issues and seasonal effects. We identify the net impact of KCFTA ratification from these two near-simultaneous events to quantify the effects of trade liberalization between these two countries. Findings - After isolating the THAAD effects on trade, the analysis creates a positive and statistically significant coefficient estimate of the KCFTA impact. In contrast, failing to isolate the THAAD effect produced a negative and statistically significant coefficient estimate of the KCFTA impact. Our results indicate that KCFTA independently increased Korea's exports to China by 10.2%, but that this increase was fully mitigated by the THAAD event. Further, our results verify that unobserved heterogeneity and multilateral resistance are technically difficult to account for in those estimations as that rely solely upon annual data, as this type of data are inadequate to control for the potential for endogeneity. Originality/value - This paper is one of the first studies to carefully evaluate the net trade effects of the KCFTA on Korea's largest trading partner while isolating the impact of simultaneously occurred political events that may influence trade in opposing directions. Our findings indicate that the lack of prior evidence of positive trade effects of the KCFTA when using annual data may be attributed to a failure to identify the impact of each event separately. This analysis supports using the correct modeling specification to avoid misleading conclusions when evaluating any important international trade policy.

• Journal of Legislation Research
• /
• no.44
• /
• pp.63-101
• /
• 2013

This article firstly explores into the concepts, components, and pictures of institutional realization of competition and diversity respectively on the premise that competition and diversity comprise the primary objectives to be pursued by the broadcasting-related laws which provide the concrete measures of media policy, and argues that while the competition objective has differentiation factors, there are also particularities in the diversity value in the broadcasting-related laws as sector-specific competition laws. Then assuming that special competition rules including structural regulatory measures particularly in the broadcasting market are required in order to realize values of competition and diversity harmoniously, this article suggests the following improvement directions for regulations aimed at protection of competition and diversity in the broadcasting-related laws. The first one is with the improvement method for regulations aimed at protection of competition. Regulation on share of audience as an ex ante regulation of status and regulation on prohibited activities as an ex post regulation of conduct may play important roles in substituting the causative regulation while seeking for diversity value. For this purpose, it is needed to develop a concrete method that incorporates diversity-related factors as consideration factors in the standard for determining illegality of prohibited activities by inference to methods of determining illegality in the competition law. The second one is with the improvement method for regulations aimed at protection of diversity. This could be considered from three viewpoints that are the setting of regulatory objectives, the identification of alternative regulatory measures, and the choice of regulatory measures and levels suitable for regulatory objectives. From these viewpoints, the regulatory framework should be improved mainly with institutional measures in which diversity value is used for tools of assessment and analysis, not just remaining as mere rhetorical devices, and whether or to what extent to maintain regulations seemingly unreasonable in terms of harmonization with economic objectives such as competition should be discreetly reviewed.

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

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
• /
• s.6
• /
• pp.152-171
• /
• 2002

This study analyses the avatar service, which is recognized as an alternative strategy of animation industry. The research questions of this study are following: (1) How have the avatar services been developed and what are the present dominant types? (2) Which structural characteristics of e-business environment are needed for the success of avatar services? (3) What is the economic characteristics of avatar business model? To solve these research questions, the basic conditions and the structural characteristics of avatar services have been investigated. In the first place, two forms of avatar service are classified. One is the internet service site whole primary service is to provide chatting service based on avatar service. The other is the portal site in which many kinds of products and services are presented as bundles to meet the needs of internet users. So avatar service is one of bundles which those portal sites are providing with. In this study, the big five internet service sites are selected based on the profits they earned through the sales of avatar service. The result of analysis is that the pricing strategy of those big five sites is very different from those of traditional off-line markets. The pricing mechanism are based on the value which internet users endow with the avatar items, not based on the costs of making the products. Avatar is the representative informative goods. The informative goods have the original cost structures, constant fixed costs and zero marginal costs, so the providers of avatar services make much of the subjective values of consumers. The sayclub, which is the most successful avatar service site and earn the average sales of 3 billing won a month, takes the aggressive strategy of pricing avatar items at highest price in the industry. The avatar service providers which make lots of profits are planning of making differentiate the services, introducing well-known brand items and star-named items. Nevertheless, the fact that the members of the sayclub are not decreasing means that the network effect of the site is so strongly manifest. Moreover, the costs the members have paid for the avatar items are so big not as to switch from one site to the other site, it can be very costly. These switching costs are endemic in high-technology industries and digital contents industries. It can be so large that switching suppliers is virtually unthinkable, a situation known as 'lock-in'. When switching costs are substantial, competition can be intense to attract new customers, since, one they are locked in, they can be a substantial source of profit. The consumers of avatar items have switching costs if they subscribe for the new avatar service site. The switching costs can be subscription costs as well as the costs of giving up the items they already paid for. One common example of switching costs involves specialized supplies, as with inkjet printer cartridges. In this example, the switching cost is the purchase of a new printer. The market is competitive ex ante, but since cartridges are incompatible, it is monopolized dx post. So the providers of printer/cartridges set pricing printer so cheap and cartridges expensive. On the contrary, since the avatar service can be successful with the strong network effect, the providers of avatar services have to compete aggressively for new customers. So they allow the subscription at a low price(almost marginal cost) in the early market. The network effect can be maximized when the members are sufficiently growing. The providers which have the monopoly power with sufficient subscribers. begin to raise the prices over the lifetime of the product and make profits.