• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.235-266
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• 2009

This paper investigates changes in the extent of exchange rate pass-through to export price in Korea. First, empirical results show that export prices have become less responsive to the exchange rate since the financial crisis in 1997. The decline of exchange rate pass-through to export prices suggests that Korean exporters are more likely to use profit margins to absorb part of the impact of exchange rate changes, consistent with pricing to market phenomenon. Second, this paper finds asymmetries in the response of export prices to exchange rate changes. In the post-crisis period. appreciations are more likely to be offset by markup adjustment than depreciations. Third, this paper documents that a significant portion of the decline of exchange rate pass-through is a result of both increased volatility of exchange rate and increased competition with China in the world market.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.21-41
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• 2022

The effect of change in exchange rates on an economy is very important, especially, to a small open economy like South Korea. I explore whether Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have positive influences on exchange rate-pass through import price of import market for fishery products in South Korea. Competition among FTA partners is enhanced after FTAs are effective. I expect that the extent to which are exchange rate pass-through (hereafter, ERPT) into import price of fishery products (in terms of Korea currency) would be reduced since the import market for fishery products in South Korea is an oligopolistic market. Specifically, I investigate two research questions with six South Korea's FTA partners-Norway, Thailand, Peru, U.S., China and Vietnam. First, whether the extent to which are exchange rate pass-through into import price of fishery products from six FTA partners would decrase in the post-FTA era; seconds, the size of reduction has a negative relation with the size of their market share in the import market for fishery products in South Korea if it decreases. The empirical results indicate that the degree of ERPT into import price from other FTA partners than Norway has been reduced after FTA, statistically and significantly; however, I do not find the evidence that the size of reduction is related to their market share. The findings in this study imply that FTAs have negative effects on producers' economic welfare in South Korea's fishery industry by reducing the extent to which are exchange rate pass-through as well as reducing tariff barriers.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.5-10
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• 2017

Purpose - The purpose of this paper was to analyze the Chinese government's announcement of the RMB's appreciation on July 1, 2010, and its aim was to ascertain whether the appreciation has affected Chinese export prices by empirically measuring the degree of the exchange rate pass-tough on those prices. Research design, data, and methodology - Using 73 HS trade categories with cross-industry and time-series data, the panel estimation of a fixed-effects model has been applied to measure the degree and stability of any exchange rate pass-through effects. The estimation results show that the export prices of most trade categories were affected by the exchange rate changes. The pass-through effect was generally small, at about -0.485, and statistically significant in most export prices. Results - The empirical results indicate that China would lose its advantage and competitiveness in export if the RMB were appreciated continuously and rapidly because its export goods would no longer operate under strong monopolistic competition. Conclusions - The implications for China's exchange rate policy suggest that it would be better for the RMB to appreciate slowly and gradually rather than radically. It is clear that it would be allow the capital free flow in Chinese overall economic interest to reduce the continuous appreciation pressure on the currency and pave the way for improvements in export distribution competitiveness.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.337-370
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• 2018

This paper discusses the design of monetary policy in a New Keynesian small open economy framework by introducing nominal wage rigidities and incomplete exchange rate pass-through on import prices. Three main findings are summarized. First, with the existence of an incomplete exchange rate pass-through and nominal wage rigidities, the optimal policy is to seek to minimize the output gap, the variance of domestic price and wage inflation, as well as deviations from the law of one price. Second, the CPI inflation targeting Taylor rule is welfare enhancing when there is a technological shock to the economy. The exception occurs when there is a foreign income shock, which minimizes welfare losses under the domestic inflation targeting Taylor rule. Last, two stylized Taylor rules turn out to be a bad approximation, but the modified Taylor rules that respond to the unemployment gap rather than the output gap are a closer approximation to the optimal policy.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.229-249
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• 2011

The exchange rate change has been increased since the time when the floating exchange rate system was introduced in Korea. As a result, the increase of the exchange rate changes raised the risk in international trades in Korea. Also after Bretton Woods System broke down, the increasing exchange rate fluctuation raised the risk in international trade. The purpose of this dissertation is to study whether this incomplete pass-through exists in Korean export industry and furthermore to measure the markup rate of the export price using real data since Global Financial Crisis. The estimation results of the export price determination model by Error Correction Model shows that the export price of Korea has been greatly influenced by the export prices and exchange rates against U.S. Dollar of rival countries, domestic producer price as well as the Korean Won-U.S. Dollar exchange rate and also business coincidence index of U.S. in demand. Particularly, the pass-through rate of Korean Won-U.S. Dollar exchange rate to export price is estimated to be incomplete, which contrasts with the propositions of traditional exchange rate determination approach, e. g. elasticity approach, monetary approach, etc.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.281-314
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• 2004

This paper theoretically formulated and empirically explored the relationship between exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) for (average) market price and an individual country's price, using steel products data in the US market, with special reference to two major steel exporting countries, Korea and Japan. It was found that the direction of market ERPT can be different from that of individual ERPT that each exporter experiences, due to strategic interactions among producers and different parameters. Vector error correction (VEC) models and impulse response analysis were used with the statistical inference based on the bootstrap-after- bootstrap of Kilian (1998) for short-run, and the fully modified estimation of Phillips and Hansen (1990) was used for long-run. Empirical results indicate that market ERPT in the US market due to changes in Korea-US exchange rates is different from those due to changes in Japan-US exchange rates. The framework developed in this study indicates that this phenomenon is attributed to either (i) the two countries have individual ERPTs of different magnitudes and directions for the products in the US market, or (ii) the pricing strategies of the other exporters' (to the US steel market) respond differently depending on whether the price of the product from Korea changes or that from Japan does. As each exporter's ERPT can be significantly different, and market response to each country's ERPT can be also different, this study concludes that it is crucial for an exporter to understand how competitors in the market respond to changes in its price, as well as to understand how its price changes when the relevant exchange rate fluctuates.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.75-92
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• 1995

This paper tried to estimate the pass - through of exchange rate changes to export price of fishery products using export price function. The results are as follows : 1) The variable of fluctuation of exchange rate of Won(equation omitted) to Yen(equation omitted)(variable E2) is more powerful explanatory variable than that of Won to U.S. dollar to explain the fluctiation of export price of fishery products(varible $P_{t}$)- 2) The variable of fish catches(variable K $P_{t}$) is also found to be a statistically significant varible but that of producer price index is not found. 3) The variable E2 have statistically a more influence on variable $P_{t}$ than variable K $P_{t.}$ 4) The estimation shows us that 1% of fluctuation of variable E2 could result in 0.9978% of fluctuation of variable $P_{t.}$

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.193-218
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• 2006

This paper examines the macroeconomic structural differences of the free floating exchange rate regime and the managed float exchange rate regime focusing on the Korean economy, and compares it to the two benchmark economies, Japan and Australia. Korea's shift to the free floating exchange rate regime from the managed float exchange rate regime came after the 1997 economic crisis. Korea's exchange rate policy provides a unique opportunity to study the different behaviors or roles, if any, of managed float and free floating exchange rate regimes. Based on a simple monetary model, we find that the exchange rates of Korea are more sensitive to the economic fundamentals under the free floating regime than under the managed float regime. Impulse response analysis shows that exchange rate pass-through into domestic variables, especially inflation rate, has a bigger short-term impact under the floating regime than under the managed regime. This finding is consistent with the view that the managed (or fixed) regime provides the domestic price stability necessary for the economic growth for the developing countries.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.185-209
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• 2005

This study examines ERPT with asymmetric response and both import and export market shares, using wool trade data. The study found that, asymmetric response may be as common as symmetric response. In addition, the responses (both in price and quantity demanded) to the changes in exchange rate are considerably different across goods, and even for the homogenous goods, across countries. In case of depreciation, the export price changes more than appreciation case in general, and as a result the destination price changes less. It is also found that the cases of excessive or perverse pass-through are found more frequently than reported by previous studies. This finding points out that strategic behavior of firms or unexpected response to exchange rate fluctuation takes place more frequently than we commonly expect or take, in particular at disaggregated levels. When the model considers asymmetric responses of the export price to appreciation and depreciation (of exporter's currency), the estimation provided that for 39 trade cases out of 83, export price responded to appreciation and depreciation in different fashions, although the normal response was the dominating phenomenon with 99 cases or about 60% out of 166 cases. Market shares affected the extent and direction of responses in select cases. These findings will have important implications for policy makers and traders.

• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.1-12
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• 2018

Purpose - This paper tests the effect of the structure of manufacturing and marketing subsidiary network on FX exposure of Korean MNEs. Furthermore, the moderating effect of pass-through ability on the relationship between the subsidiary network and FX exposure is explored. Research design and methodology - This study utilizes a sample of 309 Korean MNEs constructed from database offered by KOTRA and KIS-VALUE. Results - As operational flexibility arising from having operations in multiple locations provides an option for firms to tackle FX exposure, greater breadth of manufacturing subsidiary network reduces FX exposure, and greater depth increases FX exposure. However, both the breadth and depth of marketing subsidiary network decrease FX exposure due to the firm's higher level of market presence and knowledge to devise an appropriate marketing strategy that can buffer adverse exchange rate movement. Such an effect is intensified when MNE's have FX exposure pass-through ability stemming from differentiated good. Conclusions - Empirical findings suggest that types and structure of Korean MNEs' foreign subsidiary network are closely related to the level of FX exposure they are experiencing. Also, they can utilize marketing subsidiary network more efficiently when having a higher R&D intensity.