• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.133-141
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• 2016

Although construction of any new nuclear power projects had not been launched since mid-1970s until recently in the USA, many new nuclear power plants have been constructed in many countries with the support of their governments mainly as part of their national energy security and electric source diversification policies. For many reasons, the nuclear power industry seemed to reclaim their renaissance from the beginning of this century and the investment in the nuclear power projects draw positive concern from the private financial sector. But the global financial crisis in 2008 and subsequent economic slow-down together with tighter bank credit regulations caused commercial banks, the main source of financing, to lose appetite for investing in new nuclear power projects. But the nuclear power economics shows that the nuclear power is viable in terms of the environmental benefit and long-term average cost compared to other power generation sources. Also doubt about nuclear power safety was much mitigated due to technology development and reinforced safety-related tests and monitoring. Therefore, the prospect for nuclear power market expansion remains positive although there are comparatively big differences among different scenarios. After Korea Electric Power Corp. won the UAE nuclear power project in December of 2009, the competition in nuclear power markets is undergoing huge changes. Competitors backed by the support of their own governments are now entering the market with many aggressive and innovative financing packages to win bids of new nuclear power projects. This report analyzed the nuclear power market prospects, competitive edges of nuclear power, risk management measures, and financing challenges and recommends alternative solutions to promote competitive edges in winning bids of new nuclear power projects.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-23
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• 2003

General drug prices involve three stages: shipment stage, wholesaler stage and retail stage. Policies on drug price differ from country to country. Shipment stage prices are tightly regulated in countries like France and Netherlands. They are free in only a minority of advanced countries, even if these include some major players such as the US, Germany and, in a very limited sense, Japan. The situation in the UK is very complex with a semi-free system, where drug companies are free to set their own prices but cannot exceed a predetermined profit ceiling. Mark-up at both wholesaler and retail stages is formally admitted in most countries observed. Apart from the general drug prices, reimbursement price of insured drugs has been major policy concerns. Most countries reviewed in this study has exerted some control over reimbursement prices, but differ both in the way how and in the extent to which prices are admitted or fixed. Price fixing has been used in France and Japan. Some countries have transformed their system over time, particularly to move to reference pricing in the last decade. This mechanism has empowered the customer, and improved price competition on the market. Referring to the drug price policies in the advanced countries, this study makes some suggestions for the redirection of Korean price policy for reimbursement drug in health insurance as follows: to match appropriate policy tools to each policy goal; to maximize market mechanism through effective reimbursement price fixing which admits mark-ups in wholesaler and retail prices; to introduce reference pricing system in order to redirect patient's demand with a financial incentive to choose the best-priced drugs and to save the finance of health insurance; and to strengthen surveillance and monitoring mechanism in the drug market.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.31-62
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• 2010

This paper analyzes empirically how analysts' forecasts affected by ownership structure. This study examine a sample of 1,037~1,629 the analysts' forecasts of firms registered in Korean Stock Exchange in the period from 2000 to 2006. The empirical results are summarized as follows. First, from the analysis, companies which have higher major shareholder's holdings tend to increase earnings forecast errors and earnings forecast accuracy. Meanwhile, companies which have higher institution shareholder's holdings tend to decrease earnings forecast errors and earnings forecast accuracy. This result is in line with the view of previous works that companies with higher major shareholder's holdings look towards more of analysts' optimistic forecasts in order to maintain friendly relations with major shareholders. Because of analysts' private information use from major shareholders, earnings forecast accuracy is higher in high major shareholder's holdings firm than in high institution shareholder's holdings it. Second, this analysis is whether the minimal required selection condition of outside directors, audit committee adoption and audit quality affect the relation between ownership structure and analysts' forecasts. This result is that variables related corporate governance do not affect statically the relation between ownership structure and analysts' forecasts. The meanings of this paper is to suggest the positive relations between ownership structure and analysts' forecasts. After this, if analysts will notice forecasts of more many firms, capital market will be more efficient and this field works are plentiful. Also it will need monitoring systems not to distort market efficiency by analysts' dishonest forecasts.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.62-73
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• 2022

As the competition among the autonomous vehicle (AV, here after) developers are getting fierce, Korean government has been supporting developers by deregulating safety standards and providing financial subsidies. Recently, some OEMs announced their plans to market Lv3 and Lv4 automated driving systems. However, these market changes raised concern among public road management sectors for monitoring road conditions and alleviating hazardous conditions for AVs and human drivers. In this regards, the authors proposed a methodology for monitoring road infrastructure to identify hazardous factors for AVs and categorizing the hazards based on their level of impact. To evaluate the degrees of the harm on AVs, the authors suggested a methodology for managing road hazard factors based on vehicle performance features including vehicle body, sensors, and algorithms. Furthermore, they proposed a method providing AVs and road management authorities with potential risk information on road by delivering them on the monitoring map with node and link structure.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.5-10
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• 2015

Purpose: To evaluate the economic performance of grid-connected photovoltaic system in residential house, household electricity bill policy of Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) must be applied precisely, and market tendency and uncertainty of system also need to be considered. In this study, to evaluate the economic feasibility of PV system, we measured PV power generation and electricity consumption of six of Green home in Daejeon through web based remote monitoring system. Method: We applied Monte-Carlo simulation based on life cycle cost analysis, to reflect an uncertainty of main factor in economic feasibility evaluation of photovoltaic system. Result: First, with deterministic analysis, the difference of NPV of cumulative financial savings among households varied from -3,310 ~ 24,170 thousand won, portraying notably big range. Also the possibility of getting the same result was 50% when applying uncertainty. Second, the higher electricity consumption is, the more economic feasibility of photovoltaic system increases because KEPCO uses progressive taxation in household electricity bill policy. Third, The contribution to variance of electricity price increases in NPV varied from 98.5% to 99.9%. While the inflation rate and annual degradation contributed very little to none.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.255-263
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• 2021

Smart grid is a fully-automated, bi-directional, power transmission network based on the physical grid system, which combines sensor measurement, computer, information communication, and automatic control technology. Blockchain technology, with its security features, can be integrated with Smart Grids to provide secure and efficient power management and transmission. This paper dicusses the deployment of Blockchain technology in Smart Grid. It presents application areas and protocols in which blockchain can be applied to in securing smart grid. One application of each area is explored in detail, such as efficient peer-to-peer transaction, lower platform costs, faster processes, greater flexibility in power generation to transmission, distribution and power consumption in different energy storage systems, current barriers obstructing the implementation of blockchain applications with some level of maturity in financial services but concepts only in energy and other sectors. Wide range of energy applications suggesting a suitable blockchain architecture in smart grid operations, a sample block structure and the potential blockchain technicalities employed in it. Also, added with efficient data aggregation schemes based on the blockchain technology to overcome the challenges related to privacy and security in the smart grid. Later on, consensus algorithms and protocols are discussed. Monitoring of the usage and statistics of energy distribution systems that can also be used to remotely control energy flow to a particular area. Further, the discussion on the blockchain-based frameworks that helps in the diagnosis and maintenance of smart grid equipment. We have also discussed several commercial implementations of blockchain in the smart grid. Finally, various challenges have been discussed for integrating these technologies. Overall, it can be said at the present point in time that blockchain technology certainly shows a lot of potentials from a customer perspective too and should be further developed by market participants. The approaches seen thus far may have a disruptive effect in the future and might require additional regulatory intervention in an already tightly regulated energy market. If blockchains are to deliver benefits for consumers (whether as consumers or prosumers of energy), a strong focus on consumer issues will be needed.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.293-319
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• 2008

Medium and small-sized venture firms as well as multinational companies pay liabilities of foreignness. We defined these costs as three different factors which are liability of handicaps(deficit of time, money, experience and, increase of financial risk), overseas market entry costs(information gathering costs, network building costs, marketing costs, channelling costs, monitoring costs), internationalization preparing costs(forecasting and market research of local markets, ex-ante cooperation with local firms), and then empirically tested how each of these factors affects on their business performances. The more important both Taiwanese and Korean firms consider liability of handicaps, the more bigger they pay overseas market entry costs(H1). On the contrary, the more important they consider overseas entry costs, the more they focus on internationalization preparation(H4) and get the better business performances(H5). The more important Korean firms consider liability of handicaps, the bigger they focus on internationalization preparation, on the contrary, the less Taiwanese firms do this(H2). Taiwanese firms as well as Korean firms rejected Hypothesis 3 and 6 which mean both liability of handicaps and internationalization preparation are no relation with their own business performances.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.95-101
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• 2015

Purpose - This study provides evidence of the impact of the mandatory adoption of Korean equivalents to International Financial Reporting Standards (K-IFRS) on accounting quality. K-IFRS uses fair value as a basis of measurement and is characterized by principle-based standards. These characteristics can lead to a decrease in conservatism. Therefore, this study aims to examine whether or not there is a change in the level of conservatism before and after the enforcement of K-IFRS (2007~2014). By comparing 2007 through 2008 and 2013 through 2014 (excluding 2009 to 2012), we test "the temporary adjustment phenomenon" and document an overall decline in the degree of conservatism after the adoption of K-IFRS. Research design, data, and methodology - Our sample is comprised of data of all listed Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) manufacturing distribution companies in Korea from 2007 to 2014, which yields the pooled sample of 4,412 (panel A) and 1,915 (panel B) firm-year observations for hypotheses 1 and 2. In line with recent literature, we adopt the Givoly and Hayn (2000) model, which recomputes the non-operating accruals, excluding two components that are most likely to capture the effect of restructuring activities: special items and gains or losses from discontinued operations. In addition, we also use these variables: SIZE, LEV, INV_CYCLE, ROA, OWN, and FOR. Results - Our sample period spans 2007 to 2014. This offers evidence on the effect of the mandatory adoption of IFRS on conservatism. Our findings can be summarized as follows. First, in panel A, for mandatory K-IFRS adoption (2011), we do not find any significant evidence of conservatism. We can guess that the "temporary adjustment phenomenon" is the reason that we do not find significant evidence of conservatism. Second, we investigate panel B from 2009 to 2012. We document an overall decline in the degree of conservatism after the adoption of K-IFRS. We can assume that these results are due to "the temporary adjustment phenomenon." Conclusions - This study finds that conservatism significantly decreased after IFRS adoption. In particular, this study makes the initial effort to elucidate "the temporary adjustment phenomenon" to analyze the effect of K-IFRS on conservative accounting. We argue that K-IFRS are conceptually conservative but that inappropriate application of the conservatism principles is likely to prevent financial reporting from reaching the level of conservatism targeted by the IASB. Overall, this paper contributes to the literature on IFRS and can be useful to capital market supervisors who are monitoring the trends of the firms implementing K-IFRS. Additionally, our results inform stakeholders of the potentially negative effect of the greater flexibility permitted by IFRS and/or lack of appropriate enforcement on key dimensions of accounting quality. This has important implications for Korean regulators and standard setters as they review the cost and benefits of IFRS. Our study also sheds light on the importance of the institutional environment in achieving the targeted objectives for improving financial reporting quality.

• STI Policy Review
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.75-97
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• 2014

Entrepreneurial financing, such as publicly initiated venture capital or grant schemes, serves as an important policy instrument that aims to bridge the financing gap facing young, innovative businesses, a gap that is mainly due to higher risk and growing uncertainty, and to strategically promote the creation of new ventures through the revitalization of their venture capital industries. This study examines public venture capital initiatives in Australia, Canada, and Sweden, and discovered that all three countries actively foster their venture capital industry through the formation of funds or the provision of tax incentives. It is notable that the majority of financing initiatives heavily depend on supply-side measures rather than demand-driven policies that focus on stimulating private investment in technological innovations and discoveries. This paper discusses in-depth the policy impact of public financing initiatives and their subsequent side-effects raised in the process such as overlapping in funding structure across the country, lack of monitoring and evaluation for feedback, fragmentation across the government ministries and agencies, and competition with the private sector, which may cause inefficiency as a result of public intervention. Financial constraints may arise for many reasons, partly resulting from the lack of investment readiness of young entrepreneurs. This signals a policy shift towards the creation of market-driven demand away from the traditional supply-push approach, and is a grand challenge to policymakers in entrepreneurial financing. Attention is leaning towards the efficiency and effectiveness of these public-financing initiatives in terms of their policy roles. It is worth noting that policy should focus on generating synergy so available resources can be channeled into the early, risky stage of new ventures, working as facilitator to the achievement of an intended policy goal.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.129-139
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• 2016

The purpose of this paper was to comparatively investigate the efficient building incentives in Korea and foreign countries and to seek strategies to enhance low energy building integrated design market infrastructure in Korea. The structure of incentive policies were composed of four main component: 1) types of financial aids and beneficiaries, 2) energy performance criteria and verification methods, 3) supports for low energy building integrated design, and 4) funding sources for incentive programs. Every overseas incentive program has adopted a design team incentive along with building owners incentive and the range of target buildings have been extended from new construction to remodeling projects. The main system of the program is the performance standard through which projects were investigated and the level of incentive are decided. Initially, the integrated performance has been investigated through simulation methods, but the construction performance evaluation and energy monitoring methods are emerging. In addition, the direct support and educational support for integrated design has been provided to enhance the foundation of relative markets. Financial funding is also a key component of the program and more aggressive funding strategies have been adopted.