• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.65-86
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• 2015

Under current international investment law clear criteria to determine standards of indirect expropriation are absent. Arbitral tribunals determine on a case-by-case whether an indirect expropriation has occurred by conducting a fact-based inquiry. However, three common determination standards can be inferred by analyzing prior arbitration cases. The appropriate analytical framework that can be applied to determine whether a state's measure constitutes an indirect expropriation is as follows. i) the degree of economic invasion of the state's action into the foreign investor's property rights and durability of the period, ii) interference with the foreign investor's distinct and reasonable investment-backed expectations, and iii) the nature, purpose and character of the state's measure. Therefore, it is necessary to fully acknowledge and to utilize strategically this determination standard. However, derived standards cannot be applied to all disputes en masse. So, it is desirable to exclude ambiguity and to clearly define the determination standard of indirect expropriation in investment agreements, since arbitral tribunals can apply different determination standards on a case-by-case basis. And, based on the discussions until now, more developed standards and direction in response to demand should be established through consistent analysis and review of precedents related to indirect expropriation. Lastly, This study is expected to be a useful guideline to prepare a necessary countermeasure to prevent dispute related to indirect expropriation beforehand or in case of dispute occurrence.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.127-150
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• 2003

This study analyzes how capital market comovement can affect investors' decision making. We first analyze time-varying correlation coefficient between stock indices of U.S.A. and Korea. and then, using our empirical results, attempt to draw implications on investors' behavior. We find that the tendency of comovement between Korea and U.S.A. equity returns has considerably increased after the financial crisis of late 1997. Through the analysis of investors' behavior, we find that foreign investors, contrary to ITC's (Investment Trust Company) and individual investors, buy more shares in Korean markets as American stock prices go up. Foreign investors employ dynamic hedging strategy and give more weight on global economic factors than domestic ones. Our empirical results as a whole imply that investment behavior of foreign investors is most closely related to comovement of U.S.A. and Korea capital markets.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.369-387
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• 2012

Throughout intensive negotiations on the KORUS FTA and even after its ratification on March 15, 2012, ISD (Investor-State Dispute Settlement) has been at the center of many controversies within the FTA. Although the original function of the ISD is intended to be a protectional measure for foreign investors, there have been many foreign investors who tried to use the ISD as a tool to attack a government and nullify the public policy demanding tremendous amount of compensation. Many of the NAFTA ISD cases including Ehtyl v. Canada and UPS v. Canada demonstrate such a behavior by foreign investors. It is the right time for Korean government to conduct in depth studies on NAFTA ISD cases because the precedents provide invaluable insights including the legal reasoning by the decision making authorities including ICSID and UNCITRAL. The lessons we would learn from those cases would prepare Korean government for expected ISD claims by foreign investors and enable the government to maximize its efficiency in policy making process under a new international trade environment, the KORUS FTA.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.150-177
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• 2018

We review two specific risk management strategies of venture capitalists (VCs): deal syndication and domain specialization with respect to their explicit role in adjudging and managing the overall magnitude of information asymmetry risks. These are analyzed for three distinct categories of VC firms as classified by their funding stage focus (early vs. late), ownership type (foreign vs. domestic) and the human capital composition of the core VC team (entrepreneurial vs. investor). The analysis is based on both secondary data and primary data for active 72 VC firms in India. Syndication is moderately important for entrepreneurial VC firms, but not at all important for early-stage focused and foreign VC firms. This finding is distinctly different from what has been conventionally observed in the literature. Among the various arenas of domain specialization, high-technology focus is important for all segments of VC firms. In the context of investment-stage focus, foreign VC firms exhibit growth-stage specialization, while entrepreneurial VC firms concentrate on earlier investment stages.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2021

This paper examines the impact of foreign ownership on stock price volatility in an emerging market, namely, Thailand. The data were obtained from SETSMART, the database of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). After removing financial firms, banks, and insurance companies as well as filtering outliers, the final sample covers 1,755 firm-year observations from 371 nonfinancial firms listed on the SET over the five-year period from 2014 to 2018. The regression model consists of stock price volatility, measured by two methods, as the dependent variable, foreign ownership as the main independent variable, and firm characteristics including firm size, leverage, market-to book ratio, and stock turnover as the control variables. The pooled OLS, fixed effects, and random effects estimations are employed to examine the relationship between foreign ownership and stock price volatility. The results reveal that foreign ownership has a negative and significant impact on stock price volatility. The two-stage least squares (2SLS) are also performed to address potential endogeneity problem. The results still indicate a negative relationship between foreign ownership and stock price volatility. Taken together, the findings of this study suggest that foreign investors help reduce stock price volatility and thus stabilize share price in the Thai stock market.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.83-95
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• 2019

Purpose - This study analyzed the effect of the Trump Government's protectionist trade policies on foreign ownership. Specifically, this study empirically analyzes the hypothesis that foreign ownership will decrease after the Trump Government rather than before the Trump Government. Design/methodology - The hypothesis of this study is based on the expectation that US protection trade policy will negatively affect the profitability of Korean companies. The dependent variable in this study is the foreign ownership ratio, and the independent variable is a dummy variable representing before and after the Trump Government. Multiple regression analysis was performed, including the control variables suggested in previous studies related to foreign ownership. Findings - As a result, foreign ownership increased after the Trump Government rather than before the Trump Government. This study further analyzes whether the main variables affecting foreign investor's decision-making are differences before and after Trump Government. The export ratio, profitability and dividends did not differ before and after Trump Government. However, the level of information asymmetry decreased after the Trump Government than before the Trump Government. This suggests that US protection trade policies do not adversely affect the profitability of Korean companies. However, Korean firms are improving their information environment because US protectionist trade policies can lower profitability and negatively impact capital raising. In this regard, the foreign ownership ratio seems to differ before and after the Trump Government. Originality/value - This study contributes in that it presents data that US protectionist policies can affect Korean corporate governance. This study has implications from the short-term analysis of US protection trade policy.

• Korean Business Review
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.1-16
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• 2008

This paper investigate the volume-volatility and volume-return relationship in the Korean Treasury Bond futures market using daily price and volume data categorized by three trader type i.e. individual investor, institutional investor and foreign investor over the period of October 1999 through December 2005. Major results are summarized as follows: (i) The effect of volume on return was not different across the trader type. (ii) The effect of volume on volatility was not unidirectional across the type of investor. While unexpected sell of individual investor has positive effects on volatility, negative effects in the case of institutional investor. (iii) We cannot find the evidence of asymmetric response of volatility to shock in trading volume or net position. This result differs from that of Korean Stock Price Index 200 futures market which showed strong positive asymmetry. Finally, some limitations of this paper and direction for further research were suggested.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.57
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• pp.61-78
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to clarify the standard of fair and equitable treatment. Although most international investment treaties prescribe fair and equitable treatment that is the obligation to provide fair and equitable treatment to foreign investor, there is no clear definition and specific elements of fair and equitable treatment. Through the arbitral award cases we can find that tribunals have interpreted to include six principles; Due process & Protection from denial of justice, Good faith, Reasonableness & Nondiscrimination, Compliance with contractual obligation, Full protection and security, Transparency & Protection of the investor's legitimate expectations. This study suggest that host countries and investors focus on international trends concerning investment disputes in order to avoid future disputes. So future disputes can be prevented and prepared in advance.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.201-216
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• 2018

After the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, the European Union's Common Commercial Policy now belongs to the exclusive competence area of the EU, including the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy. Regarding the bilateral investment protection treaties (BITs) between the EU Member States, the European Commission is of the view that such BITs should be discarded. On March 6, 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held in the Achmea BV v. Slovakia case that a BIT between the EU Member States, as well as arbitral awards based on that BIT, is not subject to request for preliminary rulings under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), and thus they are not compatible with the EU law. However, the judgment did not silence the controversy. Instead, many people questioned the legal reasoning and the legitimacy of judgment, and therefore the problem is still ongoing.

• The Journal of Economics, Marketing and Management
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.1-5
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• 2019

Purpose - Along with the rise of foreign investments in the Korean stock market, there has been a variety of studies on their influence. The conflicting findings on the question of information asymmetry of foreign investors among existing literatures appear to be a result of mixture of research method problems, what information is defined as being comparable, individual business levels, or the entire stock market. This paper empirically investigates what factors contribute to foreign investments in firms in the Korean stock market. Research design, data, and Methodology - Samples are constructed by manufacturing firms listed on the stock market of Korea as well as those who settle accounts in December from 2001 to 2018. Financial institutions are excluded from the sample as their accounting procedures, governance and regulations differ. This study adopted the panel regression model to assess the sample construction including yearly and cross-sectional data. Result - This paper find that firms' R&D, dividends, size give significant positive impact to foreign investment, whereas debt gives significant negative impact to foreign investment. This relationship does not change when the samples are divided before and after the 2008 global financial crisis. Conclusion - This results support the literatures that foreign investors favor firms lowering their information asymmetry.