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

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.457-479
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• 2013

Through a Chinese rise, Chinese dream is actualizing as the world's great power. According to outlook of World Bank and IMF, Around 2030 China will be a great power bigger than America's economic power. The rise of China will give a huge impact to the whole world. China expands her influence through a global manufacturing base and a global market. To actualize 'Peaceful Rise' Strategy, China has many constraints. Chinese society is facing many difficult social problem due to side effects of a rapid development. Such as the spread of corruption, the severity of wealth gap, environmental degradation and energy shortage. Internationally there are containment from hegemon so-called 'China threat' dispute, Taiwan issue and territorial disputes. Western countries are hostile to China for two reasons. Based on expectations, one is China's socialist system and the other is the rising China which will compete for supremacy with Europe and America. Recent emergence of Chinese nationalism and the containment of the neighboring countries are also serious limiting factors. Domestically they have the rampant corruption in the bureaucracy, weakened capacity of Communist rule, wealth disparity due to the discriminatory economic development strategy, seriousness of rural problem, social instability, lack of social security systems and the development gap between the eastern coastal areas and western inland areas, ethnic minorities problems, the constraint of sustainable development issues due to lack of resources, environmental pollution and energy constraints. Like the former Soviet Union, China may face a dismantlement. After the rise, China may encounter possibilities of a war between great powers or a collapse of Chinese society caused by deepening internal conflict. Serious economic polarization would make peasants and urban workers, who are social vulnerable people, to turn their back to communist party and threaten the justification and the appropriateness of the ruling communist party. Chinese government will think internal system security threat is more formidable risk factor than a system security threat from the hegemon. The decline of great country comes from internal reasons rather than external reasons. To achieve peaceful rise, unification with Taiwan is an essential prerequisite. Taiwan issues are complex problems which equipped with international and domestic factors. Lack of energy resources, environmental pollution in China will bring economic crisis to Korean enterprises. Important influence to Korean economy will be a changeover of the method in economic development. It will turn the balance of investment and consumption, GDP-centered growth to consumption and environment-centered growth. Services industries including finance, environment, culture, education, health care and social welfare will grow. Change in China's growth model will give a great challenge upon the intermediate goods industry in Korea. Korea should reduce the portion of machinery, automotive, semiconductor, steel and chemical-centered export industry to China, and should increase the proportion of the service industry.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.33-62
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• 2005

This study aims to explain the current upheaval in marriage that many young Korean men and women postpone or deny their marriage. In order to explain the delayed marriage, we need to understand the taste by which men and women choose their partners, the opportunity by which they find their ideational half in reality, and the context in which these values and opportunities of marriages intersect. This study examines the way in which the value and opportunities of marriage among Korean men and women have intersected differently in the changing economic conditions. Using KLIPS(Korea Labor Income Panel Survey, 1998-2002), differential effects of education and occupational status on marital time according to marriage cohort and gender are analyzed. Results find that the opportunity of marriage among men turns out to have been stratified significantly according to their educational achievement and labor status since the 1990s. For women, education and economic activities are likely to influence marriage decision in a discordant way; during the period of 1990-997, highly educated women are more likely than their counterparts to be married earlier while there is no significant difference according to economic activities. This implies that status homogamy has been intensified since the 1990s and many women with high motivation for social status are able to achieve a vicarious social status through marriage in a prosperous economy. For women married after 1998, however, the educational effect is insignificant but economic activity contributes to delaying marriage. This suggests that under the economic restructuring since the late 1990s, the constraint of opportunities finding decent jobs particularly for men results in the contingent change in women's perception about family roles and economic activities by reducing their expectation to achieve a vicarious status through marriage, but increasing their motive for their own economic activities.

• Review of Culture and Economy
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.141-173
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• 2018

In this article, we explore how artistic fame is formed by analyzing antecedents of fame the extent to which the name of an actor or his/her work is positively known by his/her audiences among Korean handicraft artists. Drawing on prior literature on reputation and fame, we clarify the differences between the concept of reputation and the concept of fame and further distinguish three types of reputation among individual artists, depending on its sources expert reputation, market reputation, and peer reputation. We employ the mixed method in this study, in which we first conducted open-end interviews with three kinds of constituents (i.e., critics, market intermediaries, and artists) and then developed and tested the hypotheses derived from the insights we had obtained from the interviews. We further considered the impact of reputational work, defined as the level of effort devoted and activities performed by an artist him(her)self geared toward promoting his(her) work, on artistic fame. We find that there are large differences in factors associated with artistic fame between non elite and elite Korean handicraft artist groups, where elite status is captured by artists' educational background (i.e., Seoul National University and Hongik University, which are considered elite schools in accordance with prior research). Specifically, findings suggest that among non elite status artists, recognition by experts, or what we call expert reputation, acquired through national awards and invitations from prominent exhibitions as well as artists' own reputational work that incurs high cost, such as self-financed exhibition openings, were shown to be highly significant factors associated with artistic fame, which was measured as the number of media exposures related to her/his art work. By contrast, among elite status artists, peer reputation acquired through an artist's institutional affiliations and relatively low cost artists' own reputational work, such as self listing on a highly publicized magazine, were shown to be significant factors associated with fame. Taken together, this paper contributes to research on cultural industries and markets by highlighting the importance of understanding artistic fame not just as the outcome of her/his talent but as the social product that arises at the intersection of actors (artists) and her/his audiences in the social evaluation process.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.270-285
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• 2016

Various opinions and discussions have been actively in progress which are connected with cultural heritage since 'Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs' was announced by UN Sustainable Development Summit 2015 as Post-2015 Development Agenda. Apart from SDGs, conservation of cultural heritage itself stands on the basis of sustainability that originality, characteristic, diversity of cultural heritage should be permanently preserved. From that point of view, it is necessary to understand practical ODA for cultural heritage, far from theoretical approaches and policies. This paper is intended to look into the domestic and overseas situation related to ODA of Asian cultural heritage and the mentioned problems, future plans and challenges. First, the background and concepts about ODA were described and then ODA projects which have been carried out by Japan and China as typical ODA countries for Southeast Asia were introduced. ODA of cultural heritage in Korea has relatively recently started for restoration work for historic sites of Laos and Cambodia and its scale and performance do not come to much yet. Therefore, to develop ODA of cultural heritage, there are suggestions as in the followings. First, it is necessary to have a long-term master plan of ODA projects for sustainability of cultural heritage. Second, based on the view from the long-term perspective, the selection and focus for ODA partner countries should be considered, avoiding short-term projects aiming at a number of countries. Not widespread existing projects by other countries, but the model of Korean ODA for cultural heritage only Korea can conduct should be prepared. The next thing is connection with sustainability, and ultimately the conservation of cultural heritage should result in benefit to the natives by giving an impetus to economy as well as fostering tourism of local areas. To accomplish that connection, educational training and building capacity are suggested as the most suitable alternatives. Cultural heritage of each country reflects its indigenous originality and characteristics, therefore, the restoration work should be conducted by people in each country as the best way. From this point of view, ACPCS held by National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage will take a role of a specialized training program in Korean way. Lastly, establishment of a control tower for ODA in Korea is necessary. JCIC(Japan Consortium for International Cooperation in Cultural Heritage), which was set up in Japan for sharing information, establishment of cooperation system and prevention of overlapped projects will be an example we can take into consideration.

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.3-38
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• 2019

In 1984, Congress enacted a new measure of administrative sanctions which is a civil money penalty program for violations of Aviation Act and its implementing regulations. This civil money penalty system has been in operations in lieu of suspending or revoking certificates issued by Korean government, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport. According to the rules of Aviation Business Act or Aviation Safety Act, where the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport should order an air carrier to suspend operation because of her violation under certain rules, in which case the suspension of operation is likely to cause serious inconvenience to consumers of air transport services or to harm public interest, the Minister of the department may impose an administrative monetary penalty in lieu of the suspension of operation. In this regard, airline related civil money penalties are somewhat different from those of fair trade, which is the origin of the money penalties system in Korea. Civil money penalties in the field of fair trade are imposed on executive duty violations that undermine the value of the market economy order, and focus on reimbursement of profits due to violations and compensation for unfair spending by consumers. However, in the aviation sector, breach of duty by a business operator does not simply cause the property loss of the public, but it has a direct impact on life or property of the public. In this respect, aviation penalties are more likely to be administrative sanctions or punitive measures than refunds of unfair benefits, compared to penalties in the field of fair trade. In general, civil money penalties have been highly preferred as administrative sanctions because they are subject to investigations by administrative experts and thus, efficiency can be ensured and execution is quicker than judicial procedures. Moreover, in Korea, because punitive civil damages cannot awarded by the courts, the imposition of civil money penalties is recognized as a means of realizing social justice by recognizing the legal feelings of the people. However, civil money penalties are administrative sanctions, and in terms of effectiveness, they are similar to criminal fines, which are a form of punishment. Inadequate legislation and operation of penalties imposition may cause damage to the value of Constitution. Under the above recognition, this paper has been described for the purpose of identifying the present status of the civil money penalties imposition system and operating status in the area of air transport under the laws and regulations in Korea. Especially, this paper was focused on exploring the problem and improvement direction of Korean system through the comparative study with foreign laws and regulations.

• 한국노년학
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.55-82
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• 2017

The purpose of this research is to provide implications for the development of age-friendly industry of Korea by analyzing the age-friendly industry activation policy suggested by the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy in response to the population ageing problems. Policy and theoretical implications are derived from an analysis of age-friendly industry activation policy as directly related to the improvement of the three major problems (i.e. health, economy, and loneliness) of Korean older people. This analysis focuses on its specific content, common and core logic, and the validity of the logic. The results show that: 1)the first Plan for Ageing Society and Population suggests a policy for improving poverty, 2)the second Plan for Ageing Society and Population suggests a policy for improving health, and 3)the third Plan for Ageing Society and Population suggests a policy for improving health and loneliness. All policies not only are commonly based on the logically limited concepts of successful ageing and active ageing, but also are characterized by narrow realm, insufficient content, and fragmented policy. The results result in the following policy implications: 1)the age-friendly industry activation policy should be developed with continuity, sufficiency, and diversity, 2)lessons from the limitation related with the de-contextualisation of successful ageing and its elective affinity with consumer capitalism, 3)lessons from the prevention-oriented perspective of active ageing, and 4)lessons from the social characteristics of (non-)psychological resources, limitation of the reablement related with social investment state. The analyses also provide a theoretical implication that a different perspective on the social construct of ageing is needed beyond the dichotomy of ageing based on modelling ageing. Lastly, the paper suggests not only the limitation of the research but also the preferred follow-up studies regarding age-friendly industry activation policy.

• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.69
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• pp.115-146
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• 2017

This paper is about the research on ontology design for a digital archive of seonsaengan(先生案) of the Joseon Period. Seonsaengan is the register of staff officials at each government office, along with their personal information and records of their transfer from one office to another, in addition to their DOBs, family clan, etc. A total of 176 types of registers are known to be kept at libraries and museums in the country. This paper intends to engage in the ontology design of 47 cases of such registers preserved at the Jangseogak Archives of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS) with a focus on their content and structure including the names of the relevant government offices and posts assumed by the officials, etc. The work for the ontology design was done with a focus on the officials, the offices they belong to, and records about their transfers kept in the registers. The ontology design categorized relevant resources into classes according to the attributes common to the individuals. Each individual has defined a semantic postposition word that can explicitly express the relationship with other individuals. As for the classes, they were divided into eight categories, i.e. registers, figures, offices, official posts, state examination, records, and concepts. For design of relationships and attributes, terms and phrases such as Dublin Core, Europeana Data Mode, CIDOC-CRM, data model for database of those who passed the exam in the past, which are already designed and used, were referred to. Where terms and phrases designed in existing data models are used, the work used Namespace of the relevant data model. The writer defined the relationships where necessary. The designed ontology shows an exemplary implementation of the Myeongneung seonsaengan(明陵先生案). The work gave consideration to expected effects of information entered when a single registered is expanded to plural registers, along with ways to use it. The ontology design is not one made based on the review of all of the 176 registers. The model needs to be improved each time relevant information is obtained. The aim of such efforts is the systematic arrangement of information contained in the registers. It should be remembered that information arranged in this manner may be rearranged with the aid of databases or archives existing currently or to be built in the future. It is expected that the pieces of information entered through the ontology design will be used as data showing how government offices were operated and what their personnel system was like, along with politics, economy, society, and culture of the Joseon Period, in linkage with databases already established.

• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.73
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• pp.385-414
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• 2018

In this article, the women as the subject of the family management in the 19th century cataclysm, In particular, I tried to reconstruct the specific life course of a woman who has a status as a jongbu(종부) in the Korean language through the Hangul letter. The Haenam Yoon's the 8th jongbu(종부) Gwangju Lee attempted to find her own unique identity, not the male-centered social order she had learned. Because she had to live a life outside the traditional environment of traditional society because her husband died at the beginning of her marriage. She perceived herself as an independent subject that she had to find and maintain. When Gwangju Lee married and came to the family of Haenam Yun, the economic power of jong-ga(종가) was much inclined. This economic difficulty was caused by the conflict with the slaves and the decrease of tallage(地代) to the change of the slavery system which was the social flow at that time. And uncles of her husband's intervention made the economic situation of the family more difficult. She established her position as a jongbu(종부) and used the right of Adoption option(입후권) of the jongbu(종부) to establish the impoverished family. She chose adoption from distant relatives who were not children of her husband's uncles. Therefore, I was free from her husband uncle's interests. She also believed that it was most important to take control of the economic interests of her family in order to secure her authority as a jongbu(종부). She believed that she had to exercise her economic rights in order to bring slave labor, which is the most important means of sustaining the domestic economy at the time, In the absence of her husband, she established her family in the social upheaval of the nineteenth century, and took her place as a master of a family, not just a family name.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.315-338
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• 2022

In 1986, Korea established legal systems to support small and medium-sized start-ups, which becomes the main pillars of national development. The legal systems have stimulated start-up ecosystems to have more than 1 million new start-up companies founded every year during the past 30 years. To analyze the trend of Korea's start-up ecosystem, in this study, we collected 1.18 million news articles from 1991 to 2020. Then, we extracted news articles that have the keywords "start-up", "venture", and "start-up". We employed network analysis and topic modeling to analyze collected news articles. Our analysis can contribute to analyzing the government policy direction shown in the history of start-up support policy. Specifically, our analysis identifies the dynamic characteristics of government influenced by external environmental factors (e.g., society, economy, and culture). The results of our analysis suggest that the start-up ecosystems in Korea have changed and developed mainly by the government policies for corporation governance, industrial development planning, deregulation, and economic prosperity plan. Our frequency keyword analysis contributes to understanding entrepreneurial productivity attributed to activities among the networked components in industrial ecosystems. Our analyses and results provide practitioners and researchers with practical and academic implications that can help to establish dedicated support policies through forecast tasks of the economic environment surrounding the start-ups. Korean entrepreneurial productivity has been empowered by growing numbers of large companies in the mobile phone industry. The spectrum of large companies incorporates content startups, platform providers, online shopping malls, and youth-oriented start-ups. In addition, economic situational factors contribute to the growth of Korean entrepreneurial productivity the economic, which are related to the global expansions of the mobile industry, and government efforts to foster start-ups. Our research is methodologically implicative. We employ natural language processes for 30 years of media articles, which enables more rigorous analysis compared to the existing studies which only observe changes in government and policy based on a qualitative manner.