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International Comparative Analysis of Technical efficiency in Korean Manufacturing Industry (한국 제조업의 기술적 효율성 국제 비교 분석)

  • Lee, Dong-Joo
    • Korea Trade Review
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    • v.42 no.5
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    • pp.137-159
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    • 2017
  • This study divides manufacturing in 18 countries including Korea, China, Japan and OECD countries into 11 areas and estimates and compares the technological efficiency of each industry. The traditional view of productivity is to increase production capacity through technological innovation or process innovation, but it is also influenced by the technological efficiency of production process. A Stochastic Frontier Production Model (SFM) is a representative method for estimating the technical efficiency of such production. First, as a result of estimating the production function by setting the output variable as total output or value-added, in both cases, the output increased significantly in all manufacturing sectors as inputs of labor, capital, and intermediate increased. On the other hand, R&D investment has a large impact on output in chemical, electronics, and machinery industries. Next, as a result of estimating the technological efficiency through the production function, when the total output is set as the output variable, the overall average of each sector is 0.8 or more, showing mostly high efficiency. However, when value-added was set, Japan had the highest level in most manufacturing sectors, while other countries were lower than the efficiency of the total output. Comparing the three countries of Korea, China and Japan, Japan showed the highest efficiency in most manufacturing sectors, and Korea was about half or one third of Japan and China was lower than Korea. However, in the food and electronics sectors, China is higher than Korea, indicating that China's production efficiency has greatly improved. As such, Korea is not able to narrow its gap with Japan relatively faster than China's rapid growth. Therefore, various policy supports are needed to promote technology development. In addition, in order to improve manufacturing productivity, it is necessary to shift to an economic structure that can raise technological efficiency as well as technology development.

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A Study on ChoSonT'ongPaeJiIn (조선통폐지인(朝鮮通幣之印) 연구)

  • Moon, Sangleun
    • Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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    • v.52 no.2
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    • pp.220-239
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    • 2019
  • According to the National Currency (國幣) article in GyeongGukDaeJeon (經國大典), the ChoSonT'ongPaeJiIn (朝鮮通幣之印) was a seal that was imprinted on both ends of a piece of hemp fabric (布). It was used for the circulation of hemp fabric as a fabric currency (布幣). The issued fabric currency was used as a currency for trade or as pecuniary means to have one's crime exempted or replace one's labor duty. The ChoSonT'ongPaeJiIn would be imprinted on a piece of hemp fabric (布) to collect one-twentieth of tax. The ChoSonT'ongPaeJiIn (朝鮮通幣之印) was one of the historical currencies and seal materials used during the early Chosun dynasty. Its imprint was a means of collecting taxes; hence, it was one of the taxation research materials. Despite its value, however, there has been no active research undertaken on it. Thus, the investigator conducted comprehensive research on it based on related content found in JeonRokTongGo (典錄通考), Dae'JeonHu-Sok'Rok (大典後續錄), JeongHeonSwaeRok (貞軒?錄) and other geography books (地理志) as well as the materials mentioned by researchers in previous studies. The investigator demonstrated that the ChoSonT'ongPaeJiIn was established based on the concept of circulating Choson fabric notes (朝鮮布貨) with a seal on ChongOseungp'o (正五升布) in entreaty documents submitted in 1401 and that the fabric currency (布幣) with the imprint of the ChoSonT'ongPaeJiIn was used as a currency for trade, pecuniary or taxation means of having one's crime exempted, or replacing one's labor, and as a tool of revenue from ships. The use of ChoSonT'ongPaeJiIn continued even after a ban on fabric currencies (布幣) in March 1516 due to a policy on the "use of Joehwa (paper notes)" in 1515. It was still used as an official seal on local official documents in 1598. During the reign of King Yeongjo (英祖), it was used to make a military service (軍布) hemp fabric. Some records of 1779 indicate that it was used as a means of taxation for international trade. It is estimated that approximately 330 ChoSonT'ongPaeJiIn were in circulation based on records in JeongHeonSwaeRok (貞軒?錄). Although there was the imprint of ChoSonT'ongPaeJiIn in An Inquiry on Choson Currency (朝鮮貨幣考) published in 1940, there had been no fabric currencies (布幣) with its imprint on them or genuine cases of the seal. It was recently found among the artifacts of Wongaksa Temple. The seal imprint was also found on historical manuscripts produced at the Jikjisa Temple in 1775. The investigator compared the seal imprints found on the historical manuscripts of the Jikjisa Temple, attached to TapJwaJongJeonGji (塔左從政志), and published in An Inquiry on Choson Currency with the ChoSonT'ongPaeJiIn housed at the Wongaksa Temple. It was found that these seal imprints were the same shape as the one at Wongaksa Temple. In addition, their overall form was the same as the one depicted in Daerokji (大麓誌) and LiJaeNanGo (?齋亂藁). These findings demonstrate that the ChoSonT'ongPaeJiIn at Wongaksa Temple was a seal made in the 15th century and is, therefore, an important artifact in the study of Choson's currency history, taxation, and seals. There is a need for future research examining its various aspects.

Study on the utilization of the industrial waste materials and the briquette ash as mixing materials for the concrete Products (콘크리트 製品製造에 産業廢棄物과 연탄재의 利用에 關한 硏究)

  • Kim, Seong-Wan
    • Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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    • v.21 no.4
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    • pp.99-107
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    • 1979
  • In order to investigate the utilization of industrial waste and briquette ash for concrete production, briquette ash was used as fine aggregate for mortar production and three different kinds mortars were produced by mixing carbide and bottom aches with cement. These products were compared with mortar, produced by standard sand, in the respects of compressive, tensil and bending strengths. Further study on the economic aspect of utilization of briquette ash is needed but the results obtained from our preliminary study are summarized as follows : 1. The compressive strengths at the age of seven days of mortars, made of one to two ratios of cement to briquette ash, (cement+carbide ash) to briquette ash and(cement+bottom ash) to briquette ash were 70%, 61% and 58%, respectively, of the mortar made of standard sand. The compressive strengths of those mortars at the age of 28 days were 56%, 49% and 48% of the mortar made standard sand. 2. The compressive strengths at the age of seven days of the mortar made of one to two ratios of cement to briquette ash, (cement+carbide ash) to briquette ash and (cement+bottom ash) to briquette ash were 84%, 73%, and 70% of the mortar which was produced according to Korean Standard Value. The compressive strengths of those mortars at the age of 28 days were 85%, 73% and 73% of the mortar of the Korean Standard value. 3. The tensil strengths at the age of seven days of the mortars made of one to two ratios of cement to briquette ash, (cement+carbide ash) to briquette ash, and (cement+bottom ash) to briquette ash were 64%, 36%, and 36%, respectively, of the mortar of standard sand. The tensil strengths of those mortars at the age of 28 days were 70%, 47%, and 39%, respectively, of the standard mortar. The mortars made of one to two ratios of cement to briquette ash at the age of seven and 28 days were higher than the mortars of Korean Standard. The other mortars were 61 to 62% at the age of seven days and 75 to 90% at the age of 28 days of the Korean Standard mortar, respectively. 4. The bending strengths at the age of seven days of mortar made of one to two ratios of cement to briquette ash, (cement+carbide ash) to briquette ash, and (cement+bottom ash) to briquette ash were 46%, 53% and 50% of the mortar of standard sand. The bending strengths of those mortars at the age of 28 days were 90%, 77% and 69%, respectively of the mortar of standard sand. 5. The mortar of briquette ash which was lower in strengths compared with the mortar of cement have shown possibility of its secondary products of cement and concrete. The uses of briquette ash and industrial waste as construction materials would contribute toward solving various pollution problems caused by industrial wastes and saving labor costs needed to cleaning up. Furthermore, the effective use of briquette ash would greatly save the aggregate resources.

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Potential Benefits of Intercropping Corn with Runner Bean for Small-sized Farming System

  • Bildirici, N.;Aldemir, R.;Karsli, M.A.;Dogan, Y.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.22 no.6
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    • pp.836-842
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    • 2009
  • The objectives of this study were to evaluate potential benefits of intercropping of corn with runner bean for a smallsized farming system, based on land equivalent ratio (LER) and silage yield and quality of corn intercropped with runner bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), in arid conditions of Turkey under an irrigation system. This experiment was established as a split-plot design in a randomized complete block, with three replications and carried out over two (consecutive) years in 2006 and 2007. Seven different mixtures (runner bean, B and silage corn sole crop, C, 10% B+90% C, 20% B+80% C, 30% B+70% C, 40% B+60%C, and 50% B+50%C) of silage corn-runner bean were intercropped. All of the mixtures were grown under irrigation. The corn-runner bean fields were planted in the second week of May and harvested in the first week of September in both years. Green beans were harvested three times each year and green bean yields were recorded each time. After the 3rd harvest of green bean, residues of bean and corn together were randomly harvested from a 1 $m^{2}$ area by hand using a clipper when the bean started to dry and corn was at the dough stage. Green mass yields of each plot were recorded. Silages were prepared from each plot (triplicate) in 1 L mini-silos. After 60 d ensiling, subsamples were taken from this material for determination of dry matter (DM), pH, organic acids, chemical composition, and in vitro DM digestibility of silages. The LER index was also calculated to evaluate intercrop efficiencies with respect to sole crops. Average pH, acetic, propionic and butyric acid concentrations were similar but lactic acid and ammonia-N levels were significantly different (p<0.05) among different mixtures of bean intercropped with corn. Ammonia-N levels linearly increased from 0.90% to 2.218 as the percentage of bean increased in the mixtures up to a 50:50 seeding ratio. While average CP content increased linearly from 6.47 to 12.45%, and average NDF and ADF contents decreased linearly from 56.17 to 44.88 and from 34.92 to 33.51%, respectively, (p<0.05) as the percentage of bean increased in the mixtures up to a 50:50 seeding ratio, but DM and OM contents did not differ among different mixtures of bean intercropped with corn (p>0.05). In vitro OM digestibility values differed significantly among bean-corn mixture silages (p<0.05). Fresh bean, herbage DM, IVOMD, ME yields, and LER index were significantly influenced by percentage of bean in the mixtures (p<0.01). As the percentage of bean increased in the mixtures up to a 50:50 seeding ratio, yields of fresh bean (from 0 to 24,380 kg/ha) and CP (from 1,258.0 to 1,563.0 kg/ha) and LER values (from 1.0 to 1.775) linearly increased, but yields of herbage DM (from 19,670 to 12,550 kg/ha), IVOMD (from 12,790 to 8,020 kg/ha) and ME (46,230 to 29,000 Mcal/ha) yields decreased (p<0.05). In conclusion, all of the bean-corn mixtures provided a good silage and better CP concentrations. Even though forage yields decreased, the LER index linearly increased as the percentage of bean increased in the mixture up to a 50:50 seeding ratio, which indicates a greater utilization of land. Therefore, a 50:50 seeding ratio seemed to be best for optimal utilization of land in this study and to provide greater financial stability for labor-intensive, small farmers.

The Effects of Addition of Agar on the Texture Characteristics (한천을 이용한 복숭아 젤리의 질감 특성과 기호도)

  • 박금순;조재욱
    • The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.61-67
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    • 1998
  • Effects of various jelly prepared with different concentrations of agar and sugars on overall acceptability of the peach jelly were investigated. The preparations of peach for experimental jelly were carried by the mixture of peach pulp and juice(MPJ), and the extract form peach(EP). The results were summarized as follows ; 1. The pH for MPJ and EP were 3.95 to 4/31, respectively, and the brix degree were 13.0% and 11.5%, respectively. 2. The jelly prepared with MPJ added 3% agar and 30% sugar were most effective in appearance, hardness, springiness and overall acceptability. The relation of samples(P<0.001) was found to be significant. On the other hand, the jelly prepared with EP was higher scored than that with MPJ in overall acceptability, but there was no significant differences between samples. 3. The Hunter values of L*, a* and b* were the highest in both the jelly prepared with MPJ and that with EP, added 2% agar and 10% sugar. However, the L*, a* and b* values of the jelly added MPJ were higher than those of the sample added EP. 4. Texture and color scores of both the jelly added EP became higher as the concentrations of agar and sugars increased and there was significant differences between samples. 5. The relation between springiness and overall acceptability, and L* value of the jelly added MPJ showed negative at P<0.05 and that between springiness and overall acceptability of the jelly added EP also showed negative.

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Content and Meaning of Royal Garden Sightseeing Event in Pyoam's 「Hogayugeumwongi」 (표암(豹菴)의 「호가유금원기(扈駕遊禁苑記)」에 나타난 궁원 유람행사의 내용과 의미)

  • Hong, Hyoung-Soon
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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    • v.32 no.2
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    • pp.1-11
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    • 2014
  • This study aimed at investigating the content and meaning of royal garden(宮苑) sightseeing event in Pyoam Gang, sehwang's "Hogayugeumwongi" As the research method, descriptive research method was used, which is to consider and interpret the content and meaning in the historical records. Research results are summarized as follows. 1. "Hogayugeumwongi", which recorded the event that the King personally guided and explained the palace to the vassals, is a very precious historical records in Korean landscape gardening cultural history. Such thing is unprecedented in Joseon Dynasty as well as China. 2. The person who recorded this event was famous for shi seo hwa samjeol in the time, and the point that he was Pyoam, who was appreciated as 'the head(總帥) of artistic and literary circles(藝苑)', adds more value to the future generations. 3. The characteristic of this sightseeing event was to praise the vassals' labor, who contributed to the completion of Kyujanggak, to establish King Jongjo's direct rule in the early period of seizure of power, and eojin(御眞) dosa(圖寫), etc., which expressed the King's dignity. Jongjo utilized Geumwon, a forbidden place in the palace, to give a special privilege to the vassals' effort, who took a great part in realizing his political ideal. 4. One of sightseeing lines toward the backyard of Changdeok Palace could be identified. Though the sightseeing lines toward the backyard were not fixed, however this might be the best sightseeing line which Jongjo intentionally chose to enjoy that day's flavor of autumn. 5. The characteristic of this event was informal and somewhat extemporary 'sightseeing'. Therefore, it is considered, that day's event was relatively private and free 'play(遊)', while 'sanghwaeojoyeon(賞花漁釣宴)', which Jongjo gave to the vassals middle after his reign, was a royal 'banquet', which prepared frames, such as event holding time and form, qualification for participation, e.g. flower viewing, fishing, writing poems, etc. This research has a significance that it considered the content and meaning in historical records including the front and the rear context that "Hogayugeumwongi" was written through the consideration of related historical materials. "Hogayugeumwongi" can be utilized as a material for storytelling with regard to royal garden sightseeing in future as a valuable cultural content, also, follow-up study on this is necessary.

Economic Feasibility of Hill Land Development (산지개발(山地開發)의 경제성)

  • Kim, Dong-Min
    • Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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    • v.11 no.4
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    • pp.283-295
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    • 1979
  • A new Farmland Expansion and Development Promotion Law was enacted in 1975. This law authorizes the Government to undertake development within a declared "reclamation area", wherever the land owners are unable to do so. In order to give additional impetus to conversion of waste hilly land into productive farmland, these hilly land development projects were conducted as large scale scheme which include soil fertility improvements such as the application of lime and phosphate. Farmland Expansion and Development Promotion Corps has attempted to undertake annual farm surveys in order to obtain some information about hilly land agriculture and farming operations within the reclamation project areas since 1976. As survey data accumulates, more and more clear picture of hilly land farming come to appear and enable us to conduct in-depth study. Effects of such upland reclamation include converting of previously unproductive slopeland into cultivable farmland for lucrative and commercial farming or food production. Furthermore, idle or marginal resources such as farm labor, equipment and compost would be fully employed. Socio-economic effects would include increases in land value and attitude change of farmers. On the other hand the preservation of natural environments might be damaged to the some extend by the projects. As shown in Table 7, the average farm size increased from 3,156 pyeong($3.3m^2$) to 5,562 pyeong, a 76.2% increase. The proportion of small farms with less than I ha dropped from 59.8% to 34.4%, but that of the large farms over 2 ha rose from 13.1% to 32.0% (See Table 8). The survey results indicate that as the farming on reclaimed uplands become time-honored, the acreage devoted for food crop production decreases against the economic crop growing acreage (see Table 6). For example, in the case of uplands reclaimed in 1972, the ratio of food crop acreages decreased from 99.7% in 1972 to 62.5% in 1977, whereas that of economic crop acreages increased from 0.3% in 1972 to 37.5% in 1977. The government used to actively encourage the farmers to carry out food crop production in the reclaimed upland targting toward the realization of self-sufficiency in food grains. It is, however, apparent that the farmers did hardly take the government advises as far as their economic interest were concerned. Yield per 10a. of various crops from the reclaimed uplands by year were surveyed as seen in Table 12. On the average, barley production in the reclaimed areas achieved 83.3% of the average unit yield from the existing upland in its 5 th year. Soybean yields showed a modest increase from 64% in the first year to 95%, in the 5 th year. In contrast, economic crops such as red pepper, totacco and radish achieved their maximum target yields in 3 years from starting to cultivate on the reclaimed farms. In order to test the post economic viability, an economic analysis was performed for each of selected subprojects on the basis of the data obtained through survey. The average actual internal economic rate of return on upland reclamation investments was found to be 20.3% which exceeded other types of projects of land and water development such as tidal land reclamation, irrigation or paddy rearrangement. The actual IRRs of subcategories of upland reclamation projects varied from 17.9% to 21.4% depending upon the kinds of cropping system adopted in each reclaimed areas such as food, economic, fruit or forage crops.

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Appraisal of the Special Production Area Development Project in Rural Area and Countermeasures for Off-farm Income Increase (The Case of Chungnam Province) (농어촌(農漁村) 특산단지개발사업(特産團地開發事業)의 평가(評價)와 농외소득증대방안(農外所得增大方案) (충청남도(忠淸南道)를 중심(中心)으로))

  • Lim, Jae Hwan
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.164-179
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    • 1991
  • Korean agriculture has encountered two problems. One is internal income disparity between rural and urbarn area and the other is external Uruguay Round trade problems as an abolition of direct and indirect import barriers, reduction in export subsidies and to reduce internal price supports. These problems will be brought severe farm problems such as decreasing farm household income and repressing agricultural growth in the near future. Considering the above inevitable facts Korean government has implemented several development projects such as rural industrial area development project, rural special production area development project, leisuresight seeing farm development project, traditional food development project, unskilled labor training project for off-farm employment and so on, to increase farm household income through off-farm income increase. This study was mainly concentrated on the identification of operational problems and post evaluation of the rural special production area development projects which aimed at increasing non-farm incomes and giving employment opportunity for rural farmers in small factories processing regional special farm products and mine products. The main findings and problems to be solved for the successful project implementation are as followed ; 1. Total number of the special production area development projects as of the end of 1991 was amount to 138, and total number of farm household participated were estimated at 2,079, and total amount of off-farm income per farm household was reached to 3,011 thousand won. 2. The total number of processed special products have increased from 21 items in 1981 to 56 items in 1991. On the other hand the total number of farm household participated in the projects have decreased from 2,518 to 2,079 during same period. 3. Total amount of investment for the projects has increased from 1,429 million won in 1981 to 24,760 million won in 1991 but the rate of G'T loan of the total investment has reduced from 24.5% to 5.2% during same period. 4. 138 special production area development project are classified into 6 kinds of commodity groups such as 19 of general industrial good production areas, 52 of folks-industrial art objects production areas, 39 of food processing areas, 9 of fiber and texstile processing areas, 18 of agricultural and fishery inputs processing areas and 1 of stone processing area. 5. The total production value in 1990 was estimated 20,169 million won of which export was amount to 2,627 million won. 6. The finacial rate of return of the UNGOK KUGIJA Tea processing Project operated by UNGOK coops and BAKSAN ginseng tea processing project were estimated at 45.4% (B/C Ratio=1.17, NPV=152.5 million won) and 17.7% (B/C Ratio=1.12, NPV=120.2 million won) respectively. 7. More favorite terms and condition of the loan including collateral problems have to be given to farmers participated. Heavy investment and G'T subsidy policies should be started for the successful project implementation anf farm household income increase. 8. To expand market demand of the rural special goods G'T have to provide special program of TV or other mass media for commodity propaganda and the total cost concerned must be supported by G'T subsidy. 9. The special farm products as GUGUJA,MOSI'Ramie', Ginseng. SOGOKJU,HEMP,Mushroom.DUGYUNJU and Chesnut processing projects have to be propelled and expanded for off-farm income increase in Chung Nam Province. 10. Direct operational pattern of the special production area by coops is more favorable to farmers and recommendable considering with off-farm income increase and market demand creation throughout Korea. 11. In rural area, special organizations for project appraisal are not exist. Accordingly special training program, project appraisal, formulation and preparation for civil servants concerned have to be prepared for project selection and sound implementation under limited budget and financial support.

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Evaluation on Thermal Performance Along with Constructability and Economic Feasibility of Large-diameter Cast-in-place Energy Pile (대구경 현장타설 에너지파일의 열교환 성능과 시공성 및 경제성 분석)

  • Park, Sangwoo;Sung, Chihun;Lee, Dongseop;Jung, Kyoungsik;Choi, Hangseok
    • Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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    • v.31 no.5
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    • pp.5-21
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    • 2015
  • An energy pile is a novel type of ground heat exchangers (GHEX's) which sets up heat exchange pipes inside a pile foundation, and allows to circulate a working fluid through the pipe for exchanging thermal energy with the surrounding ground stratum. Using existing foundation structure, the energy pile can function not only as a structural foundation but also as a GHEX. In this paper, six full-scale energy piles were constructed in a test bed with various configurations of the heat exchange pipe inside large-diameter cast-in-place piles, that is, three parallel U-type heat exchangers (5, 8 and 10 pairs), two coil type heat exchangers (with a 500 mm and 200 mm pitch), and one S-type heat exchanger. During constructing the energy piles, the constructability of each energy pile was evaluated with consideration of the installation time, the number of workers and any difficulty for installing. In order to evaluate the thermal performance of energy piles, the thermal performance tests were carried out by applying intermittent (8 hours operating-16 hours pause) artificial cooling operation to simulate a cooling load for commercial buildings. Through the thermal performance tests, the heat exchange rates of the six energy piles were evaluated in terms of the heat exchange amount normalized with the length of energy pile and/or the length of heat exchange pipe. Finally, the economic feasibility of energy pile was evaluated according to the various types of heat exchange pipe by calculating demanded expenses per 1 W/m based on the thermal performance test results along with the market value of heat exchange pipes and labor cost.

Technical Efficiency in Korea: Interindustry Determinants and Dynamic Stability (기술적(技術的) 효율성(效率性)의 결정요인(決定要因)과 동태적(動態的) 변화(變化))

  • Yoo, Seong-min
    • KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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    • v.12 no.4
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    • pp.21-46
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    • 1990
  • This paper, a sequel to Yoo and Lee (1990), attempts to investigate the interindustry determinants of technical efficiency in Korea's manufacturing industries, and also to conduct an exploratory analysis on the stability of technical efficiency over time. The hypotheses set forth in this paper are most found in the existing literature on technical efficiency. They are, however, revised and shed a new light upon, whenever possible, to accommodate any Korea-specific conditions. The set of regressors used in the cross-sectional analysis are chosen and the hypotheses are posed in such a way that our result can be made comparable to those of similar studies conducted for the U.S. and Japan by Caves and Barton (1990) and Uekusa and Torii (1987), respectively. It is interesting to observe a certain degree of similarity as well as differentiation between the cross-section evidence on Korea's manufacturing industries and that on the U.S. and Japanese industries. As for the similarities, we can find positive and significant effects on technical efficiency of relative size of production and the extent of specialization in production, and negative and significant effect of the variations in capital-labor ratio within industries. The curvature influence of concentration ratio on technical efficiency is also confirmed in the Korean case. There are differences, too. We cannot find any significant effects of capital vintage, R&D and foreign competition on technical efficiency, all of which were shown to be robust determinants of technical efficiency in the U.S. case. We note, however, that the variables measuring capital vintage effect, R&D and the degree of foreign competition in Korean markets are suspected to suffer from serious measurement errors incurred in data collection and/or conversion of industrial classification system into the KSIC (Korea Standard Industrial Classification) system. Thus, we are reluctant to accept the findings on the effects of these variables as definitive conclusions on Korea's industrial organization. Another finding that interests us is that the cross-industry evidence becomes consistently strong when we use the efficiency estimates based on gross output instead of value added, which provides us with an ex post empirical criterion to choose an output measure between the two in estimating the production frontier. We also conduct exploratory analyses on the stability of the estimates of technical efficiency in Korea's manufacturing industries. Though the method of testing stability employed in this paper is never a complete one, we cannot find strong evidence that our efficiency estimates are stable over time. The outcome is both surprising and disappointing. We can also show that the instability of technical efficiency over time is partly explained by the way we constructed our measures of technical efficiency. To the extent that our efficiency estimates depend on the shape of the empirical distribution of plants in the input-output space, any movements of the production frontier over time are not reflected in the estimates, and possibilities exist of associating a higher level of technical efficiency with a downward movement of the production frontier over time, and so on. Thus, we find that efficiency measures that take into account not only the distributional changes, but also the shifts of the production frontier over time, increase the extent of stability, and are more appropriate for use in a dynamic context. The remaining portion of the instability of technical efficiency over time is not explained satisfactorily in this paper, and future research should address this question.

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