• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.46 no.1
• /
• pp.91-129
• /
• 2024

The Bank of Korea, through a legal amendment in 2011 following the financial crisis, was entrusted with the additional responsibility of financial stability beyond its existing mandate of price stability. Since then, concerns have been raised about the prolonged increase in household debt compared to income conditions, which could constrain consumption and growth and increase the possibility of a crisis in the event of negative economic shocks. The current accumulation of financial imbalances suggests a critical period for the government and central bank to be more vigilant, ensuring it does not impede the stable flow of our financial and economic systems. This study examines the applicability of the Integrated Inflation Targeting (IIT) framework proposed by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) for macro-financial stability in promoting long-term economic stability. Using VAR models, the study reveals a clear increase in risk appetite following interest rate cuts after the financial crisis, leading to a rise in household debt. Additionally, analyzing the central bank's conduct of monetary policy from 2000 to 2021 through DSGE models indicates that the Bank of Korea has operated with a form of IIT, considering both inflation and growth in its policy decisions, with some responsiveness to the increase in household debt. However, the estimation of a high interest rate smoothing coefficient suggests a cautious approach to interest rate adjustments. Furthermore, estimating the optimal interest rate rule to minimize the central bank's loss function reveals that a policy considering inflation, growth, and being mindful of household credit conditions is superior. It suggests that the policy of actively adjusting the benchmark interest rate in response to changes in economic conditions and being attentive to household credit situations when household debt is increasing rapidly compared to income conditions has been analyzed as a desirable policy approach. Based on these findings, we conclude that the integrated inflation targeting framework proposed by the BIS could be considered as an alternative policy system that supports the stable growth of the economy in the medium to long term.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.135-148
• /
• 2004

Rice is not only main food but also key farm income source of Korean farmers. In spite of the above facts, rice productivity was decreased on account of drought in every 2 or 3 years interval owing to the vulnerability of irrigation facilities throughout Korea in the past decades. As an context of the first five year economic development plan, all weather farming programme including 4 big river basin comprehensive development projects and large and medium sized irrigation water development projects were carried out successfully. Therefore the area of irrigated paddy were increased from 58% in 1970 to 76.2% in 1999. In the past decades, the Government had invested heavy financial funds to develop irrigation water but as an factor share analysis, the contribution rates of irrigation water and investment for farmland base development project have not been identified yet in national agricultural economic level. It is very scarce to find out the papers concerned to macro-economic factor share analysis or contribution rates of water and investment cost to rice production value in Korea considering the production function of the quantity of irrigation water and investment cost as independent variables. Accordingly this paper covered and aimed at identifying (1) derivation of rice production function with the time serial data from 1965 to 1999 and the contribution rates of irrigation water and total investment cost for farmland base development project. The analytical model of the contribution rates was adapted the famous Cobb-Douglass production function. According to the model analysis, the contribution rate of irrigation water to rice production in Korea was shown 37.8% which was equivalent to 0.28 of the production elasticity of water. The contribution rate of farmland base development project cost was revealed 22% and direct production cost of rice was contributed 60% in the growth of rice production and farm mechanization costs contributed to 18% of it respectively. The two contribution rates comparing with the direct production cost were small but without irrigation water and farmland base development, application of high-pay off inputs and farm mechanization might be impossible. Considering the food security and to cope with the frequent drought, rice farming and investment for the irrigation water development should be continued even in WTO system.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.117-156
• /
• 2012

This paper decomposes and estimates trend/cyclical components of some key macro variables-GDP, inflation, and interest rate, using a simple DSGE model along with flexible trend specification. The extracted cyclical components of output and interest rate are similar to HP-filtered counterparts, despite some differences in persistence and volatility, while inflation resembles that from BK filtering. This implies that the usual practice of applying a single filtering method to the data of interest may be problematic. When the baseline model is extended to incorporate consumption habit and price indexation, habit turns out to be important in explaining the persistence of business cycles. Comparison of several alternative models shows that the usual practice of estimation of DSGE model using filtered data leads to biased results. Finally, various sensitivity analyses illustrate that (1) allowing for correlation between structural cyclical shocks and trend shocks and (2) including irregular components (in inflation rate) may deliver interesting/important implication for gap estimates.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.99-128
• /
• 2011

University-to-industry technology transfer has become an increasingly important issue in recent years. Studies on technology transfer and commercialization evolved to diverse knowledge transfer channels. Among them, university spin-off is not only known as the most direct and tangible method but also suitable for effectively transferring tacit knowledge. Much of the studies on university spin-offs are mostly focused on macro-level but studies using the individual professors as their unit of analysis need better understanding as well. This paper investigates why the speed of university spin-off formations differ among individual professors drawing on the resource-based view. Utilizing data of 149 professors in 25 universities who formed spin-offs, Cox regression results suggest that professors' technological research capabilities, academic research capabilities and financial resources promote university spin-off formations.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.767-787
• /
• 2018

Technology-driven innovation and job-creation has each been the subject of much scholarly attention, but have largely been considered separately rather than in conjunction with each other. While the previous literature on economics pinpointed the macro effects on industry-level, this study explores the micro-level comparisons on innovation sources over the employment and financial performances. The PSM (propensity-score matching) analysis presents that firms, involved in an inward technology, tend to have higher employees with dominant technology capabilities than in-house R&D firms. The in-house R&D firms, on the contrary, have superior financial performances, suggesting that external technology commercialized firms suffer from low transformative efficiency. The mediation test analysis corroborates that the external technology-driven innovation induces more human resources in internalizing the exogenous technology. The positive relationship between R&D innovation and employment allow verification of the government's intervention in the promotion of technology commercialization in public sector. On the other hand, it also signals that the policy needs to enhance the recipient firms' commercializing capacity rather than a 'one-hit' transaction.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.279-288
• /
• 2017

Objectives: Recommended Menu (RM) prepared according to the Target Pattern expected to meet the dietary reference intake (DRI) of nutrients. Nutritional adequacy of RM in 'DRI for Koreans 2015' were analyzed to verify whether such expectation was fulfilled. Methods: Dishes in RM are categorized by 5 food groups, and number and types of dishes for main meal and between-meals were analyzed. The energy and 12 nutrients (protein, dietary fiber, Ca, P, Fe, Na, K, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and vitamin C) contents in 10 RMs were calculated using the food composition table (CD) in 'DRI for Koreans'. Energy, energy contribution ratio, and nutrient contents in 10 RMs for 18 age groups were evaluated based on the 'DRI for Koreans 2015'. Results: Number of dishes per meal were 4.83, and representative table setting consisted of cooked rice + soup (or stew) +3 side dishes. Energy contents of RM were 75~109% of estimated energy requirement (EER). None of the RM met the DRI of all 12 nutrients examined. Calcium was the most insufficient nutrient. Only 1-2 years' RM met the DRI, all the other RMs did not meet the calcium DRI. Dietary fiber and potassium contents were also insufficient in most RM. In adult male's RM, only 1 nutrient, i.e. calcium did not meet the DRI, but in female adult's RM, 5~6 nutrients did not meet the DRI. Energy contribution ratio of carbohydrate, protein, and fat in RM were 59.0~70.4%, 15.7~17.5%, 12.1~23.5%, respectively. And 4 RMs out of 10 exceeded the upper limit of acceptable macro-nutrient distribution range (AMDR) of carbohydrate and 3 RMs out of 10 RM were below the lower limit of fat AMDR. Contribution ratio of nutrients were ${\geq}40%$ by food groups were as follows: grain group in energy and carbohydrate; meat fish egg legume group in fat, protein, and niacin; vegetables group in dietary fiber, vitamin A, and vitamin C; milk dairy products group in calcium. Conclusions: RM prepared according to the Target Pattern did not meet nutritional adequacy as expected. Especially calcium, potassium, and dietary fiber contents are needed to be increased in many RMs. Further, energy content in RM needs to be adjusted for fat sugar food group assigned in Target Pattern and condiment.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.1-30
• /
• 2021

Due to the recent development of system semiconductors, technical innovation for the electric devices of the automobile industry is rapidly progressing. In particular, the electric device of automobiles is accelerating technology development competition among automobile parts makers, and the development cycle is also changing rapidly. Due to these changes, the importance of strategic planning for R&D is further strengthened. Due to the paradigm shift in the automobile industry, the Product-Technical Roadmap (P/TRM), one of the R&D strategies, analyzes technology forecasting, technology level evaluation, and technology acquisition method (Make/Collaborate/Buy) at the planning stage. The product-technical roadmap is a tool that identifies customer needs of products and technologies, selects technologies and sets development directions. However, most companies are developing the product-technical roadmap through a qualitative method that mainly relies on the technical papers, patent analysis, and expert Delphi method. In this study, empirical research was conducted through simulations that can supplement and strengthen the product-technical roadmap centered on the automobile industry by fusing Gartner's hype cycle, cumulative moving average-based data preprocessing, and deep learning (LSTM) time series analysis techniques. The empirical study presented in this paper can be used not only in the automobile industry but also in other manufacturing fields in general. In addition, from the corporate point of view, it is considered that it will become a foundation for moving forward as a leading company by providing products to the market in a timely manner through a more accurate product-technical roadmap, breaking away from the roadmap preparation method that has relied on qualitative methods.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.1045-1078
• /
• 2013

The purpose of the present study is to improve the effectiveness of Korea's ODA projects on agricultural technology transfer to Africa. This study investigates agricultural extension system of African countries and provides a direction of the systematic strategies of the Korean ODAs on agricultural technology. This study pays particular attention on Africanization of agricultural technology transfer of the Korean ODA strategies. Unlike the previous studies focusing mainly on micro level investigation on the ODA strategy development, the present study incorporates the agricultural technology dissemination system of Ethiopia and Uganda in a macro perspective to develop a desirable form of the ODA strategy. The findings illustrate that the technology dissemination systems of the case countries have different characteristics depending on the function and organization of extension agency. And their functional capability and role segmentation by the extension agency are differently configured, too. In case of Ethiopia, top-down structure for the agricultural extension system has been built. Farmers' group and field agent of the information delivery system has expanded their participation into the system. However, we also find that the system of Ethiopia still lacks effective use of its existing technology, since it puts more emphasis on management aspects than improvement of agricultural productivity for farmers. On the other hand, even though Uganda has established participatory extension system that encompasses the entire agencies of the extension system, government efforts to enhance the extension system are still concentrated on expanding research functions rather than technical dissemination. The results imply that promoting and strengthening localization of the ODA strategy has to be developed to make localization policy of the Korean ODA. The present study concludes with some specific policy implications for necessary conditions of the agricultural development in African countries.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.71-94
• /
• 1990

This paper reviews the rationale of monetary and banking intervention by an outside authority, either the government or the central bank, and seeks to delineate clearly the optimal limits to the monetary and banking deregulation currently underway in Korea as well as on a global scale. Furthermore, this paper seeks to establish an objective and balanced view on the role of the central bank, especially in light of the current discussion on the restructuring of Korea's central bank, which has been severely contaminated by interest-group politics. The discussion begins with the recognition that the modern free banking school and the new monetary economics are becoming formidable challenges to the traditional role of the government or the central bank in the monetary and banking sector. The paper reviews six arguments that have traditionally been presented to support intervention: (1) the possibility of an over-issue of bank notes under free banking instead of central banking; (2) externalities in and the public good nature of the use of money; (3) economies of scale and natural monopoly in producing money; (4) the need for macro stabilization policy due to the instability of the real sector; (5) the external effects of bank failure due to the inherent instability of the existing banking system; and (6) protection for small banknote users and depositors. Based on an analysis of the above arguments, the paper speculates on the optimal role of the government or central bank in the monetary and banking system and the optimal degree of monetary and banking deregulation. By contrast to the arguments for free banking or laissez-faire monetary systems, which become fashionable in recent years, monopoly and intervention by the government or central bank in the outside money system can be both necessary and optimal. In this case, of course, an over-issue of fiat money may be possible due to political considerations, but this issue is beyond the scope of this paper. On the other hand, the issue of inside monies based on outside money could indeed be provided for optimally under market competition by private institutions. A competitive system in issuing inside monies would help realize, to the maxim urn extent possible, external economies generated by using a single outside money. According to this reasoning, free banking activities will prevail in the inside money system, while a government monopoly will prevail in the outside money system. This speculation, then, also implies that the monetary and banking deregulation currently underway should and most likely will be limited to the inside money system, which could be liberalized to the fullest degree. It is also implied that it will be impractical to deregulate the outside money system and to allow market competition to provide outside money, in accordance with the arguments of the free banking school and the new monetary economics. Furthermore, the role of the government or central bank in this new environment will not be significantly different from their current roles. As far as the supply of fiat money continues to be monopolized by the government, the control of the supply of base money and such related responsibilities as monetary policy (argument(4)) and the lender of the last resort (argument (5)) will naturally be assigned to the outside money supplier. However, a mechanism for controlling an over-issue of fiat money by a monopolistic supplier will definitely be called for (argument(1)). A monetary policy based on a certain policy rule could be one possibility. More importantly, the deregulation of the inside money system would further increase the systemic risk inherent in the current fractional banking system, while enhancing the efficiency of the system (argument (5)). In this context, the role of the lender of the last resort would again become an instrument of paramount importance in alleviating liquidity crises in the early stages, thereby disallowing the possibility of a widespread bank run. Similarly, prudential banking supervision would also help maintain the safety and soundness of the fully deregulated banking system. These functions would also help protect depositors from losses due to bank failures (argument (6)). Finally, these speculations suggest that government or central bank authorities have probably been too conservative on the issue of the deregulation of the financial system, beyond the caution necessary to preserve system safety. Rather, only the fullest deregulation of the inside money system seems to guarantee the maximum enjoyment of external economies in the single outside money system.