• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.339-347
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• 2004

This paper asks the question: what choice of environmental policy instruments is efficient to reduce sulfur dioxide from stationary sources\ulcorner: In Korea, command and control has been a common way of controlling $SO_2-emissions.$ When compared to the non-incentive environmental policy instrument such as command and control, economic incentive environmental policy instrument has been the advantage of making polluter himself flexibly deals with in marginal abatement cost to develop environmental technology in the long view. Therefore, the application possibility of the incentive environmental policy instrument was studied in this research to realize the countermeasure for controlling of $SO_2-emissions.$ As a result, enforcement of the countermeasure such as flue gas desulfurizer by command and control would be suitable because power generation is performed by the public or for the public in source of air pollution and thus, economic principle is not applied to the polluter. In the source of industrial pollution, enforcement of fuel tax is found to be suitable for the countermeasure for the use of low sulfur oil in terms of the flexibility of demand for the price in the long tenn. For the permissible air pollution standards applicable to all air pollutant emitting facilities, enforcement of incentive environmental policy such as bubble, off-set, banking policy or tradeable emission penn its would be ideal in long terms according to the regional characteristics and the number and scale of air pollutant emitting facilities.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.132-157
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• 2011

The purpose of this article is to examine the cause of policy non-compliance in the case of pharmaceutical rebates from the perspective of rational choice institutionalism. In Korea, there have been rebates practices between pharmaceutical companies and hospitals since the introduction of the Actual Remuneration System for insured medicine in 1999. The government has chosen the policy means of punishment to eliminate pharmaceutical rebates but the illegal practices are still widespread. Institution in rational choice institutionalism usually reflects the incentives and preferences of actors, and the Actual Remuneration System has resulted in a the lack of procedures to ensure savings on drug expenditures. Pharmaceutical rebates are the product of the institutions which reflect their incentives: the Actual Remuneration System, the current pricing policy for generic drugs, the drug distribution system, and so on. In the end, the problem of the rebates is the consequence of policy non-compliance as actors' rational choice because their incentives lead to opportunistic behaviors. We should therefore understand the incentive structure of policy stakeholders, which is derived from the view of new institutionalism; also, the newly designed Korean drug pricing policy reform must be compatible with the incentive structure.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.263-274
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• 2012

This study describes the hypertensive patients characteristics associated with the health incentive point program, and develops and analyzes a simple predictive model of participation in the program. Based on the Incheon Chronic Disease Management System(iCDMS), a model program of community partnership for hypertensive or diabetic patients detection and follow-up since 2005 in Incheon metropolitan city, a cross-sectional design was used in this study. An effective 10.844 adults sample was divided into groups according to participation in the health incentive point program and continuing treatment, and individual and health characteristics among groups were compared. Furthermore, the predictors associated with participation in the program were identified by the logistic regression analysis. After the health incentive point program in iCDMS was introduced, the number of hypertensive patients participation in the program increased 23.9 times which is vastly high given the various programs were provided. There were statistically significant differences among the groups: age(p=0.000), treatment compliance(p=0.000), and blood pressure control at the last measurement(p=0.000), in particular, between participation group(GroupI, n=246) and non-participation group(GroupIII, n=10,408). Furthermore, age over 60 years(OR: 0.33), treatment compliance(OR: 3.49~3.78) and blood pressure controls(OR: 2.13~2.30) were statistically significant predictors associated with participation in the program, based on the logistic regression analysis with GroupI and GroupIII. To increase participation in the health incentive point program, variables such as age, treatment compliance and blood pressure controls are more concerned. And, high-risk patients and family members need targeted health incentive programs.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.87-99
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• 2008

Besieged by needs for upgrading the current Internet, social pressures, and regulatory concerns, a network operator may be left with few options to Improve his services. Yet he can still consider a transition prioritizing network services. In this paper, we describe a transition from a non-priority system to a prioritized one, using non-preemptive M/G/1 model. After reviewing the constraints and theoretical results from past research, we describe steps making the transition Pareto-improving, which boils down to a multi-goal search for a Pareto-improving state. We use a genetic algorithm that captures actual transition costs along with incentive-compatible and Pareto-Improving constraints. Simulation results demonstrate that the initial post-transition solutions are typically Pareto-improving. for non Pareto-improving solutions, the heuristic quickly generates Pareto-improving and incentive-compatible solutions.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.247-255
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• 2017

Background: South Korea has experienced problems with excessive pharmaceutical expenditures. In 2010, the South Korean government introduced an outpatient prescription incentive program to effectively manage pharmaceutical expenditures. Therefore, we examined the relationship between the outpatient prescription incentive program and pharmaceutical expenditures. Methods: We used data from the Korean National Health Insurance claims database, which included medical claims filed for 22,732 clinics from 2011-2014 to evaluate associated pharmaceutical expenditures. We performed multiple regression analysis and Poisson regression analysis using generalized estimating equation models to examine the associations between outpatient prescription incentives and the outcome variables. Results: The data used in this study consisted of 123,392 cases from 22,372 clinics (average 5.4 periods follow-up). Clinics that had received outpatient prescription incentives in the last period had better cost saving and Outpatient Prescribing Costliness Index (OPCI) (received: proportion of cost saving, ${\beta}=6.8179$; p-value < 0.0001; OPCI, ${\beta}=-0.0227$; p-value < 0.0001; reference = non-received). Moreover, these clinics had higher risk in the provision of outpatient prescription incentive (relative risk, 2.772; 95% confidence interval, 2.720 to 2.824). The associations were higher in clinics that had separate prescribing and dispensing programs, or had professional staff. Conclusion: The introduction of an outpatient prescription incentive program for clinics effectively managed problems with rapid increases of pharmaceutical expenditures in South Korea. However, the pharmaceutical expenditures still increased in spite of the positive impact of the outpatient prescription incentive program. Therefore, healthcare professionals and health policy makers should develop more effective alternatives (i.e., for clinics without separate prescribing and dispensing programs) based on our results.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.69-96
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• 2013

This paper is to critically review the economic reasoning of non-sustainability of welfare state due to its intrinsic incentive problems and to see how the nordic welfare state responds to them. The welfare state as a political design of state to pursue equality has social insurance as its main economic function. It survives market failure of private insurance to contribute to human capital investment and industrial restructuring. The universal tax-financed welfare state, however, has the problem of tragedy of commons such as reduced work incentive and work ethics. But, the existing nordic welfare state overcomes it through employment-focused policy arrangements, maintenance of work ethics and benefits moral, incentive mechanism of wage-compression, public educational investment and its complementation with social security. The Nordic model shows that problems of incentive and moral are not about those of theory and reasoning, but about their reality which policies and institutions could respond to.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2006

Purpose: This study was to examine the effects of deep breathing exercises with Incentive Spirometer on the pulmonary ventilatory function of pnemothorax patients undergoing a thoracotomy. Mothod: This experiment used anonequivalent control group non-synchronized design which compared pre-experimental measures with post-experimental ones. The subjects of this study were 34 inpatients who were scheduled for a thoracotomy and classified into the experimental group (17 patients) or control group (17 patients) by using an Incentive Spirometer or not. The collected data was analyzed by a SPSS Win I PC (percentage, mean, standard deviation, chi-square test, t-test, repeated measured two-way ANOVA). Result: The Pulmonary Ventilatory Function of the experimental and control group were significantly increased on the first day, third day, and fifth day after the thoracotomy, but the group interaction period was not significant. Conclusion: This study showed that the deep breathing exercises with an Incentive Spirometer and deep breathing exercise without an Incentive Spirometer were both effective for recovering the pulmonary ventilatory function after a thoracotomy.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.167-175
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• 2008

Purpose: To examine the changes in nurse staffing in hospitals after implementing the policy of differentiating inpatient nursing fees by staffing grades. Method: The study sample included 43 tertiary hospitals, 185 general hospitals, and 282 non-general hospitals that were operating in both 1999 and 2008. Nurse staffing grade was categorized from Grade 1 (highest) to 6 (lowest) in 1999 or Grade 7 in 2008, based on the nurse-to-bed ratio. Results: Tertiary hospitals at Grade 3 and Grade 4 accounted for 49% and 35%, respectively, in 2008, whereas 63% were Grade 6 in 1999. General hospitals at Grade 6 decreased from 87% to 48%. In non-general hospitals, little change was found in the staffing distribution, in that 92% still remained in Grade 6 or 7 in 2008. Forty tertiary hospitals (93%) and 45% of general hospitals improved their staffing grades, while only 7% of non-general hospitals did. Greater likelihood of improvement in staffing grades was found in general hospitals located in metropolitan areas or having 250 or more beds. Conclusion: Elaboration of the financial incentive system is needed to increase the policy impact on staffing improvement.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.7-27
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• 1996

It is very costly to construct transportation facilities such as roads, bridges, tunnels, and public parking lots mainly because land price is very high in metropolis like Seoul. Private car oweners use these facilities more extensively than public transportation users. However, the government does not impose proper charges for using these facilities. Such improper charge causes traffic congestion and then decreases social welfare in efficiency and equity. To solve problem, many traffic demand management policies are used. Traffic management policies which are currently used or under consideration by the City Government of Seoul include the imposition of road tolls, increase of parking fees in public parking lots, increase of gasoline taxes, expanded implementation of bus only lanes, and shippujae, which requires one(1) non-driving day for 10 calendar days. This study examined the impacts of such policies on the different income classes using simulation analysis. We found that the impacts of market-oriented policies such as the imposition of road tolls and the increase of gasoline taxes is regressive. Also, we found that while the low and middle income private car users have incentive have incentive for public transportation use, the high income private car users have no incentive for public transportation use in many cases.

• International Journal of Quality Innovation
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.129-147
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• 2008

This research is to investigate the effect of the improvement of investment environments with investment incentive on Korean national economy by looking into the foreign investment support system in Korea. To this end, first research model was set up based on our literary study and case study was conducted on 150 foreign companies that were located in industrial complex for foreign companies, received the tax benefit and government subsidization. And it was found that even though the foreign companies were contributing to the national economy in general such as in the area of production, export, employment, development of technology, there was no significant contributory difference between the investment incentive beneficiary and non-beneficiary foreign companies. Therefore it deemed reasonable to reconsider the way Korean government supports foreign companies in Korea and to reinforce foreign companies' relevance to national policy agenda with additional incentives to foreign companies located in comparatively less developed areas. As a way to promote foreign investment, promotion of investment infra such as improvement of follow-up services, openness to foreign investment, industrial deregulations in capital area, revitalization of free economic zone, efficient system to promote foreign investment and the reinforcement of public relations were considered necessary, especially the upgrading of economic structure and the integrated management of domestic and foreign investors deemed necessary for the optimal distribution of the industries.