• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.113-132
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• 2007

Price rigidity involves prices that do not change with the regularity predicted by standard economic theory. It is of long-standing interest for firms, industries and the economy as a whole. However, due to the difficulty of measuring price rigidity and price adjustments directly, only a few studies have attempted to provide empirical evidence for explanatory theories from Economics and Marketing. This paper proposes and validates a research model to examine different theories of price rigidity and to predict what variables can explain the observed empirical regularities and variations in price adjustment patterns of Internet-based retailers. I specify and test a model using more than 3 million daily observations on 385 books, 118 DVDs and 154 CDs, sold by 22 Internet-based retailers that were collected over a 676-day period from March 2003 to February 2005. I obtained a number of interesting findings from the estimation of our logit model. First, quality seems to play a role-I find that both price levels as proxies for store quality, and information on the quality of a product consumers have, affect online price rigidity. Second, greater competition(i.e., less industry concentration) leads to less price rigidity(i.e., more price changes) on the Internet. I also find that Internet-based sellers more frequently change the prices of popular products, and the sellers with broader product coverage change prices less frequently, which seem due to economic forces faced by these Internet-based sellers. To the best of my knowledge, this research is the first to empirically assess price rigidity patterns for multiple industries in Internet-based retailing, and attempt to explain the variation in these patterns. I found that price changes are more likely to be driven by quality, competitive and economic considerations. These results speak to both the IS and economics literatures. To the IS literature these results suggest we take economic considerations into account in more sophisticated ways. The existence and variation in price rigidity argue that simplistic assumptions about frictionless and completely flexible digital prices do not capture the richness of pricing behavior on the Internet. The quality, competitive and economic forces identified in this model suggest promising directions for future theoretical and empirical work on their role in these technologically changing markets. To the economics literature these results offer new evidence on the sources of price rigidity, which can then be incorporated into the development of models of pricing at the firm, industry and even macro-economic level of analysis. It also suggests that there is much to be learned through interdisciplinary research between the IS, economics and related business disciplines.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.45-68
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• 2018

We uncover a nexus between actual inflation, inflation perceptions and expectations in Korea through analyzing micro as well as aggregate data from the Consumer Survey. We document two novel findings. First, households' subjective perceptions of inflation exert more impact on expectation formation than actual inflation. Second, inflation perceptions are broadly in line with the trajectory of the inflation trend. This is attributable to the fact that changes in actual inflation have been generated mainly by the consumption items whose price changes are perceived more sensitively as those items are frequently bought or have a larger share in household expenditures. Conducting a cross-country comparison, we find that information rigidity in expectation formation process and the nexus between perceptions and expectations of inflation prove to be stronger in Korea. Additionally, we reconfirm the existing finding that the scope of information utilized for forming inflation expectations is fairly circumscribed.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.27-36
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• 2016

Purpose - Considering the importance of housing needs to real estate market, domestic studies on real estate prices from the perspective of demand are basically based on macro-data, but relatively few are associated with micro-data of urban real estate demand. We try to find a reliable relation of elasticity of demand and commercial housing market. Research design, data, and methodology - In this paper, we have derived housing demand theoretic method and have utilized micro-data of residential family housing survey of downtown area in Kunming City in October, 2015 to estimate income elasticity and price elasticity of housing demand respectively and make a comparative analysis. Results - The results indicate that income elasticity and price elasticity of families with owner-occupied housing are both larger than those of families with rental housing. Income elasticity of housing demand of urban residential families in Kunming is far below the foreign average and eastern coastal cities level, however, the corresponding price elasticity is far higher. Conclusions - We suggest that housing affordability of urban families in western China are constrained by the level of economic development, and the current housing price level has exceeded the economic affordability and psychological expectation of ordinary residents. Furthermore, noticing the great rigidity of housing demand, the expansion space of housing market for improvement and for commodity is limited.

• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.321-329
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• 2006

The popularity of Ni-Cr-Mo based metal alloys for metal-ceramic crown have increased recently because of low price, superior yield strength and rigidity. the use of these alloys give them the potential advantage of thinner copping with the required rigidity for long span bridges. The purpose of this study was to assess the microstructures and mechanical properties of Ni-Cr-Mo-(Si,Al,Nb,Zr,Ti.Cu,Mm) based Alloys not containing beryllium(Be) related toxic effects. The abtained results indicated that as-cast these specimen alloys showed compositional and microstructural differences, and mechanical properties values of Ni69Cr20Mo5Si2Al4 alloy among these specimen alloys was found to be superior to those of commercial Ni-Cr based alloy using in market place today.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2016.05a
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• pp.194-194
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• 2016

Gansu, located in the northwestern region, is a typical agricultural province of arid, semiarid in China. The shortage of water resources is the biggest obstacle of Gansu Province's development, and the dry farming water-saving is the eternal theme of Gansu agricultural sustainable development. In recent years, intensify reform in Gansu, has walked out a successful way in the agricultural water-saving. Using the integrated river basin governance as opportunity, the total water-using quantity was regarded as rigidity to retrain, distributed to counties (districts), irrigated areas, towns, associations, groups step by step. Agricultural water price was substantially increased, with the surface water price from about $0.1RMB/m^3$ to more than $0.2 RMB/m^3$, and the ground water from zero to more than $0.1RMB/m^3$. Simultaneously, the difference water prices and over-quota water progression price markup were carried out. The transaction of water rights was encouraged to impel the peasant to establish the consciousness of saving-water. The regulatory documents were formulated to standardize the scope, condition, mode, program etc. of agriculture water-rights transaction, to guarantees the transaction of water rights is carries out in order. The pattern of farming was optimized and adjusted, reducing the high water-consumption crop, increasing economic crops with high benefit and low water-consumption, developing industrialized agricultures such as green house. The relative engineering and measuring facility were comprehensively improved, with the anti-seepage of canal system and the enforcement of dynamo-electric well, developing high-efficient water-saving irrigation and overall metering facilities. The water fine-grained management has realized, and obvious water-saving effect has obtained: water-using rate in the irrigation area by river water has brought up to 0.57 from 0.52, and by well water up to 0.84 from 0.76. Although the water price has increased, the proportion that the water rate expenditure accounted for the cost lasts decline, and the farmers' income has gone up. The peasants express, the used water is few, and it is few to till land, but the income is many, and life is better.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.311-342
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• 2015

We evaluate two main rationales of massive policy intervention of Lee Administration in the Korean transportation fuel market: high market share of domestic refineries, perceived by the Administration as the result of high market concentration, and asymmetry in price adjustment, perceived as the result of collusion. Domestic refineries, huge in capacity and located at seaports, maintain international competitiveness in price. Considering market openness offering preferential treatment to importers, they set domestic prices competitively on the basis of MOPS prices. Yet, the price competitiveness of domestic refineries is so high that they are able to sustain high market share. We confirm that the Korean before-tax consumer prices of gasoline and diesel are lower than Japan's and the weighted averages of 27 EU countries by as much as 159KRW and 21KRW per liter in the case of gasoline and 170KRW and 63KRW in the case of diesel. Price asymmetry is caused by diverse economic and managerial reasons and, as FTC (2005) states, price asymmetry does not immediately imply exercise of market power or collusion. We analyzed price asymmetry in Korea, Japan and 14 EU countries, and found asymmetry in Korea and 11 EU countries in the case of gasoline and in Korea and 8 EU countries in the case of diesel.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.23-40
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• 2018

In the 2000s, China has been pushing the issue of San-Nong as a national priority. Farmland transfer, one of the solutions to the problem of San-Nong, has grown rapidly over the past decade. Especially, as farmland transfer was promoted, the rural economy developed and the living standards of the farmers improved greatly. However, the rigidity of farmland transfer type, which focuses on Zhuan-Bao method, hinders farmers' willingness to relocate to farmland transfer and ultimately acts as an obstacle in promoting massive farmland transfer. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the determinants of farmland transfer types and farmland transfer prices in Chinese farmers. Based on the results of the analysis, the following implications are suggested. First, farmers should be instructed to farmland transfer in a Ru-Gu manner; Second, the contract period must be long; Third, it is necessary to prepare countermeasures for the farmland transfer by crops; Fourth, Educational programs should be built for the farmers of farmland transfer.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.107-120
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• 2010

In today's uncertain economic environment, the evaluation of safety for investment alternatives is of practical importance in manufacturing companies. This paper examines a method of quantitatively evaluating profitability and risk for multiple alternatives using the total-cost unit-cost domain. The paper assumes such factors as unit sales price, sales and production volume, unit variable cost, fixed cost, and yield for each alternative. The paper incorporates the relationship between production capacity and demand, distinguishing between cases of production capacity surplus and shortage for each year over the entire planning horizon. The paper investigates the case in which the values of each factor independently move in the direction of decreasing profit each year, and clarifies the procedure of comparing safety among multiple investment alternatives on a single consolidated total-cost unit-cost domain. The difficulty of the problem lies in the method of consolidating multiple total-cost unit-cost domains into a single domain since the combination of years of capacity surplus and shortage depends upon the change values in each factor under consideration. A systematic method of evaluating profitability as well as risk is presented, and the validity of the proposed method is verified using a numerical example.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2019

In the past, social insurance premiums, such as national pension and national health insurance, is contained within the costs of construction projects, have been lowered due to price competition of companies participating in the bidding. The government is implementing the "Ex-post settlement system" to improve the problem. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the concept of an Ex-post settlement system and background of its introduction and to identify problems in the management of the system. The problems of the Ex-post settlement system are: 1) avoiding the participation of construction workers, 2) the rigidity of the insurance premium settlement method in construction field, and 3) the cause of direct construction cost reduction. The ways to improve these problems are: 1) excluding social insurance premiums from construction project cost, 2) securing flexibility of the settlement method of insurance premiums in construction field, and 3) expanding the scope of persons eligible to participate in social insurance.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.119-132
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• 2016

Weighting of silk fabrics have long been practiced in silk fabric trading based on the primary consideration of price-weight, and secondary one of quality improvement in handle, luster, and drape properties. Recent trend of practicing weighting of silk fabrics is, however, focused on the improvement of the handle, luster, drape, and other properties. During the finishing processes of synthetic fiber, nylon, comprising amide structure, include the use of tannic acid, especially in the dyeing. A multitude of studies are being implemented in terms of improving fastness to washing, fastness to light of dyed nylon product, or the light fastness of nylon 6 itself. In this study, the effects of various tannic acid treatments on the physical properties related to the handle of nylon 6 and silk fabrics are examined and reviewed. The effects of treatment condition of the tannic acid, e.g., the concentration of the aqueous tannic acid solution, treatment time, and temperature were investigated. As the concentration of the aqueous solution of tannic acid increased, the bending rigidity values of the silk and nylon 6 fabrics increased. The treated fabrics felt stiff to the touch. Within the mild conditions of bending employed in the bending measurement of KES, nylon 6 treated fabric specimen exhibited a trend of improvement of bending resiliency within the range of small bending deformation. The weight of treated fabrics have all increased. The air-permeability values decreased as the treatment concentration increased. However, the decrease tendency of air permeability values may be alleviated by adjusting the fabric count during the tentering or expanding processes, either by tension adjustment or heat treatment. Optimum conditions of the treatment for nylon 6 are 1.25% tannic acid concentration, bath temperature of $85^{\circ}C$, pH 3.1, and those for silk fabric treatment are 1.25% tannic acid concentration, bath temperature of $85^{\circ}C$, pH 3.1. The treatment conditions will lead to the improvement in the properties of fabrics for summer.