• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.47-70
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to estimate total factor productivity(TFP) growth by stochastic frontier function and to grasp contributing factors of its growth rate by decomposing the total factor productivity into efficiency change, technical progress, scale change, and allocation change. Annual growth rate of total factor productivity for 1990-2003 is 0.019 (1.9%), higher than that of overall industry (0.010). The main component of TFP growth is not efficiency change but technical progress. Contributing factors of total factor productivity growth are change of allocation efficiency in port industry, technical progress in sea-transportation industry, and change of scale efficiency in transportation-equipment industry. The change of total factor productivity shows a decreasing trend since late in the 1990s. The annual technical efficiency of port-logistics industry is less than that of overall industry. Capital elasticity for output (0.391) is higher than labor elasticity (0.227), but scale economy of port-logistics industry is 0.618, which is far from optimal scale economy.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.205-211
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• 2010

Yield productivity of staple crops must be increased at least 50% by 2050, in order to feed the world population which is expected to reach 90 billions. Photosynthetic carbon assimilation and carbohydrate metabolism leading to the production of starch would be the final frontier to quest for new sources of technology enabling such a drastic increase of crop productivity. In this review, attempts to genetically engineer plant photosynthetic carbon reduction cycle and metabolic pathways to increase starch production are introduced.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.17-26
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• 2017

The total amount of overseas plant orders obtained by Korean construction companies in 2015 decreased by approximately 51% from the previous year. While a chemical plant sector has the highest portion of the plant orders by accounting for 63% of the plant industry, its orders also decreased by approximately 43% in the same year. Recently, plant construction companies in overseas projects have been dominating the engineering sector owing to their advanced technology, experience, and accumulated knowledge. Therefore, measures must be taken to secure the competitiveness of domestic companies in the global plant industry. Especially, productivity management is an important issue to strengthen the national competitiveness with the development of construction technology. As the productivity influences long term growth, we analyze productivity obstacle factors by using the revised IPA, a technique to measure attribute importance and performance. With the identified factors, we suggest improvement plans and measures to enhance productivity of overseas chemical plant projects. This study will help the companies to come up with medium and long term measures by discussing results and implications it provides.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.111-127
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• 2011

The aim of this study is to reveal the effects of government and public electronic procurement on the private sector's productivity and technical inefficiency. Three cases are analyzed. The first scenario is that the government just appears as a new consumer to enterprises. Simply participating as a new consumer to enterprises reveals that government does not contribute to the private sector's productivity or improve technical efficiency. The second case is one where the government publicly procures the private sector's service or goods using IT technologies. It is revealed that government contribute to improve the private sector's productivity and reduce inefficiency. The last case is where the government demands business to connect to governments using new IT technologies. The government demands to adopt the IT technology for connection results in improved productivity and efficiencies in the private sectors.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-27
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• 2011

This paper aims to measure and analyze R&D productivities and efficiencies of 17 major OECD countries including Korea over the 1984-2008 period by using the Malmquist Productivity Index and Data Envelopment Analysis, classifying R&D performance into an output and outcome aspects. It also searches the Korea's current status and characteristics in each R&D stage to enhance Total Factor Productivity (TFP) compared with other developed countries. Our major findings are the followings: (i) Korea's productivity index of R&D input vis-a-vis R&D output is very high (13.39% annual growth rate) compared with those of major advanced countries, whereas the annual average of efficiency index is very low (0.33), i.e. Korea's technical efficiency index has risen to 0.83 at the last time series started at 0.10 point and come up to the level of major advanced countries. (ii) the Korea's productivity index of R&D output vis-a-vis R&D outcome is very low (14.02% annual reduction rate) compared with those of major advanced countries, whereas the annual average of efficiency index is very high (0.22), i.e. Korea's integrated frontier technical efficiency index has dropped to 0.057 at the last time series started at 1.00 point and coming up to the level of major advanced countries. (iii) The productivity of R&D input vis-a-vis R&D outcome is positively correlated with that of R&D output vis-a-vis R&D outcome and the growth of R&D input factors. In a nutshell, it implicates that the effort to take advantage of R&D outputs, namely establishing the diffusion and commercialization system of technical knowledge to the level of developed countries, should be strengthened over that on the growth of R&D investment and output for enhancing R&D productivity and efficiency in Korea.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.91-102
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• 2020

This study constructed production frontiers of inputs and outputs in a sequential manner, measured inefficiencies by applying a non-radial sequential weighted Russell directional distance function to these frontiers, and analyzed Luenberg productivity indices and the contribution of each of input and output factor based on these distances. The results are as follows. First, the productivity of banks increased due to technical changes after the global financial crisis. Second, productivity growth decreased between 2009 and 2014 due to technical changes after the recession, as previous studies have shown that technology progressed before the global financial crisis but then largely decreased or remained the same thereafter. After 2014, the productivity of banks improved. This result may be due to both technology improvement after 10 years of stagnation and reduction of inputs and non-performing loans. Third, the 3.6% annual of productivity growth for 10 years was comprised of 1.77% household loans, 0.67% corporate loans, 0.98% manpower, 1.18% non-performing loans, -0.5% total deposits, and -1.25% securities. Finally, this study has limitations since it could not control risks such as capital structure and interest volatility.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.93-109
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• 2021

Purpose - The logistics industry is often featured by its location relevance and industrial concentration. Industrial concentration is conducive to the effective transmission of information by reducing transaction costs and improving transaction efficiency, thus promoting the development of trade. The main purpose of this paper is to measure the spatial total factor productivity and location quotient of the logistics industry in Korea, and to study the impact of the logistics industry efficiency and agglomeration effect on import and export trade in Korea. Design/methodology - First, used the spatial stochastic frontier method to measure the spatial total factor productivity of the logistics industry in Korea, this serves as the efficiency index of the logistics industry in various regions of Korea. Second, calculated the location quotient (LQ) of the logistics industry to measure the industry's concentration degree. Third, employed a spatial econometric model to analyze the impacts of factors such as the efficiency and concentration levels of the logistics industry on import and export trade in Korea. Findings - This study's main findings can be summarized as follows: this study found that the overall efficiency of the logistics industry in Korea needs to be improved, even though it showed an upward trend in all regions of the country; Moreover, the agglomeration level of Korea's logistics industry needs to be improved; Finally, the positive spatial correlation and industrial agglomeration effect of Korea's logistics industry had a positive impact on the country's import and export trade. Originality/value - This study is innovative in terms of research perspective and methods. Most of the previous studies have measured the development level of the logistics industry using the logistics performance index (LPI), Fewer studies have assessed through the spatial total factor productivity and location quotient of the logistics industry in Korea to measure the efficiency index of the logistics industry in various regions of Korea and concentration degree, as well as there was almost no study on the impact of logistics industry efficiency and agglomeration effect on import and export trade in Korea. This study addresses this limitation by analyzing the impacts of the efficiency and agglomeration effect of the logistics industry on import and export trade in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.43-53
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• 2017

This study aims to analyze the effect of typhoons on pear production. Pears are typical fruits that are vulnerable to typhoon damages, so typhoons are negatively associated with pear productivity. However, relatively less pear damages by typhoons in the main pear production area, comparing to the average in Korea, have been reported. The main production area seems to adopt better agricultural techniques or practices to cope with natural disasters such as typhoons. Thus, this study tests the hypothesis that there are differences of production losses due to typhoons between the main pear production area and the rest using the stochastic frontier analysis. The main production area is defined by Location Quotient Index (LQI), and we found that LQI had a significant effect to decrease the productivity losses in the main production areas, which shows that those production areas alleviated the pear production loss due to typhoons.

• 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.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.235-247
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• 2020

The Mutual Financial Cooperatives(MFCs) in Korea need to make efforts to increase efficiency and productivity in order to secure stable and sustainable growth and competitiveness. Therefore, this study analyzes the efficiency and productivity of MFCs from 2012 to 2018 and suggests some implications. The methodology employed is a Dynamic-Network Slacks-Based Measure(DNSBM) Model. The findings from an empirical study include that first, on average efficiency scores of the institutions, NH(0.225) showed the highest overall efficiency, and followed by SH(0.128) and MG(0.126). After 2015, most of the MFCs' efficiency scores had risen until to 2018. Second, in divisional analysis, the inefficiency in creating the high profitability-stage had been greater than establishing-funds-stage. Third, in projection analysis of Division 2, the inefficiency of the output factors such as interest income and operating income was severe. Fourth, the results from the Malmquist Productivity Index analysis of Division 1 of the fist-stage illustrate that all three MFCs showed minus catch-up effects. Also, a soundness from reducing bad loans and expansion of loans in combination with generating various ways of creating profits besides the interest income is urgently needed for Korean MFCs.