• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.41-67
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• 1991

Local autonomy of Korea's lower-level local council has been reinstated following elections last March for the first time in thirty years. Last June, we had elections for the upper-level local council. Mayors, governors, and administrative chiefs of cities, provinces and other local government bodies are slated for elections in the first half of next year. The impacts of local autonomy are taking effect in not only the political sphere, but also the administrative and economic spheres. In fact, it seems that some modification of all economic policy making and administration is inevitable. Since the initiation of local autonomy, in order to make the economy work more efficiently, it has become quite important to examine the impact of local autonomy on the national economy. The areas of local autonomy include independent legislative power, administrative power, organizational power, and most important of all, the independent public financial power of the local governments. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of local autonomy on the national economy and ways of enhancing the role of local public finance to facilitate settlement and development of the local autonomy system. Local autonomy will contribute to the continuous growth of our economy, allow balanced development, and generate greater efficiency. However, local autonomy can also incur economic costs causing at times short-term price instability, inefficient resource allocation, through tax competition and tax exporting, and insolvency of local government due to abusive fiscal operation. To reduce these side effects, different alternatives must be considered. Local autonomy systems generally provide more efficient resource allocation than centralization. But in the model used in Chapter 3 of this paper, the relative efficiencies of both local autonomy and centralization are determined by comparing the elasticity of substitution between national public goods and local public goods. If the elasticity of substitution is bigger than one, centralization provides a more efficient resource allocation. The development of local autonomy could be attained through democratization of the local public finance system including the following three propositions. I) The independence of public financial power of local governments should be established over central government. Furthermore, a democratically operated scheme of intergovernmental fiscal coordination is especially necessary. 2) In the operation of local finance, direct democracy is needed to induce the voluntary participation of local residents. The residents can take part in planning both the local budget and the development of the community. To attain this goal, all the results of local finance operations should be made public. 3) Among economic ill-effects of the local autonomy system, the most serious one is the possibility of insolvency of local governments. Therefore, measures to limit abusive spending by the local governments should be introduced, such as the fiscal restraints system adopted in the United States.

• Archives of design research
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• v.20 no.1 s.69
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• pp.253-262
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• 2007

The postpartum care center is a facility which made its debut only about 10 years ago but has now changed the nation's postpartum care culture. Women delivered of a child use the postpartum care center at this time since the low rate of childbirth has become a social phenomenon. However, while the postpartum care center is not supported legally and systematically, anybody can run it after they only file a report on businessman status with the tax office. So there are disordered wave of postpartum care startups which do not have basic facilities. Thus, this study is intended to suggest an interior environment plan considering an efficient space and users' benefits of a postpartum care center which has a characteristic difference from that of ordinary facilities in terms of targeted persons or operations but for which standards are not clear in terms of the Health and Welfare Law and the Medical Service Law. This study was conducted by investigating the actual condition of the entrance space, living space, common-use space, nursing space, administration and attached space in the six postpartum care centers selected from Seoul and Kyeonggi-do region and suggesting the direction of improvements, thus establishing the direction of interior designs and an interior environment plan. Hopefully, this study would be used as basic data on interior building plans, thus being helpful in enhancing the satisfaction of the postpartum care center user and operating the facility.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.436-446
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to examine the priorities of innovation activities, business performance, and maximization factors of SMEs. Support programs for each government department are operated by various industries. Various supports, including subsidies, grants, marketing, planning, and education, are provided to each company. Therefore, this study aims to analyze and identify the priorities of innovation activities that have a positive effect on business performance. The efficacy of the proposed model and the psychometric properties of structure were analyzed using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The hierarchical structure of corporate innovation activities are composed of 'R&D' and 'government support', and 'Inside R&D, Outsourcing R &D, Consortium R&D'. As a result of analyzing companies that received more than one type of R&D government support, it can be seen that 'government support' (72.1%) is more important than 'research and development' (27.8%). In addition, this study found key sub-factors loadings including Assistant Support (30.1%), Tax Support (22.7%), Funding Support (18.8%), Inside R&D (10.8%), Outsourcing R&D (10.3%), and Consortium R&D (7.2%). Analysis results suggest that the priorities of detailed innovation activities of R&D and government support affect product innovation and process innovation, which in turn, influence business performance and maximization of SMEs. This implies that SMEs who want to participate in the government support project will be helpful in setting the direction of innovation activities. This study also suggests the importance of strategic priorities among the decision elements for CEOs.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.181-195
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• 2018

On December 12, 2015, the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted the Paris Agreement, in which several developed and developing countries all committed to participating in the reduction of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. South Korea has submitted an intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) proposal with a target to cut down 37% greenhouse gas business as usual (BAU) until 2030 in preparation for the 2030 GHG BAU. Under the post-2020 regime, which will be launched from 2021 as the agreement entered into force early, it is expected that efforts to support GHG reduction and adaptation to climate change in developing countries will be accelerated with the utilization of technologies and financial resources of developed countries. South Korea has established the Basic Plan for Climate Change Response and the Basic National Roadmap for Greenhouse Gas Reductions by 2030 to promote the response to climate change at the government level. The Ministry of Science and ICT, as the National Designated Entity designated by the UNFCCC, has come up with middle and long-term strategies for climate technology cooperation. South-Korea has an abundance of energy-consuming industries to support its export-oriented industrial structure; it is thus expected that achieving the GHG reduction target will incur a considerable cost. Moreover, in order to meet the reduction target (11.3%) of the intended nationally determined contribution proposed by South Korea, it is necessary for South Korea to actively promote projects that can achieve GHG reduction achievements, and financial resources are needed as leverage to reduce risks that can occur in the early stages of projects and attract private sector investment. This paper summarizes the theoretical discussions on climate finance and conducted a comparative analysis on the status of the funds related to climate change response in the UK, Germany, Japan and Denmark. Through this, we proposed the legal and policy tasks that should be carried forward to raise public funds that can be used for creation of new industries related to climate change as well as to reduce GHG emissions in South Korea. The Climate Change Countermeasures Act, which has been proposed by the National Assembly of South-Korea, stipulates the establishment of funds but there is no additional funding except for general account. In this regard, it is also possible to take measures such as the introduction of carbon tax or the collection and use of royalties through technology research and development projects for climate change, such as Industrial Technology Innovation Promotion Act. In addition, since funds are used in various fields such as domestic greenhouse gas reduction, technology development, and overseas projects, it is necessary to establish a system in which various ministries cooperate with the operation of the fund.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.221-243
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• 2017

In this study, I examine overall conditions and problems of personal asset management processes by the old age people in Korea from the global perspectives. Major recommended policy implications for those are as follows.. First, the IRR (income replacement ratio) of public pensions in Korea is found to rank nearly the lowest among the OECD member countries. The relatively low fund performance compared to that of developed countries as well as this low IRR can be pointed out as major problems of public pension in Korea. It is recommended to reinforce specialty in fund management as a top priority to solve out these problems related with public pensions in Korea. Second, it is needed to set retirement pensions to be mandatory for almost all the firms in Korea to substitute for the above lower IRR of public pensions and to recover from the highest elderly poverty ratio among the OECD countries. Third, it is required to discuss about the expansion of tax refund policy application in the individual pension sector and many financial investment products under the correction of current budget control to motivate voluntary subscription for individual pension planning and to stabilize elderly lives of ordinary people in Korea. Fourth, it is required to induce market mechanism in controling price and longevity risk of reverse mortgages for the long-run sustainability.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.502-516
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• 2014

This study has decomposed the Gini coefficient using Korean Labor & Income Panel Study data and empirically analyzed the impact of demographic characteristics and source-specific income of householder on the household income gap using panel analysis. The scope of areas were divided into 'nationwide,' 'metropolitan areas,' and 'non-metropolitan areas,' and the period before and after the global financial crisis was examined. The analysis findings are as follows. First, when the entire period was examined by income source using Gini decomposition with division of areas into 'nationwide,' 'metropolitan areas,' and 'non-metropolitan areas', the following results were revealed. The absolute and relative contribution level of property income to the gross income was the largest in the category of 'nationwide' and 'metropolitan areas,' while the contribution level of earned income was the largest in the category of 'non-metropolitan areas'. In addition, property income worsened the household income gap the most in the category of 'nationwide' and 'metropolitan areas.' Second, property income worsened the household income gap less after the financial crisis than before the crisis. It is probably because the price of real estate skyrocketed before the global financial crisis, worsening the household income gap, whereas the price drop after the crisis temporarily alleviated the gap. Third, a correlation analysis revealed that households with older householders whose education is high school graduation or below had relatively low gross income, and households with higher source-specific income, especially earned income, had relatively high gross income. Fourth, when the household income determinants were compared through panel analysis with division of areas into 'nationwide,' 'metropolitan areas,' and 'non-metropolitan areas,' the following results were obtained. While the impact of earned income, financial income, and other incomes was greater in non-metropolitan areas than in metropolitan areas, the impact of property income was greater in metropolitan areas than in non-metropolitan areas. To reduce the income gap, the government should impose higher taxes on the high-income class and provide tax benefits to the low-income class, with efforts to create a wide variety of jobs. In addition, since income inequality gets worse as the proportion of incomes generated through asset holdings becomes higher, the government should focus on stabilizing property prices while paying attention to the regional differentiation when carrying out related policies.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.17-26
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• 2010

Recently concerns have been raised due to the unbalanced supply of crops: the price of crops has been unstable and at one point the price went up so high that the word Agflation(agriculture+ inflation) was coined. Korea, in particular, is a small-sized country and needs to secure the stable supply of crops by investing in the produce importation at a national level. Investment in foreign produce importation is becoming more important as a measure for sufficient supply of crops, limited supply of domestic crops, weakened farming conditions worldwide, as well as recent changes in the use of crops due to the development of bio-fuels, influence of carbon emission on crops, the price increase in crops, and influx of foreign hot money. However, there are many problems with investing in foreign produce importation: lack of support from the government; lack of farming information and technology; difficulty in securing the capital; no immediate pay-off from the investment and insufficient management. Although foreign produce is originally more price-competitive than domestic produce, it loses its competiveness in the process of importation (due to high tariffs) and poor distribution system, which makes it difficult to sell in Korea. Therefore, investment in foreign produce importation is being questioned for feasibility; to make it possible, foreign produce must maintain the price-competitiveness. Especially, harvest of agricultural products depends on natural and geographical conditions of each country and those products have indigenous properties, so distribution system according to import and export of agricultural products should be treated more carefully than that of other industries. Distribution costs are differentiated into each item and include cost of sorting and wrapping, cost of wrapping materials, cost of domestic transport, cost of international transport and cost of clearing customs for import and export. So transporting and storing agricultural products generates considerable costs compared with other products. Also, due to upgrade of dietary life, needs for stability, taste and visible quality toward food including agricultural products are being raised and wrong way of storage causes decomposition of food and loss of freshness, making the storage more difficult than that in room temperature, so storage and transport in distribution of agricultural products needs specialty. In addition, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. However, existing distribution system of agricultural products is exposed to various problems including problems in distribution channel, making distribution and strategy for distribution and those problems are as follows. First, in case of investment in overseas agricultural industry, stable supply of the products is difficult because areas of production are dispersed widely and influenced by outer factors due to including overseas distribution channels. Also, at the aspect of quality, standardization of products is difficult, distribution system is quite complicated and unreasonable due to long distribution channels according to international trade and financial and institutional support is not enough. Especially, there are quite a lot of ineffective factors including multi level distribution process, dramatic gap between production cost and customer's cost, lack of physical distribution facilities and difficulties in storage and transport due to lack of wrapping containers. Besides, because import and export of agricultural products has been manages under the company's own distribution according to transaction contract between manufacturers and exporting company, efficiency is low due to excessive investment in fixed costs and lack of specialty in dealing with agricultural products causes fall of value of products, showing the limit to lose price-competitiveness. Especially, because lack of specialty in distribution and circulation such as storage and wrapping does not solve limit factors in distance, the distribution and circulation has been limited to a form of import and export within short-distant region. Therefore, need for distribution out-sourcing which can satisfy specialty in managing distribution and circulation and it is needed to establish more effective distribution system. Second, among tangible and intangible services which promote the efficiency of the whole distribution, a function building distribution environment which includes distribution information, system for standard and inspection, distribution finance, system for diversification of risks, education and training, distribution administration and tax system is wanted. In general, such a function building distribution environment is difficult to be changed and supplement innovatively because its effect compared with investment does not appear immediately despite of its necessity. Especially, in case of distribution of agricultural products, as a function of collecting and distributing is performed individually through various channels, the importance of distribution information and standardization is getting more focus due to the problem of repetition of work and lack of specialty. Also, efficient management of distribution is quite difficult due to lack of professionals in distribution, so support to professional education is needed. Third, though effort to keep self-sufficiency ratio of staple food, rice is regarded as important at the government level, level of dependency on overseas of others crops is high. Therefore, plan for stable securing food resources aside from staple food is also necessary. Especially, governmental organizations of agricultural products distribution in Korea are production-centered and have unreasonable structure whose function at the aspect of distribution and consumption is quite insufficient. And development of new distribution channels which can deal with changes in distribution environment and they do not achieve actual results of strategy for distribution due to non-positive strategy for price distribution. That is, it implies the possibility that base for supply will become vulnerable because it does not mediate appropriate interests on total distribution channels such as manufacturers, wholesale dealers and vendors by emphasizing consumer protection excessively in the distribution of agricultural products. Therefore, this study examined fundamental concept and actual situation for our investment to overseas agriculture, drew necessities, considerations, problems, etc. of overseas agricultural investment and suggested improvements at the level of distribution for price competitiveness of agricultural products cultivated in overseas under five aspects; government's indirect support, distribution's modernization and distribution information function's strengthening, government's political support for distribution facility, transportation route, load and unloading works' improvement, price competitiveness' securing, professional manpower's cultivation by education and training, etc. Here are some suggestions for foreign produce importation. First, the government should conduct a survey on the current distribution channels and analyze the situation to establish a measure for long-term development plans. By providing each agricultural area with a guideline for planning appropriate production of crops, the government can help farmers be ready for importation, and prevent them from producing same crops all at the same time. Government can sign an MOU with the foreign government and promote the importation so that the development of agricultural resources can be stable and steady. Second, the government can establish a strategy for an effective distribution system by providing farmers and agriculture-related workers with the distribution information such as price, production, demand, market structure and location, feature of each crop, and etc. In order for such distribution system to become feasible, the government needs to reconstruct the current distribution system, designate a public organization for providing distribution information and set the criteria for level of produce quality, trade units, and package units. Third, the government should provide financial support and a policy to seek an efficient distribution channel for foreign produce to be delivered fresh: the government should expand distribution facilities (for selecting, packaging, storing, and processing) and transportation vehicles while modernizing old facilities. There should be another policy to improve the efficiency of unloading, and to lower the cost of distribution. Fourth, it is necessary to enact a new law covering exceptional cases for importing produce in order to maintain the price competitiveness; currently the high tariffs is keeping the imported produce from being distributed domestically. However, the new adjustment should be made carefully within the WTO regulations since it can create a problem from giving preferential tariffs. The government can also simplify the distribution channels in order to reduce the cost in the distribution process. Fifth, the government should educate distributors to raise the efficiency and to modernize the distribution system. It is necessary to develop human resources by educating people regarding the foreign agricultural environment, the produce quality, management skills, and by introducing some successful cases in advanced countries.