• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.21-29
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• 2014

Purpose - This research undertakes to understand the competitiveness of the steel distribution industry of both Korea and China to strengthen Korea-Sino economic cooperation, examines impediments to trade between the two countries to analyze causes which affect trade, and examines improvements in these areas to identify means of trade expansion. Through this survey of a defined period, we can identify the structural factors of trade dependence in the relationship between Korea and China. Research design, data, and methodology - The data were collected from the Korea Traders Association, the Korea Customs Office, and UN Comtrade, from which whole table indexes are calculated. The research methodology uses trade-related indexes to focus on analyzing comparative advantages based on time-series analysis statistics data (2000-2012) by using the analysis index of trade intensity index (TII), the revealed comparative advantage index (RCA), and the trade specialization index (TSI). Results - The export ratio for Korea to China was slightly higher in 2000 at 2.867, and the export ratio for Korea to China was sustained in 2005. However, it diminished gradually, reaching 1.263 in 2012. During the period 2000-2012, the indexes were maintained without any significant change. However, they still remain close to -1. In particular, in 2012 it is the closest it has ever been to -1. Therefore, China has a comparative advantage in export specialization. On the other hand, Korea has a comparative advantage in import specialization. For the research period, all indexes were much lower than 1, which means that Korea has consistently had a comparative disadvantage against China for the past 10 years when compared to other industries, even though it experienced improvement in 2000. Conclusions - The summary of conclusions based on empirical analysis research are as follows: First, per the trade intensity index of industries between the two countries, we conclude that the export ratio index in 2000 is 2.867, which means the export ratio of Korea to China is slightly higher. Furthermore, the ratios of 2.259 and 1.263 held in 2005 and 2012, respectively, meaning that the export ratio of Korea to China was maintained in 2005, but was diminishing gradually as the index in 2012 was 1.263. Second, per the trade specialization index of the steel distribution industry between Korea and China, the value was -0.379 in 2000, -0.368 in 2005 and -0.568 in 2012. Looking at the whole period of 2000-2012, the indexes remained without any significant change. However, they are still moving closer to -1. In particular, in 2012 it is the closest it has ever been to -1. Third, regarding the revealed comparative advantage index of the steel distribution industry between Korea and China, the RCA indexes in 2005 and 2012 are 0.246 and 0.306, respectively, which are still far from 1, even though the index has improved compared to the 2000's value of 0.0001. Therefore, the Korean steel distribution industry is at a significant comparative disadvantage to that of the Chinese steel distribution industry.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.517-545
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• 2008

This study, tried to describe the corporations and competitiveness of IT industries in Korea and China as well as the general trend in trade using import-export structure. Further, based on trade intensity index, revealed comparative advantage index, Grubel-Lloyd index, constant market share, the trade structure between Korea and China was analyzed for the equipment in the fields of communication, information, broadcasting and their parts. The results are; first, since 2004, China has been catching up with Korea in the number of their companies listed in the global top 500 conglomerates. Second, the trade intensity index increased in 2007 4.57% up from 2002, showing increasingly closer connection between the two countries in the area of communications equipment. Third, according to revealed comparative advantage index, Korea's info-communications equipment seems to comparatively lag behind, but in terms of import-export structure is in the black. Fourth, in recent years, Korean equipment's market share in the Chinese market has been dropped due to the weakening competitiveness and the changing commodity supplies.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.64
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• pp.213-237
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• 2014

The medical-device market of Myanmar in the recent Asian region is where the influences of Thailand, China, India and Singapore are being shown considerably with the lift-up of economic sanctions by America and the West. However, although the global capital and liberalization have widened the openness and the international concerns, the relative Myanmar's medical environment demands an active assistance and improvement. The study, recognizing the importance of Medical-Devices and their market conditions emerging as key business for knowledge-based industry, aims to obtain consequential meaningful suggestions, pursuant to relative export-concentration and sustainable market growth of Medical Devices, by analyzing inter-nation trade intensity for key Medical Device items. To do so, this study selected 8 nations in total by reviewing three points: core Medicine-advanced countries, geographically adjacent countries to Myanmar, and relative export-concentration.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.151-174
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• 2021

This paper empirically examines whether and how inward foreign direct investment (FDI) affected industrial productivity in Korea during the 2000-2016 period, based on dynamic panel data of inflow FDI on an arrival basis from 427 manufacturing industries. The paper adds to the literature by analyzing whether both technology spillovers and industrial restructuring from inward FDI can differ according to industrial characteristics such as capital intensity, imported intermediate inputs, and tariffs. The empirical results show that the overall effects of inward FDI on total factor productivity (TFP) were statistically insignificant in general. However, the positive effects of inward FDI on productivity became statistically significant for industries with lower tariffs. Capital intensity were not involved in the relationship between inward FDI and productivity. Thus, the paper highlights that the results in previous studies with inward FDI on a notification basis were overestimated and inward FDI policies in Korea should focus on channels such as trade liberalization and the redistribution of production factors rather than capital accumulation.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.137-161
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• 2017

This paper examines Myanmar's garment industry comparative's competitiveness by selecting Korea and Japan-Myanmar's main target exporting countries for their garment industry-and China and Thailand, the neighboring countries it has continued to have business relationships with since the economic sanctions in selecting the target countries, this study presents a competitive outlook at the Myanmar garment industry's potential for the future by analyzing trade intensity per main garment product. Therefore, Korea should recognize the advantages of Myanmar, compared to other countries with similar competitiveness in the textile industry, and should develop Myanmar textile industry into a future-oriented garment industry through measures such as labor force training, scaling up both industrial relations and safety facilities, and establishing sound labor-management relations.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.35-43
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• 2014

Purpose - This study evaluates the mutual influential power regarding the trade volumes of Japan and USA, based on a literature review and an empirical analysis. Through the literature review, I could evaluate each country's actual import-export volume and its status. Further, I could evaluate how each country could influence its trade outcome, through empirical analysis. Research design, data, and methodology - This study aims to review the trade structure to improve Japan-USA economic and social cooperation, as the two countries have reciprocal complementary features, and to examine trade weaknesses and analyze factors influencing trade and its direction, as well as to identify ways to expand trade. Results - The intra-economic potential cooperation fields are numerous. Additionally, anticipated profits from these fields are stable as compared to other fields in the regional economic integration. Conclusion - The interrelations between the two economic identities can provide optimal opportunities for industrial technology cooperation. Under the current aggravated competition in industrial fields, it is advisable to identify ways to secure stable resource suppliers, including the development of export markets.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.63-82
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• 2022

Purpose - Drawing on relational institutional theory, we explored how demographic similarity between board members of a firm and newly emerged political elites led to firms' increased financial resource acquisition such as leverage ratio and decreased export intensity amidst the Asian financial crisis. We also studied how a firm's leverage ratio and export intensity can further affect firm profitability and financial credit rating. Design/methodology - We revisited and explored a unique, unprecedented crisis that affected most Korean firms: the Asian financial crisis that coincided with a governmental shift from a conservative to a liberal party. We collected demographic information from 432 listed Korean firms' board members and 43 political elites of the Blue House from 1998-2000 to create a demographic similarity measurement. We collected firms' financial information, built panel data, and used ordinary least squares regression to test our theory. Findings - Our results showed that demographic similarity between a firm's directors and newly emerged politicians had a positive association with a firm's leverage ratio but a negative association with a firm's export intensity. A firm's leverage ratio had a negative relationship with firm performance measured by firm profitability and financial credit rating. A firm's export intensity showed a positive effect on firm performance. Originality/value - We highlighted that during an economic crisis that coincided with a governmental shift and change of leading political actors, firms exerted efforts to survey the environment and build new external stakeholder relationships to cope with the changing landscape. We proposed that in an emerging market like Korea where low levels of trust and favoritism are prevalent across society, one of the relational institutional strategies that firms can employ is the selection of directors with similar demographic characteristics to political elites based on factors including birthplace and school affiliations. We examined the efforts of firms to build political networks with newly empowered political elites during a financial crisis, and the consequences of establishing such networks. We highlighted that during a financial crisis, the demographic similarity between a firm's board members and newly emerged politicians can provide firms with access to financial resources but can also result in poor management and reduced effort to enhance its international competitiveness.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.225-231
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• 2020

The paper aims to investigate the impact of trade integration on business cycle synchronization for the East Asian countries during 2005- 2017 based on the endogeneity hypothesis of Optimum Currency Area criteria. We test the determinants of business cycles by calculating bilateral trade, financial integration, and business cycle synchronization. Applying the system Generalized Method of Moments for dynamic panel data models, the results show that business cycle synchronization is highly associated with trade and financial integration. These findings confirm the endogeneity hypothesis that more trade integration will mitigate asymmetric shocks, and have a positive impact on the business cycle synchronization. The increased trade intensity and financial linkage lead to more correlated business cycles in East Asia. Apart from trade and financial integration, the trade structure differential, monetary policy similarity also influence the business cycle comovement. The significantly negative impact of trade structure differential on business cycle synchronization suggests that countries with less similar structures are more likely to undergo asymmetric shocks. The results also indicate that monetary policy matters for output comovement. This study recommends that the East Asian countries should focus on bilateral trade as well as financial integration with each other to reap benefits from the integration process.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.77-96
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• 2019

This paper examines the relation between the skill premium and international trade given differences in the relative supply of skills across countries while allowing the South (developing countries) to develop its appropriate technology. Typical assumptions put forward in the literature state that either technology is exogenously given, or technical change is allowed only in the North (developed countries). I present a model of international trade with endogenous growth by allowing the South to direct its technology. The results show that more R&D is directed towards skill-augmenting technology in the North than in the South, in sectors with the same skill-intensity. Technical change induced by lowering trade costs can increase the skill premium in both the North and the South. This result can explain the empirical observation that the skill premium has increased within many developing countries after they experienced trade liberalization. Finally, the model predicts larger gains from trade compared with the model where technical change is either not allowed, or allowed only in the North.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.135-142
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• 2016

Although growth potential of trade between Korea and the GCC region has existed in various fields through economic and business cooperation, few data and practical study related with trade structure and cooperation between Korea and GCC region have been found and the potential for further economic expansion has not been extensively explored. In this sense, this study is to analyze trade flows between Korea and GCC region countries(Saudi Arabia, Unites Arab Emirates, Qatar) using trade intensity index, trade complementarity index and special country bias index, identify potential for further expansion of Korea's trade into the GCC region and further propose the implication of FTA between mutual countries. Our analysis of trade flows also demonstrates that there is a high level of trade complementarity between Korea and GCC region. It means that increase of trade complementarity and special country bias come from removing not only trade barrier and increasing but also capital movement. Especially, the study reveals that there is an untapped potential for Korea to increase its exports to Saudi, based on the highest complementarities. Export expansion between Korea and Saudi through FTA will create new opportunity in near future.