• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.394-394
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• 2023

The world's sustainable growth is being severely hampered by the inefficient use of water resources. Despite the widely acknowledged importance of trade in global and regional water and food security, societal reliance on local production as well as international trade remains inadequately assessed. Therefore, using South Korea as a case study, this study fills in this research gap by applying the virtual water concept, the logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI) method, and the Tapio decoupling model. The virtual water concept was used to estimate South Korea's net virtual water trade for major grain crops from 1992 to 2017. Then, the LMDI method was utilized to assess the driving factors causing changes in net virtual water trade. Lastly, the Tapio decoupling model was used to investigate the decoupling relationships between economic growth and the driving factors of net virtual water trade. Results showed that South Korea remains a net importer of virtual water flows with respect to grain crops, with an average import of 16,559.24 million m³ over the study period. In addition, the change in net virtual water trade could be attributed to water intensity effect, product structure effect, economic effect, and population effect. However, water intensity and economic effects were the major decisive factors for decrease and increase in net virtual water trade respectively, while the population and product structure effects had minor positive influences on the net virtual water trade. Furthermore, water intensity and economic growth showed a strong decoupling in most periods, while the decoupling state between product structure and economic growth was observed as expansive negative decoupling. Likewise, population size and economic growth showed a weak decoupling in most periods. The results reveal South Korea's status as it concerns the virtual water trade of grain crops, thus providing valuable insights into the sustainability of trade activities for the management of local water resources.

• 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.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.205-220
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• 2019

This article recapitulates the recent changes in trade laws, which may be accentuated due to the intriguing emergence of fortified protectionism and Mega FTAs. It points out the need to formulate not only the corporate strategy for enhancing the product differentiation and architectural capabilities but also the public policy, which comprises the industrial adjustment policy to cope with possible negative impulses caused by the digital trade and foreign direct investment. It is imperative for Korea to facilitate the alignment between corporate strategy and industrial adjustment policy as an effective means of enhancing industrial structure by nurturing those linkage effects between relevant forward and backward industries. Given the drastically volatile trade norms of multi-track trade policies, it may be a pivotal momentum for Korea to pursue a paradigm shift of its trade policy with a prime objective of achieving such an alignment between corporate strategy and industrial adjustment policy, which affords increased value-added and the further development of product or generic technology instead of resorting to the misuses and abuses of economies of scale and production technology for the maximization of export amount.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.111-126
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• 2010

This paper provides an empirical investigation of the determinants of current accounts utilizing an exchange rate (ER), terms of trade (NET), industrial activity (IPI), world import volume (WIM), trade share of the China and Japan (CHJP), proportion of service trade (SERV). The period examined is 1991:1 through 2010:2. It is tested under different cases such as whether variables were cointegrated and whether there was an equilibrium relationship. The result showed that the hypothesis of no cointegrated vector could be rejected at the 5 percent level. The estimated error correction model showed that adjustment speed is fast. This paper also applies impulse-response functions to get additional information by considering the responses of the current account to the shocks of economic variables. The results indicate that current account responds negatively to industrial activity and proportion of service trade, and then decays very quickly.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.11-18
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• 2015

Purpose - This paper reviews the changes in the ship export and import structure between Korea and China. It utilizes the comparative advantage trade theory to analyze time-series statistical data from the market share index, revealed comparative advantage index (RCA), and trade specialization index(TSI). Research design, data, and methodology - Based on their economic phases, both Korea and China have similar country characteristics. The purpose of this research is to understand the two country's trade structures to fortify the Korea-Sino economic relationship including verifying what is working and what is not. Results - Based on the analysis, bilateral economic activity to achieve a plus trade stimulus environment should be realized in the long run. Both countries should establish guarantee-free trade negotiations and boundaries instead of various non-tariff barriers. Conclusion - Reviewing the research, a sound competitive relationship can be grown for mutual benefit including export market diversification in the near future. The review of the Korea-Sino ship industry is keenly important and investigative research about it is timely because it is a major industry in each country.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.20-37
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the trade structure and competitiveness of China's information technology (IT) industry in comparison to that of Korea and the United States, particularly in terms of quality. Design/methodology/approach - Indices such as trade specialization index (TSI), Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), and Market Comparative Advantage (MCA) are used. Further, an Intra-industry Trade (IIT) index is used to analyze qualitative changes in horizontal intra-industry trade and intra-industry trade of high- and low-quality goods. Findings - China's IT industry has a comparative competitive advantage over that of Korea and the United States, and mainly exports goods of inferior quality and imports goods of superior quality. Further, China's horizontal intra-industry trade has been decreasing, while its vertical intra-industry trade has been increasing and vertical trade of inferior quality goods outweighs that of superior quality goods. This shows that China is rapidly catching up with Korea and the United States, even though its qualitative competitiveness has not significantly improved. Research limitations/implication - This study has academic and political implications, as it analyzes changes in China's IT trade competitiveness. However, it is somewhat limited as factors determining qualitative aspects has not been considered. Originality/value - Most studies aggregate analyses of export competitiveness using methodologies such as TSI, RCA, and market share. However, the focus of these methods is price competitiveness. Hence, an examination of the objective and qualitative trade competitiveness of China's IT industry is necessary. this study the trade structure and quantitative competitiveness of the industry by analyzing intra-industry trade focusing on the quality of competitiveness. Therefore, the changes in China's IT industry in the USA and Korea and in foreign trade competitiveness and quality competitiveness are clarified. The results show that the academic and policy implications of these changes in the IT industry will be a useful resource. This is the first study in Korea to attempt such an analysis. This is the first study in Korea to attempt such an analysis.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.93-106
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• 2020

Trade is an important economic activity. In particular, since the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the scope of trade has been expanding due to events such as the entry of China into the WTO in 2001, the establishment of a multilateral trading system, mitigation and integration of trade barriers, and the establishment of the free trade agreement (FTA). Despite the expansion of the trade market, however, extreme events such as the 2008 global financial crisis, the 2016 Brexit, and the 2018 US-China trade war have had a direct negative impact on the trade market. Therefore, the present this study analyzed the dependence structure between the international shipping freight rate index, a variable representing trade activities, and the trade uncertainty between the US and China. The following is a summary of the analysis results. First, the US-Chinese trade policy uncertainty and international shipping freight rate index presented a Frank copula and rotated Clayton copula 270° distribution, respectively, showing the same distribution structure for each country. Second, the Kendall's tau correlation revealed a negative dependence between the international shipping freight rate index and US-Chinese trade policy uncertainty. The degree of dependence was greater in the combination of uncertainty in China's trade policy and international shipping freight rates. In other words, the dependence of global demand and trade policy uncertainty confirmed that China was stronger than the US. Finally, the tail dependence results revealed that the US-Chinese trade policy uncertainty and international shipping freight rates were independent of each other. This means that extreme events related to the trade policy uncertainty or international shipping rate index were not affected by each other.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.299-312
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• 2021

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyze Trade Structure after Korea and Colombia FTA, and identify its problems and suggest measures that can be taken by the government and corporations to reinforce economic cooperation. Design/methodology/approach - To improve the level of contribution of the study, an empirical analysis is necessary. However, due to limited data access, the study will approach the topic of trade relations between Korea and Colombia with various statistics and literature. Findings - First, there is an urgent need for changes in import-export goods between Korea and Colombia, as trade is focused on specific items. Second, although foreign direct investment from Korea to the Colombia is centered in manufacturing and wholesale & retail, there should be different investment strategies by industries. Third, it is necessary to reinforce commercial cooperation. Research implications or Originality - The Free Trade Agreement between Korea and Colombia entered into force in 2016. Under the agreement, both countries will eliminated all tariffs within ten years after it takes effect. Reinforcing economic cooperation with Colombia is extremely important for Korea in terms of entering and dominating Colombian market. However, there is still a lack of research on the Colombia, and corporations that aim to enter Colombian market face difficulties due to lack of information. This study analyzes the recent trends of problems of trade between Korea and Colombia and suggests solutions for boosting trade to provide proper strategic guidelines for Korea that are planning to expand to Colombian market.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.41-48
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• 2017

Purpose - Capital structure adjustment costs influence the test of the standard trade-off theory of capital structure. We investigate whether there exist economically significant capital adjustment costs in the Korean retail industry. Research design, data, and methodology - This paper adopts the model of Leary and Roberts(2005) to obtain the hazard rate of capital structure variations. The retail firms traded in the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets are analyzed from 2000 to 2016. Results - The empirical analysis shows infrequent capital structure adjustments in the Korean retail firms. The duration analysis emphasizes that the fixed adjustment cost plays an important role in the determination of capital structure adjustments for the Korean retail firms. Yet, even after taking account of infrequent capital structure adjustments, the trade off theory only weakly explains the capital structure variations of the Korean retail firms. Conclusions - This paper confirms the existence of capital structure adjustment costs for the Korean retail firms. Our results argue for the significance of fixed adjustment costs in capital structure adjustments. Such emphasis on the fixed cost is inconsistent with the existing studies. The trade off theory does not successfully explain capital structure policy in the Korean retail firms even after considering adjustment costs.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.373-384
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• 2004

While the bilateral trade volume between China and U.S. has been growing rapidly, the trade deficits of U.S. to China has also been expanding. This growing trade deficit of U.S. to China has several reasons: the increase of foreign direct investment to China, the transfer of trade deficit origins, the intervention of U.S. domestic politics to China-U.S. trade relations, and U.S. direct control on export to China. However, the increased U.S. trade deficit to China does not mean that U.S. is in a disadvantaged position in its economic relations with China, or its international competitiveness is deteriorating. When U.S. surplus in service trade to China is included, the picture would be very different. Also, as internationalization progresses and China's industrial structure adjusts, the trade deficit of U.S. to China would narrow.