• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.30-48
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• 2019

China has initiated a series of "economic sanctions" against South Korea, affecting Korean pop stars visiting China and Korean investments in China. Sanctions were imposed on South Korea in response to the decision of South Korea to deploy Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in 2016. Furthermore, the Global Daily assembled local population to boycott Korean products and investments in China. However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has never positively confirmed these activities as economic sanctions to South Korea related to the THAAD installation. In other words, the Chinese government singled a relatively weak message via these sanctions to South Korea. As a result, the THADD implementation continued in South Korea. In the paper, I interpret China's rationale to impost puzzling economic sanctions, which have a weak resolution, to South Korea and Taiwan. As signaling theory argues, economic sanctions with insufficient resolution, which are more likely to fail, is a more provocative foreign policy. By reviewing China's sanctions usage to South Korea and Taiwan, I propose arguments of bureaucratic competition to answer why China launched such sanctions to other countries: those are caused by domestic institutions who are seeking reward from the Communist Party of China. By comparing shifts of leadership between domestic agencies, the paper provides evidence to support the proposed argument. I also include two alternative explanations to strengthen the proposed argument, albeit connecting the paper with other two larger streams of research, which address analyses of China's aggressive foreign policies as well as the domestic politics of economic sanctions.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.177-193
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• 2003

This paper examines empirically if the increase of funding uncertainty in government supported R&D institutes(GSRIs) in Korean cause managers to use more effective management control practices. Recently government introduced a new government R&D budget management system, based on competition, named PBS(Project Base System). Government requires GSRIs to be self-supporting and compete for funding from government. The introduction of new budget management system named PBS, has resulted in the increase of funding uncertainty in GSRIs. According to institutional theory, government organizations gain legitimacy by conforming to external expectations regarding management control practices, In contrast, contingency theory proposes that management control practices are driven by the fit between the technical features of the environment and the management control practices. The contingency literature provides that one external factor expected to motivate government managers to use more efficient control practices is the presence of competition and funding uncertainty. This paper use both theoretical perspective to develop hypotheses and examine the influence of funding environment on management control practices. Results show that the more institutionalized environment, the more managers in GSRIs rely on bureaucratic mode of control for conforming to external requirements, and the greater the funding uncertainty, the more managers use results and personal modes of control to improve research team performance.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.162-183
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• 1998

The fisheries resources control system in the Fisheries Act of Korea is introducing technical management method and input control method that controls fishing effort. Fishing effort control system of Korea aiming at realizing the maximum sustainable yield does not regulating the limitation of fishing quota and the limitation of fisheries object target fish. Therefore fishing operators who have fishing permit can use fishery resources without any restriction of fishing quota. But there are no rules that can controlling capacity of productivity of fishing by developing of fishing technic and fishing gear. For those reasons, productivity of fishing is superior to reproductivity of fisheries resources. Therefore, the Fisheries Act of Korea rearranges a legal basis for an introduction of fisheries resources management system by TAC, but the contents to be possible for a legal guarantee is not included and it is exceedingly defective as abstract and institutional devices. And that the affairs to be required for an enforcement of the said regime was placed in an administrative mandatory legislation and the danger to be degenerated is high in accordance with the bureaucratic self-righteous and/or the coercion of group's interest concerned and accordingly its substitute legislation system is keenly required. TAC system that is going to be introduced in our country is expected to enforce the Olympic fishing method and the individual quota method in parallel. This method is not certainly proper, because it occurs to overcapitalize and to compete fishing amounts between fishery operators. So as to prevent overcapitalization and fishing competition between fishery operators, and the exhaustion of coastal fisheries resources, individual transferable quota system should be introduced in Korean sea. Accordingly this thesis has attempted to constitute a view to improving problems of the traditional fisheries resources control system and introducing TAC fisheries resources control system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.958-969
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• 2002

No one doubts that textile and apparel industries have contributed to economic miracles of the export-led growth in Korea. However, by the turning of 1990′s, these sectors have encountered many problems such as decreasing of domestic production and exports mainly due to wage rise and shortage. Therefore, foreign direct investment to the low labor cost countries has been enlarged for a way of improving its competitiveness and increasing exports. However, no intensive study has been made exploring current investments and future directions. This study focuses Vietnam as one of the promising overseas investment countries. The purposes of this study are to analyze current investment status of Korean textiles and apparel firms in Vietnam, to explore merits and problems Vietnam has, and to present useful implications and strategies for Korean textiles and apparel companies. Analysis of current secondary data suggests that Korean apparel industry, rather than textiles industry, have invested more in Vietnam, mostly in southern Ho Chi Minh City. Investments of Korean apparel and textile firms have shown steady increase from 1990 but have turned to a decrease from 1995. Findings suggested that Vietnam has merits for attracting foreign investment since it provides relatively cheap labor and outstanding skillful hands suitable for apparel and textiles industries. In addition, because of EU quota increase and the trade agreement between Vietnam and USA it is likely for firms in Vietnam to increase exports to EU and USA Rapid expansion of domestic apparel market and "Korean trend (Han Rue)" in Vietnam resulted from successful star marketing of Korean firms are another merits Vietnam has to the Korean fm. However, regulations of central government, low efficiency of bureaucratic and stiff administrative process, difficulty of making decision in case of joint venture, lack of social overhead capital, high factory construction costs, weak construction condition, and the excessive competition among investment enterprises have found to be problems. Based on pros and cons of investment to Vietnam, marketing strategies, practical implications and future directions were suggested.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.97-127
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• 1991

This paper investigates the roles and the limitations of the Korean antitrust agencies-the Office of Fair Trade (OFT) and the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) during the making of the major industrial policies of the 1980's. The Korean antitrust agencies played only a minimal role in three major industrial policy-making issues in the 1980's- the enactment of the Industrial Development Act (IDA), the Industrial Rationalization Measures according to the IDA, and the Industrial Readjustment Measures on Consolidation of Large Insolvent Enterprises based on the revised Tax Exemption and Reduction Control Act. As causes for this performance bias in the Korean antitrust system, this paper considers five factors according to the current literature on implementation failure: ambiguous and insufficient statutory provisions of the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (MRFTA); lack of resources; biased attitudes and motivations of the staff of the OFT and the FTC; bureaucratic incapability; and widespread misunderstanding about the roles and functions of the antitrust system in Korea. Among these five factors, bureaucratic incompetence and lack of understanding in various policy implementation environments about the roles and functions of the antitrust system have been regarded as the most important ones. Most staff members did not have enough educational training during their school years to engage in antitrust and fair trade policy-making. Furthermore, the high rate of staff turnover due to a mandatory personnel transfer system has prohibited the accumulation of knowledge and skills required for pursuing complicated structural antitrust enforcement. The limited capability of the OFT has put the agency in a disadvantaged position in negotiating with other economic ministries. The OFT has not provided plausible counter-arguments based on sound economic theories against other economic ministries' intensive market interventions in the name of rationalization and readjustment of industries. If the staff members of antitrust agencies have lacked substantive understanding of the antitrust and fair trade policy, the rest of government agencies must have had serious problems in understanding the correst roles and functions of the antitrust system. The policy environment of the Korean antitrust system, including other economic ministries, the Deputy Prime Minister, and President Chun, have tended to conceptualize the OFT more as an agency aiming only at fair trade policy and less as an agency that should enforce structural monopoly regulation as well. Based on this assessment of the performance of the Korean antitrust system, this paper evaluate current reform proposals for the MRFT A. The inclusion of the regulation of conglomerate mergers and of business divestiture orders may be a desirable revision, giving the MRFTA more complete provisions. However, given deficient staff experties and the unfavorable policy environments, it would be too optimistic and naive to expect that the inclusion of these provisions alone could improve the performance of the Korean antitrust system. In its conclusion, this paper suggests several policy recommendations for the Korean antitrust system, which would secure the stable development and accumulation of antitrust expertise for its staff members and enough understanding and conformity from its environments about its antitrust goals and functions.

• Korean Association of Arts Management
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• no.53
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• pp.71-99
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• 2020

This study focuses on the case of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (hereafter MMCA) that has faced the issue of securing autonomy as an art institution in association with the neoliberal logic of economy as part of globalization. The MMCA was opened with limited operational autonomy due to the government's development-driven national system and bureaucratic perspective. Since being selected as an institution subject to a range of restructuring consequent to the IMF crisis in 1997, the MMCA is being assessed for its operational autonomy since then. This paper examines the socio-cultural background of the implementation of the Korean type of 'Executive Agency' and 'Non-Departmental Public Body'. Furthermore, regardless of the result of either implementation or withdrawal after the projects, this paper explains how these administrative reforms lead the conflicts between stakeholders, which would promote the MMCA's autonomy. As a result, the institutional restructuring process based on the neoliberal perspective might result in the operational dilemma that must simultaneously fulfil the publicness in a different context. Moreover, unlike the original intent to establish a performance-based system based on the principle of competition while minimizing government intervention, this study illuminates that the influence of the nation(or government) as the actual agent of the projects may become permanent. It implies that since the establishment and development project of MMCA has initialized the concept of statism based on legal authority, the operational autonomy of the MMCA which is premised on the reinforcement of expertise and publicness cannot be prioritized over the direction and control of the government.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.93-110
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• 1990

The basic purpose behind the Korean government's policy toward the Korean deep sea fishing industry is to limit growth of the industry. Therefore, the regulations on the industry are generally restrictive and interventionist. The policy is intended to maintain high domestic fish prices in order to protect the domestic coastal fishing industry. Some regulations have also been introduced to maintain "industrial order." Each fishing vessel must obtain a government permit for operation. The permit specifies the kind of fish it can catch, the area of sea in which it can operate, and the port at which it can unload its catches. The number of permits government issues each year is based on the estimates of the demand increase calculated by government officials, and the government traditionally has been fairly conservative in its estimation, reflecting its concern for fish price stabilization, which actually implies a gradual increase of the prices. There is also a restriction on importing vessels from abroad. This regulation is intended to protect the domestic shipbuilding industry. However, this regulation has resulted in an unusually high average age of Korean fishing vessels, causing fishing costs to rise. These regulations and the inflexible response of the regulators to changing circumstances have resulted in many problems: i) high domestic fish prices, which are, to some extent deliberately, inflated to three or four times the level of international prices, resulting in huge consumer welfare losses; ii) over-exploitation of coastal fish resources; iii) provision of a hospitable environment for inefficient firms to survive, which is especially evident from the fact that, despite the high fish prices in Korea, most of the firms in the industry do not enjoy high profitability. It also must be pointed out that the actual beneficiaries of the high fish prices are the large operators, who are protected from competition and provide most of the fish for domestic consumption, rather than the low-income fishing households and small coastal operators whom the policy was originally designed to help. This study proposes a set of regulatory reforms and policy changes which could Promote competition and equity within the industry and allow firms to reduce costs and increase productivity. Such changes can make the industry more efficient and internationally competitive. Major proposals are, among others: minimization of bureaucratic discretion in issuing fishing permits and maintaining transparency in the governments' decision-making processes; reduction of the government permit specifications and simplification of the operational categories within the industry; and removal of the restrictions on importing foreign fishing vessels.