• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.219-243
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• 2004

Generally, electricity market has monopoly market structure because of need of enormous investment for infrastructure. However, the introduction of competition in network industry as electricity is a tendency of the world with decreasing the effects of economy of scale due to the advancement of technology. Now, electricity industry restructuring is in progress but the competition in electricity retail market is not in force yet in Korea. Whether a effective competition exist or not is very important to policy decision maker who drive restructuring, but there are small numbers of quantitative researches on that. In this study, we estimated the effectiveness of competition in the electricity retail market through switching costs. If switching costs are high, consumers actually can be locked in incumbent firm in spite of introduction of competition. Therefore switching is a critical factor to determine effectiveness of competition and to estimate the size of switching costs quantitatively can proffer the information about whether the competition in the electricity retail market is effective or not in the future. We estimated switching costs using consumer' stated-preference data by conjoint analysis. In according to estimation results, the cost of switching process is not so high, but the relative brand loyalty of an incumbent company is significantly high. And the price is considered as the most important factor choosing an electric service commodity. Based on the empirical results, it is possible to analyze the relationship between suppliers' competitiveness resulted from management efficiency and customers' switching possibilities. The paper therefore provides guidance for suppliers in deciding to enter into retail competition and for policy makers in introducing retail competition. And it has a significance of estimating the switching costs directly.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.47-89
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• 2020

We introduce a simple theoretical model to analyze the welfare impact of a competition policy in the natural gas market in South Korea. An incumbent monopolistic firm currently owns essential facilities, but the competition policy mandates that the firm provide open access to any entrant firm, charging an access fee. When no regulation is imposed on the fee pricing, this policy increases social welfare as well as the profit of the incumbent firm. When the pricing is regulated, however, social welfare depends on whether there is information asymmetry between the government and the firm regarding the operating cost of the facilities. If the government has complete information, social welfare can be maximized by choosing the optimal prices. Otherwise, the government has to set the prices based on the information that the firm delivers. We formulate a Bayesian game to analyze this case and identify a set of perfect Bayesian equilibria to compare social welfare.

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.139-162
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• 2010

In terms of the international air transport, the open skies policy implies freedom in the sky or opening the sky. In the normative respect, the open skies policy is a kind of open-door policy which gives various forms of traffic right to other countries, but on the other hand it is a policy of free competition in the international air transport. Since the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, the United States has signed an open skies agreement with many countries, starting with the Netherlands, so that competitive large airlines can compete in the international air transport market where there exist a lot of business opportunities. South Korea now has an open skies agreement with more than 20 countries. The frequent flyer program (FFP) is part of a broad-based marketing alliance which has been used as an airfare strategy since the U.S. government's airline deregulation. The membership-based program is an incentive plan that provides mileage points to customers for using airline services and rewards customer loyalty in tangible forms based on their accumulated points. In its early stages, the frequent flyer program was focused on marketing efforts to attract customers, but now in the environment of intense competition among airlines, the program is used as an important strategic marketing tool for enhancing business performance. Therefore, airline companies agree that they need to identify customer needs in order to secure loyal customers more effectively. The outcomes from an airline's frequent flyer program can have a variety of effects on international competition. First, the airline can obtain a more dominant position in the air flight market by expanding its air route networks. Second, the availability of flight products for customers can be improved with an increase in flight frequency. Third, the airline can preferentially expand into new markets and thus gain advantages over its competitors. However, there are few empirical studies on the airline frequent flyer program. Accordingly, this study aims to explore the effects of the program on international competition, after reviewing the types of strategic alliance between airlines. Making strategic airline alliances is a worldwide trend resulting from the open skies policy. South Korea also needs to be making open skies agreements more realistic to promote the growth and competition of domestic airlines. The present study is about the performance of the airline frequent flyer program and international competition under the open skies policy. With a sample of five global alliance groups (Star, Oneworld, Wings, Qualiflyer and Skyteam), the study was attempted as an empirical study of the effects that the resource structures and levels of information technology held by airlines in each group have on the type of alliance, and one-way analysis of variance and regression analysis were used to test hypotheses. The findings of this study suggest that both large airline companies and small/medium-size airlines in an alliance group with global networks and organizations are able to achieve high performance and secure international competitiveness. Airline passengers earn mileage points by using non-flight services through an alliance network with hotels, car-rental services, duty-free shops, travel agents and more and show high interests in and preferences for related service benefits. Therefore, Korean airline companies should develop more aggressive marketing programs based on multilateral alliances with other services including hotels, as well as with other airlines.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.273-284
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• 2007

New retailers, especially giant retailers, so called "mart" or "discounter" which introduced around 1996, when Korea's domestic retail market was opened to the world, have brought big transitions. Consequently, new comers like discounters and CVS drove out department stores, mom & pops and traditional retailers. Literatures showed two reverse opinions for the giant retailers; rising consumers' benefit, or dropping small retailers' businesses. This study have conducted to find the situation of market concentration in retail market, and to learn the new market condition in it. According to the study, in 2005, CR3's of Korea's whole retail industry was counted 12.8%, and CR5 of that was 13.9%. CR3 of discount store business was 39%, department stores' 55%, and TV home shopping businesses' was 75%. In addition to those results, indices growing worse. So, we can say this industry already get into the oligopolistic industrial organization. Generally, under monopolistic or oligopolistic market structure, consumers' benefit may shrink and businesses' surplus profit may jump. So, it means, it's good time to turn government's policy for the retail industry in Korea to fair competition policy instead of development policy.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.106-128
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• 2007

The Korean health care system is under great controversy. Over the last 30 years, main goal of health policies was to pursue equal access of health care services. However, another goal of health policies laid on efficiency and Quality of care, it had lower priorities. Superficially, controversy stems from priority setting among goals of health care system, equity, efficiency and quality. At a deeper level, arguments arise from disagreement and confusion about the values of Korean health care system. One of the value spectrums believes that health care is the basic right of human beings, therefore it should be produced and distributed on need approach, and needs are known to be decided by professionals. If we accept need approach, health care is a pubic good. Another value of spectrums considers that health care should be distributed on demand approach. Demand approach means that health care is a consumption good on the positive economics, while normative judgement believes that health care is a public good. In equity aspect, health care is considered as a public good. Over the last several years, some of scholars proposed health care reform based on the principle of competition which is based on demand approach. Others argue that the competition principle based on demand approach is not appropriate for the reform proposal, because health care has to be approached on need base. If we do not make explicit values we should adopt, consensus building for reform is nearly impossible. From this perspective, this article will review an ideology and reality in health policies in Korea.

• Proceedings of the Technology Innovation Conference
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• 1996.12a
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• pp.196-238
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• 1996

Because global innovation-based competition is increasing and the amount of R&D expenditures becomes severely large, it is more likely that mergers and collaborative ventures tend to affect adversely to R&D competition Against this trend, enforcing agency of advanced countries including U.S.A are reassessing certain aspects of competition policy toward mergers and acquisition to ensure that procompetitive, efficiency-enhancing transactions are permitted. The role of competition policy is developing and appropriating new technology and protects the risks involved in the licensing contract of technologies. The role of intellectual property rights is also contrived to promote technological innovation and to increase consumer welfare. That is to say, dynamic efficiency of intellectual property rights includes (l) increase in social welfare and (2) promotion of growth by improvement of quality through invention and commercialization of new product as well as enhanced productive efficiency thorough appropriating new process. Because intellectual property rights are licensed to make use of complementary inputs, the rule of reason approach seems proper when applying antitrust law. To analyze the "Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing and Acquisition of Intellectual Property"by DOJ and FTC in U.S.A, the author surveyed pros and cons on innovation market approach. This approach will only be used in a narrow range of situations when the evidence is solid, concentration numbers are extremely high, and the agencies can predict with a high degree of certainty that the merger will likely lead either to a slowing in the pace of innovation or the loss of an alternative research track that is likely to lead to a product beneficial to consumers. The author introduces the studies on licensing contract of intellectual property rights and competition polices on behalf of potential inquirers. Also the author invites the interdisciplinary researchers to analyze further with a model on the aspects of the "Notice 1995-10 for Types and Criteria on Unfair Transaction Behavior in International Contracts" by Fair Trade Committee of Korea.

• Informatization Policy
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.80-99
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• 2010

A substantial body of theoretical and case study literature exists about the relationship between competition and universal service in developing countries. On the one hand, many scholars have argued that state-owned monopolies in developing countries are not able to mobilize the capital needed for network expansion: the resulting unmet demand for services becomes a motivator for liberalization. On the other hand, the introduction of competition jeopardizes the internal and external subsidies through which the state-owned monopoly kept subscription rates low: the heightened concern about loss of subscribership incentivizes the creation of explicit universal service statutes and funding mechanisms concurrently with or soon after competition is introduced. This paper shows that universal service in Korea had a unique evolutionary path, which did not conform to either of these expectations. From this finding, it reaches the conclusion that the outcomes predicted by theory and observed in the case study literature are not intrinsic to the monopoly condition per se, but derive from the strategic choices made by telecommunications managers, regulators and lawmakers in developing countries.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.1-11
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• 2009

In this paper I examined economies and implications of "Net Neutrality" and Internet Freedom. It is argued that mandating Net Neutrality would be likely to reduce economic welfare. Instead, the government should focus on creating competition in the broadband market by liberalizing more spectrum and reducing entry barriers created by certain local regulations. In cases where a broadband provider can exercise market power the government should use its antitrust enforcement authority to police anti-competition behavior. To assure Net Neutrality, it is needed to make sure of fair competition and to facilitate flexible prices. Especially it is needed to invest consistently to the sector of Network.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.53-70
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• 2016

This paper examines market concentration and its effect on competition in the Chinese commercial banking market. This study also investigates how changes in competition have affected the financial stability of Chinese commercial banks. To test the competitive conditions, we obtained the H statistic of the Panzar-Rosse model from a revenue function equation. The degree of financial stability is estimated by the Z-score formula. The Chinese banking industry has become an increasingly less concentrated market with an increased number of banks. Along with a decreased market concentration, competition in the Chinese banking industry has improved moderately. However, its market structure is still far from a competitive market. An individual bank's ability to earn higher markup or charge a higher net interest margin contributes to its financial soundness, although a higher degree of market concentration may have negative effect on the financial stability of the entire banking system.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.97-105
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• 2019

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the government support project on traditional market and the interaction effect between the government support project and the competition intensity. Therefore, this study focuses on the competition intensity of individual stores in traditional markets, unlike the traditional research flow, which is beyond the competitive structure of traditional markets and large retailers. Research design, data, and methodology - This study is based on the data of 'Statistics of Traditional Market in 2017'. In this study, a multiple regression equation was constructed using the number of government support projects as an independent variable, competition intensity as an interaction, and sales per store, number of customers per store as a dependent variable for analysis. A multiple regression equation was constructed for the main effect analysis. To investigate the effect of the interaction, cohen(1980)'s regression equation and two-way ANOVA were used. Results - First, according to this study, the traditional market participated in the government support project showed that the sales and the number of visitors per store in the traditional market were higher than those in the non-participation market. Second, the impact of government support projects on sales per store(also number of visiting customers per store) can be different depending on the competition intensity. More specifically, if the market is politically supported by a market with a high level of competition, it may be more effective than the market with no support. Conclusions - Based on the results of the study, we suggested academic and practical implications and suggested that competition intensity of stores in the traditional market should be considered in the future. The implications of this study are as follows. First, the effects of the government's traditional market support project were analyzed empirically. Second, this study is different from the previous studies in that it examined the competitive strengths and the effects of individual stores in traditional markets, away from competition between traditional market and large retailers. Third, it provided practical implications for the operation of government support projects.