• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.51-79
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• 1990

Research on technical efficiency, an important dimension of market performance, had received little attention until recently by most industrial organization empiricists, the reason being that traditional microeconomic theory simply assumed away any form of inefficiency in production. Recently, however, an increasing number of research efforts have been conducted to answer questions such as: To what extent do technical ineffciencies exist in the production activities of firms and plants? What are the factors accounting for the level of inefficiency found and those explaining the interindustry difference in technical inefficiency? Are there any significant international differences in the levels of technical efficiency and, if so, how can we reconcile these results with the observed pattern of international trade, etc? As the first in a series of studies on the technical efficiency of Korea's manufacturing industries, this paper attempts to answer some of these questions. Since the estimation of technical efficiency requires the use of plant-level data for each of the five-digit KSIC industries available from the Census of Manufactures, one may consture the findings of this paper as empirical evidence of technical efficiency in Korea's manufacturing industries at the most disaggregated level. We start by clarifying the relationship among the various concepts of efficiency-allocative effciency, factor-price efficiency, technical efficiency, Leibenstein's X-efficiency, and scale efficiency. It then becomes clear that unless certain ceteris paribus assumptions are satisfied, our estimates of technical inefficiency are in fact related to factor price inefficiency as well. The empirical model employed is, what is called, a stochastic frontier production function which divides the stochastic term into two different components-one with a symmetric distribution for pure white noise and the other for technical inefficiency with an asymmetric distribution. A translog production function is assumed for the functional relationship between inputs and output, and was estimated by the corrected ordinary least squares method. The second and third sample moments of the regression residuals are then used to yield estimates of four different types of measures for technical (in) efficiency. The entire range of manufacturing industries can be divided into two groups, depending on whether or not the distribution of estimated regression residuals allows a successful estimation of technical efficiency. The regression equation employing value added as the dependent variable gives a greater number of "successful" industries than the one using gross output. The correlation among estimates of the different measures of efficiency appears to be high, while the estimates of efficiency based on different regression equations seem almost uncorrelated. Thus, in the subsequent analysis of the determinants of interindustry variations in technical efficiency, the choice of the regression equation in the previous stage will affect the outcome significantly.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.308-312
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• 2015

This study was aimed to evaluate the effects of tramadol hydrochloride on the minimum alveolar concentration of isoflurane ($MAC_{ISO}$) in dogs. Six healthy, female German shepherd dogs (aged 1-2 years) were used in this study. Anesthesia was induced by mask induction and maintained with isoflurane in oxygen. Mechanical ventilation maintained the end-tidal $CO_2$ partial pressure ($P_{ET}CO_2$) from 35 to 45 mmHg throughout the study. A baseline $MAC_{ISO}$ ($MAC_{ISO}B$) was determined starting 45 minutes after induction of anesthesia by clamping a pedal digit until gross purposeful movement was detected. After $MAC_{ISO}B$ determination, dogs received a tramadol loading dose of 3 mg/kg followed by a continuous rate infusion (CRI) of 2.6 mg/kg/h. The determination of $MAC_{ISO}$ after administration of tramadol ($MAC_{ISO}T$) began 20 min after the start of the CRI. Arterial blood pressure and heart rate were recorded continuously and arterial blood samples for blood gas analysis were collected at the end of the equilibration period. Mean ${\pm}$ SD values for the $MAC_{ISO}B$ and $MAC_{ISO}T$ were $1.33{\pm}0.04%$ and $1.23{\pm}0.04%$, respectively. The $MAC_{ISO}B$ decreased significantly by $7.5{\pm}0.2%$ (P < 0.05) after administration of tramadol. The mean heart rate and arterial blood pressure of six dogs were not changed significantly after tramadol administration. The blood gas levels remained constant during the study. In conclusion, tramadol could significantly reduce $MAC_{ISO}$ without depression of cardiorespiratory function. Thus, the use of tramadol on inhalation anesthesia with isoflurane in dogs can improve the stability of anesthesia and the quality of recovery.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.91-104
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• 2023

The records system is believed to have started in Italy in the 14th century in line with trade developments in Europe. In 1491, Luca Pacioli, a mathematician, and an Italian Franciscan monk wrote the first book that described double-entry accounting processes. In many countries, including Korea, the government accounting standards used single-entry bookkeeping rather than double-entry bookkeeping that can be aggregated by account subject. The cash-based and single-entry bookkeeping used by the government in the past had limitations in providing clear information on financial status and establishing a performance-oriented financial management system. Accordingly, the National Accounting Act (promulgated in October 2007) stipulated the introduction of double-entry bookkeeping and accrual accounting systems in the government sector from January 1, 2009. Furthermore, the Korean government has also introduced International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and the System of National Accounts (SNA). Since 2014, Korea owned five national accounts. In Korea, valuation began with the 1968 National Wealth Statistics Survey. The academic origins of the valuation of national wealth statistics which had been investigated by due diligence every 10 years since 1968 are based on the 'Engineering Valuation' of professor Marston in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Iowa State University in the 1930s. This field has spread to economics, etc. In economics, it became the basis of capital stock estimation for positive economics such as econometrics. The valuation by the National Wealth Statistics Survey contributed greatly to converting the book value of accounting data into vintage data. And in 2000 National Statistical Office collected actual disposal data for the 1-digit asset class and obtained the ASL(average service life) by Iowa curve. Then, with the data on fixed capital formation centered on the National B/S Team of the Bank of Korea, the national wealth statistics were prepared by the Permanent Inventory Method(PIM). The asset classification was also classified into 59 types, including 2 types of residential buildings, 4 types of non-residential buildings, 14 types of structures, 9 types of transportation equipment, 28 types of machinery, and 2 types of intangible fixed assets. Tables of useful lives of tangible fixed assets published by the Korea Appraisal Board in 1999 and 2013 were made by the Iowa curve method. In Korea, the Iowa curve method has been adopted as a method of ASL estimation. There are three types of the Iowa curve method. The retirement rate method of the three types is the best because it is based on the collection and compilation of the data of all properties in service during a period of recent years, both properties retired and that are still in service. We hope the retirement rate method instead of the individual unit method is used in the estimation of ASL. Recently Korean government's accounting system has been developed. When revenue expenditure and capital expenditure were mixed in the past single-entry bookkeeping we would like to suggest that BOK and National Statistical Office have accumulated knowledge of a rational difference between revenue expenditure and capital expenditure. In particular, it is important when it is estimated capital stock by PIM. Korea also needs an empirical study on economic depreciation like Hulten & Wykoff Catalog A of the US BEA.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.3-49
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• 1990

This paper analyzes U.S. demand for imports from Asian NIEs and Japan, utilizing the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) developed by Deaton and Muellbauer, with an emphasis on the effect of changes in the exchange rate. The empirical model assumes a two-stage budgeting process in which the first stage represents the allocation of total U.S. demand among three groups: the Asian NIEs and Japan, six Western developed countries, and the U.S. domestic non-tradables and import competing sector. The second stage represents the allocation of total U.S. imports from the Asian NIEs and Japan among them, by country. According to the AIDS model, the share equation for the Asia NIEs and Japan in U.S. nominal GNP is estimated as a single equation for the first stage. The share equations for those five countries in total U.S. imports are estimated as a system with the general demand restrictions of homogeneity, symmetry and adding-up, together with polynomially distributed lag restrictions. The negativity condition is also satisfied for all cases. The overall results of these complicated estimations, using quarterly data from the first quarter of 1972 to the fourth quarter of 1989, are quite promising in terms of the significance of individual estimators and other statistics. The conclusions drawn from the estimation results and the derived demand elasticities can be summarized as follows: First, the exports of each Asian NIE to the U.S. are competitive with (substitutes for) Japan's exports, while complementary to the exports of fellow NIEs, with the exception of the competitive relation between Hong Kong and Singapore. Second, the exports of each Asian NIE and of Japan to the U.S. are competitive with those of Western developed countries' to the U.S, while they are complementary to the U.S.' non-tradables and import-competing sector. Third, as far as both the first and second stages of budgeting are coneidered, the imports from each Asian NIE and Japan are luxuries in total U.S. consumption. However, when only the second budgeting stage is considered, the imports from Japan and Singapore are luxuries in U.S. imports from the NIEs and Japan, while those of Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong are necessities. Fourth, the above results may be evidenced more concretely in their implied exchange rate effects. It appears that, in general, a change in the yen-dollar exchange rate will have at least as great an impact, on an NIE's share and volume of exports to the U.S. though in the opposite direction, as a change in the exchange rate of the NIE's own currency $vis-{\grave{a}}-vis$ the dollar. Asian NIEs, therefore, should counteract yen-dollar movements in order to stabilize their exports to the U.S.. More specifically, Korea should depreciate the value of the won relative to the dollar by approximately the same proportion as the depreciation rate of the yen $vis-{\grave{a}}-vis$ the dollar, in order to maintain the volume of Korean exports to the U.S.. In the worst case scenario, Korea should devalue the won by three times the maguitude of the yen's depreciation rate, in order to keep market share in the aforementioned five countries' total exports to the U.S.. Finally, this study provides additional information which may support empirical findings on the competitive relations among the Asian NIEs and Japan. The correlation matrices among the strutures of those five countries' exports to the U.S.. during the 1970s and 1980s were estimated, with the export structure constructed as the shares of each of the 29 industrial sectors' exports as defined by the 3 digit KSIC in total exports to the U.S. from each individual country. In general, the correlation between each of the four Asian NIEs and Japan, and that between Hong Kong and Singapore, are all far below .5, while the ones among the Asian NIEs themselves (except for the one between Hong Kong and Singapore) all greatly exceed .5. If there exists a tendency on the part of the U.S. to import goods in each specific sector from different countries in a relatively constant proportion, the export structures of those countries will probably exhibit a high correlation. To take this hypothesis to the extreme, if the U.S. maintained an absolutely fixed ratio between its imports from any two countries for each of the 29 sectors, the correlation between the export structures of these two countries would be perfect. Therefore, since any two goods purchased in a fixed proportion could be classified as close complements, a high correlation between export structures will imply a complementary relationship between them. Conversely, low correlation would imply a competitive relationship. According to this interpretation, the pattern formed by the correlation coefficients among the five countries' export structures to the U.S. are consistent with the empirical findings of the regression analysis.