• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.3-33
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• 1991

Since the early 1980's, the Korean government has gradually been widening the Korean market to foreign consumer goods. This, combined with the increased purchasing power of the Korean consumers resulting from the continued economic growth of the country, has sparked a spectacular influx of foreign consumer goods into Korea, ranging from BMW's to chopsticks. Import of foreign consumer goods amounted to more than 6 billion dollars in 1989 and is continuing to grow at a rapid rate. The increased import of foreign consumer goods doubtlessly improved the overall welfare of the Korean consumers by providing them with a wider range of options to choose from, by lowering the prices of some of the consumer goods domestically produced, and also by forcing the producers of some Korean goods to face competition with better foreign goods, thus giving them an incentive to raise the quality of their products. However, it is agreed by most economists that this increase in general welfare has been much smaller than what they had expected at the outset. Consumer prices of most imported consumer goods are easily double the import price, and in some cases, more than treble the import prices. Further, there has not been a noticeable drop in the prices of domestically produced consumer goods. Much of the blame has been attributed to the distribution sector of Korea. The objective of this paper is to analyze the imported consumer goods distribution sector of Korea, focusing on the possible sources of the poor performance of that sector, and to make policy suggestions that could potentially increase the welfare. This paper differs from all the previous research by others on this subject in that it analyzes the imported consumer goods distribution sector of Korea as a vertical structure. The distribution sector of an imported consumer good is a vertical structure since it consists of an international market, an import stage, and domestic wholesale and retail markets, in that order vertically. Our study naturally includes the analysis of the vertical restraints as well as the analysis of the industrial organization of each horizontal stage in the vertical structure. Each horizontal component of the imported consumer goods distribution sector is basically a monopolistically competitive market differentiated by characteristics of goods and by the locations and the services of firms. Further, restrictive dealership and resale price maintenance are found to be widely in use. Our main findings are the follwing; First, most consumer goods are imported monopolistically or oligopolistically through restrictive dealership contracts between foreign producers and domestic importers. Such restrictive dealership gives importers market power in the domestic market and explains many of the large discrepancies betwen the consumer prices and the import prices of many goods. Korean anti - trust law does not cover the issues arising from the market power of an importer resulting from a restrictive dealership contract. Second, some major producers of Korean goods are also importers of foreign goods that are substitutes of their products. The import of substitutes by major domestic producers is anti - competitive because it tends to raise the prices of both domestic goods and foreign goods, and also because it reduces the incentive of the domestic producers to raise the quality of their products. Third, wholesalers and retailers widely use resale price maintenance as a price fixing mechanism, and while this is against the anti- trust law, it seldom gets noticed. Fourth, the high level of rents of real estate for commercial use works as an entry barrier to the distribution sector and results in reduced competition by the firms in that sector. Finally, there are information problems. Consumers have inferior information to firms about the quality of a foreign consumer good that they have not tried before. Such information asymmetry often enables firms to raise prices. In addition, information asymmetry between importers frequently delays the import of cheaper substitutes. In order to alleviate the problems indentified above, we suggest the following policy changes. The government should strengthen the anti - trust law and its enforcement to regulate restrictive import contracts, import of competing goods by major domestic producers, and RPM by wholesalers and retailers that is aimed at price fixing. In addition, the government should loosen its tight real estate policy to encourage investment in the distribution sector. Finally, we suggest that the import price revelation policy that has been in use for some items since 1990 be expanded to most imported consumer goods that are introduced for the first time to give consumer better information and be used only for the period of time needed to inform sufficient number of consumers.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.55-75
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• 1992

At the outset of import liberalization, most economists expected a significant drop in the prices of domestic goods that faced foreign competition. However, it is now generally acknowledge that a significant drop in prices of those goods has not occurred. A common claim is that the prices did not drop significantly because the major importers of many imported goods were also the domestic producers of competing goods. The objective of this paper is to analyze the welfare effect of importation by domestic firms that produce competing goods, to identify the factors that facilitate such business practices, and to formulate a policy that could improve the welfare. We proved that importation by competing domestic firms definitely raises the prices of both imported and domestic goods compared to the situation where foreign goods are imported by non-producers, ceteris paribus. The intuition behind this result is that since a producer-importer is essentially a cartel, its overall profit maximization requires reduced competition between the products that it sells. On the other hand, if a producer-importer is more efficient at distrinbution than a simple importer, the comparison between the two cases is a priori indeterminate. We also find that the industries in which domestic producers are actively involved in importing competing goods are the ones in which the distribution channels are tightly controlled by importer-producers. This finding suggests that exclusive dealing contracts, which work as an entry barrier, may be the source of importing by domestic producers. We argue that in a country such as Korea, where financial market is highly incomplete, tight control of the distribution channels by oligopolistic manufacturers is likely to be an effective entry barrier that leads to importing by domestic producers of similar goods. We further argue that seemingly superior distribution costs of importer-producers is likely to be a result of market foreclosure which would disappear once the entry barrier of exclusive dealing contracts is removed. Above findings suggest that market imperfections are the source of importation by domestic competitors, which in turn constitutes a market imperfection in itself and reduces consumer welfare. As potential remedies, we considered three alternatives; direct price control by the government over the imported goods sold by major domestic producers, regulation of trade itself between major producers, and regulation of exclusive dealing contracts. For reasons both theoretical and pratical, we find that the last alternative is the most attrative. Prohibiting exclusive contracts between manufacturers and dealers in industries where exclusive dealing contracts are a significant entry barrier is expected to break up the importer-producer cartel and improve the welfare.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.105-126
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• 2009

This study applies the cointegration theory to analyse the causality of the prices between imported fisheries and domestic fisheries in distribution channel. We've focused on the prices of import, wholesale and retail about the frozen Alaska pollack, hairtail and croaker which take up high portion and are popular among most of the consumers. In process of analysis, the unit root test was adopted to find the stability of time series data prior to the cointegration test. If the time series data was found as stable one in unit root test, we should analyse the VAR model. If unstable, the cointegratioin test was adopeted to find the long-run equilibrium relationship between the data. When the long-run equilibrium relationship was found among the price of the import, wholesale and retail price, the VECM model was adoped. If not, the differenced VAR model was adopted. The main findings of this study could be summarized as follows ; First, according to the result of the analysis on VAR model, time series data of frozen Alaska pollack was found as stable and has causality relationship and close effect was existing among the import, wholesale and retail price. Second, the data of frozen hairtail was found as an unstable one in unit root test and the result of cointegration test showed the long-run equilibrium relationship at lag 1. From the results of VECM model, we could find that the coefficient of error correction is effective, and the sign is negative(-). It means that the existence of adjustment tendency to long-run equilibrium after a short-run deviation. But the short-run causality of the prices were not found except the price of wholesale. Third, according to the results of differenced VAR model, data from frozen croaker did not have the stability and long-run equilibrium. Moreover, it was found that the import price has a weak causality on the retail price. Because of having difficulties in collecting data, the result of this paper could not explain the relationship among the prices of import, wholesale and retail perfectly. However, it more or less contributed to a long-lasted debate on the direction of causality of price-setting in academic research and provided a useful guide for the policy makers in charge of the price-setting of fisheries products as well.

• 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.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.163-172
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• 2019

The paper aims to investigate the impact of the gap between domestic and international gold price on money demand in Vietnam, an emerging economy in the Asian region. We use a quarterly database collected from the first quarter of 2004 to the fourth quarter of 2016. The time-series database includes 52 observations. The money demand is represented by M2; Domestic income is the Gross domestic product at the constant prices of 1994; Inflation rate is calculated by the Customer Price Index from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam. The result confirms the existence of a long-term cointegration relationship between the money demand and the gap between domestic and international gold price as well as some variables including domestic income, inflation, and real exchange rate. The regression results also show that the gap between domestic and international gold price has a positive impact on money demand in the Vietnamese economy. Besides, the domestic income and international gold price have positive impacts on money demand while the inflation and real exchange rate are negatively related in the long run. This proves that the gap between the domestic and international gold price really has a positive impact on money demand in Vietnam during the study period.

• Journal of the Korean Professional Engineers Association
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.45-49
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• 2008

Considering domestic situation such as economical crisis, $CO_2$ exhaust amount limit based on the Climatic Change Convention, sky-rocketed oil prices. 97% of energy import from abroad, and import sum reaching up to 20% of entire import, we need to invest new recycle energy and future energy development at a full blast.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.325-349
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• 2005

One aspect of the globalization of the financial market after the 1980s is represented by the concurrent monetarization of the national stock markets. As the IR activity is regarded as a new financial productivity measure, the IR activity in the stock market is being emphasized domestically and internationally. This study analyzes domestic IR activities and compares them with foreign IR activities. Specifically the "road show", a typical IR activity, which is known to resolve the information asymmetry between the firm and the investors is analyzed to see the extent of the their value increase impact on the firm. The study employs domestic and international firms that publicly announced "road shows" after April 2004. Event studies are done to see the existence of abnormal return after the public announcement of road shows. Domestic firms were found to have positive IR impacts on the stock prices, but international firms were found to have negative IR impacts on the stock prices. Also it was found that international public announcement of the road show have stronger positive impact on the stock price than domestic public announcement. The investigation of the statistically significant difference of CAR before and after the fair public announcement enforcement rule showed that the positive CAR impact is strengthened after the adoption of the rule. The conclusion is that increase of the firm value after the road show implies that the information asymmetry is reduced by the active IR actions on the firm side. The policy implication is that we have to reassure the understanding of the role of the IR activities. Specifically Korean firms may have to encourage IR activities to share the information of the firms with the investors, which may result in the trustworthy relationship between the firms and investors.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.29-34
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• 1993

This study was carried out to estimate price and domestic consumption functions of chestnut using time series data for the period 1970~1989. Using a regression analysis method, price and domestic consumption functions of chestnut in Korea are estimated. The result of this study reveals that the optimum function of price for chestnut is PR= -249.33965 + 163532.56817 EX/POP-4.10177 PD+4.02877 DC+6056.98339 GDP/POP($R^2$=0.88207), and that optimum function of domestic consumption for chestnut is ln DC=14.97145+1.48279 ln PD/POP - 0.32853 ln GDP - 0.02337 ln PR - 0.12117 ln EX($R^2$=0.98689). On the ground that instability of prices make the income of producer and family finances of consumer unstable, the object of price-policy should be to stabilize price of chestnut in Korea.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.64-71
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• 2010

This paper deals with an economic evaluation of domestic immersing type photoelectrochemical hydrogen production. We also make some sensitivity analysis of hydrogen production prices by changing the values of input factors such as the initial capital cost, the solar to hydrogen conversion efficiency, and the system duration time. The hydrogen production price of the immersing type photoelectrochemical system was estimated as 8,264,324 won/$kgH_2$. It is expected that the production cost by photoelectrochemical hydrogen production can be reduced to 26,961 won/$kgH_2$ if the solar to hydrogen conversion efficiency is increased to 14%, the system duration time is increased to 20,000 hours, and the initial capital cost is decreased to 10% of the current level. The photoelectrochemical hydrogen production is evaluated as uneconomical at this time, and we need to enhance the solar to hydrogen conversion efficiency and the system duration time as well as to reduce prices of the system facilities.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.176-182
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• 2023

With about 80% of the global economy expected to shift to the global market by 2030, exports of reverse direct purchase products, in which foreign consumers purchase products from online shopping malls in Korea, are growing 55% annually. As of 2021, sales of reverse direct purchases in South Korea increased 50.6% from the previous year, surpassing 40 million. In order for domestic SMEs(Small and medium sized enterprises) to enter overseas markets, it is important to come up with export strategies based on various market analysis information, but for domestic small and medium-sized sellers, entry barriers are high, such as lack of information on overseas markets and difficulty in selecting local preferred products and determining competitive sales prices. This study develops an AI-based product recommendation and sales price estimation model to collect and analyze global shopping malls and product trends to provide marketing information that presents promising and appropriate product sales prices to small and medium-sized sellers who have difficulty collecting global market information. The product recommendation model is based on the LTR (Learning To Rank) methodology. As a result of comparing performance with nDCG, the Pair-wise-based XGBoost-LambdaMART Model was measured to be excellent. The sales price estimation model uses a regression algorithm. According to the R-Squared value, the Light Gradient Boosting Machine performs best in this model.