Market In South Korea Research Articles

Financial liberalization or state capitalism? The developmental state and the special purpose bond market in South Korea

ABSTRACT South Korea's state-guaranteed bond market was nearly half the size of its sovereign bond market in 2022, and in the early 2000s, it was nearly twice the size of the latter. What explains the overwhelming prominence of this fixed-income market? This paper finds that the prominence of this market is a path-dependent consequence of developmental legacies and the Asian Financial Crisis. State-guaranteed bonds allowed the state to circumvent conditionalities that limited the state's ability to access domestic savings for policy objectives and helped shield the newly established sovereign bond market from premature supply pressure. This finding demonstrates that the state not only supports or creates markets but also uses markets to maintain its influence against external pressure. It also explains how the South Korean state was able to maintain its developmental policies after market liberalisation by tracking the post-crisis flow of domestic savings.

Analisa Potensi Pasar Korea Selatan untuk Produk Kehutanan

The use of wood as a high-value product does not stop there. Paper, furniture, carbon, and rubber are examples of other non-timber forestry products that are often found in everyday life but are sourced from forests. The purpose of this study is to analyze South Korea's market potential for forestry products. In this study, we use qualitative methodology to understand and evaluate the opportunities and problems faced by Indonesian forestry products, as well as the global market potential for these products. The potential of Indonesian wood commodities and wood products to enter the South Korean market with minimal domestic supply still holds great potential. With abundant supply, offering quality, competitive prices and guaranteeing the required legality documents, it is believed that Indonesia has the opportunity to answer the needs of wood and wood products in the South Korean market in the future.

Complete genome sequence of Enterococcus faecium strain AK_C_05 with potential characteristics applicable in livestock industry.

The Enterococcus faecium (E. faecium) strain AK_C_05 was isolated from cheonggukjang, the Korean traditional food, collected from a local market in South Korea. In this report, we presented the complete genome sequence of E. faecium strain AK_C_05. The genome of E. faecium strain AK_C_05 genome consisted of one circular chromosome (2,691,319 bp) with a guanine + cytosine (GC) content of 38.3% and one circular plasmid (177,732 bp) with a GC content of 35.48%. The Annotation results revealed 2,827 protein-coding sequences (CDSs), 18 rRNAs, and 68 tRNA genes. It possesses genes, which encodes enzymes such as alpha-galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.22), beta-glucosidase (EC 3.2.1.21) and alpha-L-arabinofuranosidase (EC 3.2.1.55) enabling efficient utilization of carbohydrates. Based on Clusters of Orthologous Groups analysis, E. faecium strain AK_C_05 showed specialization in carbohydrate transport and metabolism indicating the ability to generate energy using a variety of carbohydrates.

Enhancing stock market trend reversal prediction using feature-enriched neural networks

According to several previous studies, neural network-based stock price predictors perform better for plunging patterns of stock prices than normal stock price patterns. Focusing on this issue, this study proposes a novel method that uses a neural network-based stock price predictor to predict the upward trend-reversal of the plunging market itself. To achieve more consistent prediction results for plunging patterns, newly designed input features are added to improve the performance of traditionally used neural network-based predictors. The statistics of the prediction scores for past plunging markets and analyzed, and the results are used to predict the upward trend-reversal in the plunging market that occurred during the test period. We demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method through the simulation results of 3-year trading on KOSDAQ, a representative stock market in South Korea.

Design and Optimization of an Alkaline Electrolysis System for Small-Scale Hydropower Integration

Alkaline electrolysis systems are currently considered to be suitable for large-scale hydrogen production. Previous research has primarily focused on integrating renewable energy sources such as solar and wind into water electrolysis systems. However, intermittent issues stemming from the sporadic nature of renewable energy sources have led to the introduction of energy storage systems (ESSs) to address these intermittent challenges. Extensive research has been conducted on the efficiency and operational aspects of these systems. In contrast to other renewable energy sources, hydropower offers the advantages of stable output and high utilization, making it a promising solution for overcoming intermittent issues. In this study, we propose the design of an optimized alkaline electrolysis system tailored for small-scale hydropower generation. This approach allowed us to confirm the efficiency of a small-scale hydropower-based hydrogen production facility and the analysis of hydrogen production costs under diverse scenarios. Notably, the optimal selling price per kilogram of hydrogen was determined to be USD 15.6 when the operational time exceeded 20 h, albeit indicating a challenging market supply. Under the consideration of various scenarios and government subsidies, this study revealed that a USD 10/kgH2 subsidy or 24 h of continuous operation achieved break-even points in the sixth and eighth years, respectively. Ultimately, the findings underscore the necessity for essential measures, including government backing and technological advancements in small-scale hydropower facilities, to enhance the economic viability of the green hydrogen market in South Korea.

The Impact of Cultural Code on the Visual Presentation of Brand Touchpoints: A Case Study of the Common Skincare Market in South Korea

Brand touch point is a common means of brand marketing, is the key moment for users to contact with the brand, is an important part of influencing consumer decision-making, and has a significant impact on consumer experience and help them decide whether to buy the brand products. This paper is research on common Skincare Market in South Korea. Proposing an Innovative Path for Brand Marketing in the Current Consumer Era Based on the Brand Touchpoint Perspective. It is proposed to meet the basic needs of users, provide personalized services and co-create brand value with consumers before, during and after the brand contact, respectively. Applying the theory of cultural codes as well as analyzing the characteristics of such companies, insights are drawn from the visual design of brand touchpoints and factors affecting consumer decision-making, providing practical references for the marketing of such brands.

Analysis of the Financial Behaviors of North Korean Refugees in South Korea

North Korean refugees born and raised under the socialist economy have faced challenges in adapting to the advanced consumer financial market in South Korea. We construct individual-level panel data on the refugees and native-born individuals sharing similar characteristics in terms of demographic and economic variables using the Korean credit bureau (CB) data. Panel analysis reveals a significantly higher number of delinquencies by the refugees than the native-born control group. These findings suggest that the lack of financial knowledge stemming from prolonged residence in a socialist society has a negative impact on defectors’ financial adaptation in South Korea. However, as the length of credit history which is a proxy of financial literacy increases, the number of delinquencies of the refuges drops much faster than that of the control group. Additional support, such as financial education, must therefore be considered to facilitate economic integration for the refugees.

First report of leaf anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum camelliae on tea plants (Camellia sinensis) in South Korea.

The tea plant (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze) is a popular non-alcoholic beverage crop worldwide. The tea market in South Korea is projected to increase annually by 4.59% (Statista, 2022). Boseong, Hadong, and Jeju Island are the main tea-growing regions in South Korea. Anthracnose is one of the major diseases of tea plants and is responsible for substantial yield loss and poor tea quality. In 2021, anthracnose of tea (disease incidence of 30%) was observed in a garden (33°28'45.5"N 126°42'02.2"E) at Jeju Island, where the Yabukita cultivar has been cultivated. The typical symptoms consisted of round or irregularly shaped lesions with gray-white centers and purple-brown borders. Twelve morphologically similar isolates were recovered from 12 infected leaves using the single spore isolation method on solid potato dextrose agar (PDA) (Cai et al. 2009). Four representative isolates (GT6, GT7, GT8, and GT11) were identified based on morphology, molecular analysis, and pathogenicity tests. The upper side of seven-day-old colonies on PDA (incubated at 25 °C in the dark) was off-white with white aerial mycelia and gray-white with black zonation on their reverse side. Conidia were hyaline, aseptate, cylindrical, with both obtuse ends, and measuring 12.3 - 25.8 µm × 4.4 - 9.3 µm (n = 50). Appressoria were dark brown, irregularly shaped with a smooth edge, and measuring 7.3 -18.8 µm × 6.9 - 11.3 µm (n = 50). According to morphological characteristics, the fungal isolates were tentatively identified as the Colletotrichum gloeosporioides complex, including C. caelliae (Wang et al. 2016; Weir et al. 2012). The genomic DNA was extracted, and the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS), β-tubulin-2 (TUB2) gene, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) gene, actin (ACT), calmodulin (CAL), and the Apn2-Mat1-2 intergenic spacer and partial mating type (ApMat) genes were amplified and subsequently sequenced using primer sets ITS1/ITS4, BT2a/BT2b, GDF1/GDR1, ACT-512F/ACT-783R1, CL1C/CL2C, and AM-F/AM-R, respectively (Silva et al. 2012; Weir et al. 2012). The resulting sequences were deposited in GenBank accession numbers (LC738932-LC738959). All the representative isolates were identified as C. camelliae by constructing the 50% majority rule consensus and maximum likelihood phylogenetic treebased on the combined ITS, TUB2, GAPDH, ACT, CAL, and ApMat sequences using MrBayes v. 3.2.2 and Mega X, respectively (Kumar et al., 2018; Ronquist et al. 2012). The pathogenicity of these isolates was tested on healthy leaves of 2- years-old tea seedlings (the Yabukita cultivar). Onside of unwounded or wounded leaves of seedlings were inoculated with 20 µL of conidial suspension (1 × 106 conidia or spores/ml) per spot (3-4 wounded or unwounded spots per side per leaf). Another side of the leaves received sterile distilled water and served as a control. Each treatment was replicated three times (three seedlings/isolate and four leaves per seedling) and this experiment was repeated twice. All plants were covered with plastic bags, placed in a growth chamber, and incubated at 25 °C with a 12-h photoperiod and 90% relative humidity. Typical anthracnose symptoms appeared on wounded leaves after two days of inoculation. Unwounded and controlled leaves remain asymptotic. To confirm Koch's postulates, fungal isolates were re-isolated from inoculated leaf lesions and identified as C. camelliae based on morphology and ITS sequences. Colletotrichum camelliae is a very common pathogen associated with tea anthracnose worldwide, including China (Liu et al. 2015; Wang et al. 2016).To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of anthracnose in tea trees caused by C. camelliae in South Korea. The results of this study could help come up with better ways to keep an eye on and deal with this devastating on tea plants. Key words: Tea anthracnose, Colletotrichum camelliae, pathogenicity References Cai, L., et al. 2009. Fungal Divers. 39:183. Kumar, S., et al. 2018. Mol. Biol. Evol. 35:1547. Liu, F. et al. 2015. Persoonia. 35: 63-86. Ronquist, F. et al. 2012. Syst. Biol. 61:539-542. Silva, D. N. et al. 2012. Mycologia. 104:396-409. Statista 2022. Statista Digital Market out Look. Available at www.statista.com. Wang, Y.-C. et al. 2016. Sci. Rep. 6: 35287. Weir, B. S., et al. 2012. Stud. Mycol. 73:115.

Why It Fails? Marketing Strategy Analysis On The Brand “X” Instant Noodle Sales Performance In South Korea Market

This study aims to examine the reason why the sales performance of Brand “X” Instant Noodles from Indonesia is not successful yet to expand its market in South Korea. This study used sequential mixed-method approach comprising two steps: first is to analysing the external and internal factors using a qualitative approach. Secondly, the researcher also observed the behaviour of the customers that fit into the targeted segment, who are likely to be influenced by price, flavour variety, convenience, and brand loyalty. The results lead to indication of unprofitable business of instant noodles because of high intensity of rivalry and substitutes, and also unfavourable bargaining power of buyers and how it is easy for the competitors to entering the market. Furthermore, the company of Brand “X” Instant Noodle is still a conservative manufacturing-oriented company, taking a risk such as doing aggressive marketing to introduce its brand to a new market is still difficult. Additionally, competitor analysis shows that there are many contenders and stiff competition in the market. There are some limitations for this research, to make it more focused. First, The research only focused on Brand “X” Instant Noodle sales in South Korea. This research was conducted in South Korea since the analysis is focusing on the analysis of marketing strategy on the Brand “X” Instant Noodle Sales Performance in South Korea market. In this paper, the focus is on analysing the reasons why the Brand "X" Instant Noodle has not been able to achieve its sales targets compared to other foreign markets, particularly within the instant noodle industry. Rather than exploring the various factors that influence sales performance in general, the study specifically looks at the factors that are hindering the success of Brand "X" in the market. Overall, the goal of this paper is to provide valuable insights that can help Brand "X" Instant Noodle to understand its situation better

The Dual Labor Market and Workers' Health Inequality in South Korea.

We investigated how worker health inequality is potentially linked to the dual labor market in South Korea. Using the data from the fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey, we analyzed the data from 21,088 paid workers. We used logistic regression analyses to assess whether employment type or company size had a significant effect on workers' physical and mental health and work-related injuries. Workers' health status was significantly associated with employment type and company size. Nonstandard workers had higher rates of musculoskeletal diseases or injuries, and their self-rated health and psychological well-being were lower than standard workers. Company size showed a significant correlation only for work-related injuries. The structure of inequality in Korea's labor market according to employment type and company size seems to be affecting the health and safety of workers.

Gender inequality in the labor market in South Korea

Gender inequality in the labor market in South Korea

The disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on the labour market in South Korea

COVID-19 delivered distributional effects on the labour market. Therefore, policymakers concentrated on designing more efficient and effective fiscal supports to alleviate economic damages. To draw more specific pictures, this study estimates who faced harder impacts and how much they experienced economic difficulties in Korea using unconditional quantile regression and separating vulnerable sectors, such as face-to-face industries. The findings suggest that self-employed workers in the vulnerable industries at low-income percentiles presented the most severe damages. Second, self-employed workers in other sectors, temporary workers in the vulnerable industries, and low-income households also had serious impacts. Third, female workers, who have a primary child-care duty, experienced serious negative effects due to the regulation disparity between strict school closure measures and generous workplace restrictions. In this regard, financial supports should aim to target more damaged groups instead of universal benefits. Furthermore, it is also important to improve child-care services to mitigate gender inequality.

A case study on DNA barcoding for pet food mislabeling in South Korea.

Due to the close relationship between pets and humans, pet owners are highly invested in proper diets for their pets. Even though pet food mislabeling is concerning, there are few studies on this topic. This study investigated pet food mislabeling in South Korea's market based on DNA barcoding. In total, 10 pet food products were purchased, and 200 sequences of the partial Cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene were generated from clones of the samples. The obtained sequences were compared to available public databases to identify species present in the ingredients. The data analyses showed that the labeled species were consistent with species detected by COI sequences in 6 of the products. However, the expected species were not detected in 4 products, revealing possible mislabeling in these samples. Our findings indicated that DNA barcoding might represent a promising tool to detect pet food mislabeling.

Do oil prices predict the dynamics of equity market Fresh evidence from DCC, ADCC and Go-GARCH models

This paper investigates the dynamic condition correlations between oil price, industrial production, short-term interest rates and equity market in South Korea using three types of GARCH models. The results from the DCC and ADCC GARCH models show strong evidence of significant dynamic conditional correlations suggesting higher long-term persistence of volatility than short-term persistence. The findings suggest, particularly, that oil prices have positive dynamic conditional correlations to equity markets, while the dynamic conditional correlations between equity market and short-term interest rates are significantly negative. These results have considerable economic implications. Firstly, oil price as a risk factor increases the equity market volatility. It also represents an implicit risk factor that cannot be diversified and which requires therefore to be hedged or priced. Secondly, the oil acts as an inflationary factor leading central banks to adjust their short-term interest rates in order to smooth the inflationary effect on both real economy and financial activity.

C2C 시장에 대한 수요와 공급 균형: 한국 카풀 시장의 사례를 중심으로

카풀 서비스는 운전자와 탑승자 모두가 윈윈(win-win)하는 상호 매칭 서비스다. 교통 혼잡이 심각한 한국에서, 이러한 서비스는 교통 문제 해결책으로 주목받고 있다. 본 연구는 대한민국의 카풀 서비스에 대한 운전자와 탑승자 간의 선호를 바탕으로 균형점을 분석한다. 이를 통해 C2C 시장의 특성을 살펴보고, 주어진 속성에 대해 상호 매칭이 발생하는 균형점(카풀의 수요와 공급가격)을 살펴본다. 본 연구는 선택실험을 통해 카풀 서비스에 대한 선호도를 분석하고, 카풀의 속성과 수준을 기반으로 운전자와 탑승객에 대한 균형점이 어떻게 변화하는지 살펴보았다. 균형가격과 이용률은 카풀 주행⋅승차 30분당 6100원, 이용률은 20.3%로 나타났다. 본 연구는 C2C 시장에 대한 깊은 이해를 제공하고 운전자와 탑승자의 주행 행동 및 카풀의 속성을 고려한 의사결정을 통해 균형점을 도출한 점에서 기존 문헌에 새로운 기여점을 제공한다.

Effects of Supplier’s Competitive Factors on Relationship Performance and Product Recommendation in Crop Protection Retail Sector

The changes in distribution channels of the crop protection industry are accelerating the influence of crop protection retailers on farmers’ product purchase decisions. This study aims to identify the critical competitive factors; ‘product quality’, ‘supply price’, ‘brand awareness’, ‘flexibility’, and ‘promotion support’; of crop protection manufacturers. And it empirically analyzes effects of the critical factors on relationship performance and product recommendation of crop protection retailers. This research also examined the difference among these major factors according to the level of trust of crop protection companies as suppliers. Survey data were collected from 660 retailers by the crop protection distribution market in South Korea. As for the results, the five factors were defined as the crop protection suppliers’ competitive factors. Supply price, promotion support, brand awareness, and flexibility had a positive (+) effect on relationship performance. Brand awareness, promotion support, product quality, and flexibility had a positive (+) effect on customer recommendation. Furthermore, supply price significantly affected relationship performance in a group with high trust, and promotion support significantly affected a group with low trust.

The interplay of the carbon market, the tradable green certificate market, and electricity market in South Korea: Dynamic transmission and spillover effects

The carbon emission trading scheme (ETS) and tradable green certificate (TGC) system have been widely used to encourage renewable technology and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Previous studies have discussed the interaction between these market-based instruments and the electricity market from a theoretical perspective. This research contributes to the literature by empirically examining the interplay of carbon market, the TGC market, and electricity market using a vector autoregressive (VAR) model to investigate the price transmission between different markets. A VAR-BEKK-GARCH model, based on discrete wavelet decomposition, was used to reveal the spillover effect between the three markets over multiple time scales. Based on evidence from the partially deregulated electricity market in South Korea, we do not find a significant short-term interaction between carbon market and the TGC market through the price transmission. However, the analysis over multiple time scales demonstrates that the return spillover between the carbon market and the TGC market is positive and bidirectional in the medium-term and long-term. In addition, the policy integration may create higher price risks to the carbon market and the TGC market, resulting from long-term risk spillovers. We explain these contrasting findings and discuss implications for the future deployment of these policies.

방한 중국 조선족 관광객 행태에 관한 탐색적 연구

Purpose This study aims to explore the characteristics of the Korean-Chinese outbound tourism to South Korea by particularly focusing on VFR market. The vast majority of the ethnic group reportedly visit South Korea to see and reunite their families, friends and/or relatives. Despite the significance of Chinese inbound tourism market in South Korea, academic understanding of the heterogeneous segments in the market is still lacking. Methods Online and offline surveys which were conducted in 2019, for adults and college students group and young students group, respectively. Results It showed that VFR is the ethnic group’s main purpose of traveling to South Korea (average 75.1%), which is consistently true to all segments including adults, college students, and young students in this study. They also collected travel information from reference groups including families and relatives alongwith the Internet and commercial travel information, and, in contrast to general Chinese outbound tourists, different destinations in Korea were preferred by the target groups (e.g., Incheon) and their travel behavior is different in terms of the length of staying and expenditure behavior. Conclusion Findings contribute to better understanding Chinese VFR tourism market and accommodating the unique needs of the segment. In particular, this study will prompt timely actions to deal with the recovery and resilience of the travel and tourism sector after the COVID- 19 pandemic.

Women’s labour market transitions during COVID-19: division of gender roles and the gendered labour market in South Korea (2018–2020)

ABSTRACT This study takes a closer look at the reasons behind women’s exit and entry from the labour market before and after the impact of Covid-19 (2018–2020) in South Korea. By running a random effects probit regression on KLoWF panel data, we find that the pandemic crisis put at risk the employment levels of the less skilled, but we also notice considerable employment resilience. Ultimately, women’s labour market transitions during the Covid-19 pandemic highly depend on women’s understanding of their contribution in the public and private spheres and work-family arrangements.

Current Status of Organic Matters in Bottled Drinking Water in Korea

Microplastics may be ubiquitous across ecosystems, yet the current state of exposure to microplastics in daily life remains poorly understood. We focused on drinking water in plastic bottles purchased from a local market in South Korea. The composition, amount, and size of organic matter in solid residues obtained by freeze-drying drinking water in a plastic bottle were determined using analytical methods including dry ashing, centrifugation, Raman analysis, and electron microscopy. A significant amount of organic matter was found in the plastic bottles (0.25–2.0 mg/L), and once the organic matter was concentrated and dried as a solid, it was not soluble in water. In addition, a series of stress to the plastic bottle, such as light, heat, and mechanical stress, did not significantly increase the organic matter within a month. The potential adverse effects of organic matter on humans were evaluated using the human intestinal Caco-2 cell line. The results showed no significant toxicity in cell viability even at relatively high concentrations of organic matter (1.0 mg/mL). However, the monitoring of the accumulation of organic matter in the human body over a longer period of time will be needed because of the higher probability of nanoscale material uptake in the long term.