• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.207-235
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• 2020

Acknowledging that individuals dislike having low relative income renders trade less attractive when seen as a technology that integrates two economies by merging separate social spheres into one. We define a "trembling trade" as a situation in which gains from trade are less than losses in relative income, with the result that global social welfare is reduced. We show that a "trembling trade" can arise even when trade is more gainful in four ways: through trade the absolute income of everyone increases, the income gap in both economies is reduced, as is the income gap between the trading economies. However, trade brings populations, economies, or markets that were not previously connected closer together in social space. As a consequence, separate social spheres merge, and people's social space and their comparators are altered. Assuming that people like high (absolute) income and dislike low relative income, the aggregate increase in unhappiness caused by the trade-induced escalation in relative deprivation can result in a negative overall impact of trade on (utilitarian-measured) social welfare, if the absolute income gains are not large enough to mitigate the relative income losses.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.217-230
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• 2019

This study investigates the impacts of international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) on income distribution both nationally as well as provincially in Vietnam. This study uses panel data of 63 provinces in Vietnam for the period of 2008-2016 and a time series dataset from 1992 to 2016. We found the following results. First, the income distribution is significantly affected by per capita income. When we consider the Kuznets hypothesis, the intra-provincial income inequality of Vietnam's 63 provinces follows a regular U-shaped relationship. In contrast, the income distribution in Vietnam exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship between the Gini coefficient and per capita income. Second, the inward FDI tends to reduce income gaps in each province through the employment of predominantly low-skilled workers. FDI, however, seems to increase income inequality throughout Vietnam. This result is potentially due to the strong concentration of FDI into a very few areas. Third, the effect of trade openness exhibits a decrease in inequality both within each province and in the whole country of Vietnam.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.40 no.9
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• pp.143-159
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• 2002

This study investigates inequality of the private educational expenditure using the Family Expenditure Survey of 1990, 1996, 1998, and 2000. The major results are: first, inequality of the private educational expenditure has been relived between 1990 and 2000; second, despite decrease in household income right after the Korean economic crisis, the private educational expenditure has been increased in the households having middle and high school students; third, the gaps in the private educational expenditure between income groups are mainly due to the differences in the spending levels of the private education rather than differences in the percentages of households who spend any in the private education; fourth, in 2000, the gini coefficient of the private educational expenditure among households having elementary school student is 0.4832, and 0.6468 among households having middle and high school students; fifth, 30% of the households having middle and high school students who show the highest level of the private educational expenditure occupy 80% of the total private educational expenditure made by the whole households.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.87-95
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• 2017

Purpose - The structural changes of Korean agriculture are complex due to heterogeneous production processes and farms' features. This study analyzed trends of dualism in Korean agriculture over the period 2000-15 based on farm-level data to clarify the specific trends of dualism in terms of farm income, farm-size, and farm operators' age. From the results of this study, we would be able to understand the features of structural changes in Korean agriculture more profoundly. Research design, data, and methodology - We incorporated farm-level data in South Korea: Agricultural census and Farm household economy survey. As measures of inequality, we used size-weighted quantiles, and normalized Gini coefficients as well as mean and conventional quantiles. The size-weighted quantiles are more robust to changes in the number of small farms, but they are more sensitive to changes in the distribution of farm-size. Thus, they would be more useful to identify trends of dualism of Korean agriculture. Results - The results show that the farmland distribution of crop farms became more skewed and dispersed. However, the herd distribution of livestock farms became more concentrated. To be specific, their mean and 1st quantile increases more rapidly than their size-weighted 2nd quantile and size-weighted 3rd quantile. Gini coefficients of livestock farms regarding their herd distribution decreased by 0.1 on average. In the case of income distribution, the results indicate that the polarization regarding farm household/agricultural/non-agricultural income became more severe. However, we also found that the distribution of transfer income became concentrated continuously. The results imply that transfer income including subsidies would decrease farm income polarization. Lastly, during the study periods, Korean farms were aging over time, and age distribution of them more concentrated. Conclusions - The structure of Korean agriculture has been changing, even though the absolute size of it decreased over time. Land (herd) distribution became more dispersed (concentrated). Inequality regarding agricultural income became more severe, and it made farm household income more polarized even though transfer income would decrease income gaps among farms. Lastly, farms continue to age regardless of farm types and this might affect the structural changes in Korean agriculture in the future.