• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.135-157
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• 2007

The goal of this paper is to examine the validity of nonlinear Taylor rules in Korea. To perform our tests, we utilize new IV ECM threshold cointegration tests that are invariant to nuisance parameters. The new tests have a standard chi-square distribution and the same critical values can be used throughout. This is in contrast to OLS ECM threshold cointegration tests, which depend on nuisance parameters and have nonstandard distributions. After finding significant support for nonlinear cointegration, we find that the Bank of Korea raises the call rate of interest only when inflation is above a threshold rate. We additionally find that the Bank of Korea increases the call rate of interest to possibly counter domestic currency deprecation only when the rate of currency deprecation exceeds a threshold.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.311-342
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• 2015

We evaluate two main rationales of massive policy intervention of Lee Administration in the Korean transportation fuel market: high market share of domestic refineries, perceived by the Administration as the result of high market concentration, and asymmetry in price adjustment, perceived as the result of collusion. Domestic refineries, huge in capacity and located at seaports, maintain international competitiveness in price. Considering market openness offering preferential treatment to importers, they set domestic prices competitively on the basis of MOPS prices. Yet, the price competitiveness of domestic refineries is so high that they are able to sustain high market share. We confirm that the Korean before-tax consumer prices of gasoline and diesel are lower than Japan's and the weighted averages of 27 EU countries by as much as 159KRW and 21KRW per liter in the case of gasoline and 170KRW and 63KRW in the case of diesel. Price asymmetry is caused by diverse economic and managerial reasons and, as FTC (2005) states, price asymmetry does not immediately imply exercise of market power or collusion. We analyzed price asymmetry in Korea, Japan and 14 EU countries, and found asymmetry in Korea and 11 EU countries in the case of gasoline and in Korea and 8 EU countries in the case of diesel.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.12 s.177
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• pp.184-189
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• 2005

An experimental study of the femtosecond laser machining of Si materials was carried out. Direct laser machining of the materials for the feature size of a few micron scale has the advantage of low cost and simple process comparing to the semiconductor process, E-beam lithography, ECM and other machining process. Further, the femtosecond laser is the better tool to machine the micro parts due to its characteristics of minimizing the heat affected zone(HAZ). As a result of line cutting of Si, the optimal condition had the region of the effective energy of 2mJ/mm-2.5mJ/mm with the power of 0.5mW-1.5mW. The polarization effects of the incident beam existed in the machining qualities, therefore the sample motion should be perpendicular to the projection of the electric vector. We also observed the periodic ripple patterns which come out in condition of the pulse overlap with the threshold energy. Finally, we could machined the groove with the linewidth of below $2{\mu}m$ for the application of MEMS device repairing, scribing and arbitrary patterning.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.813-843
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• 2008

This paper investigates the presence of long-run and short-run price asymmetries in weekly gasoline prices from January 1997 to July 2008. In accordance with distribution channels, wholesale and retail stages are analyzed separately. An approach based on TAR and M-TAR cointegration tests, which entail matching asymmetric ECMs, is employed. For wholesale prices, asymmetries in the links with crude oil prices and exchange rates are found for both ECMs in the long-run and short-run. Exchange rates appear to play more significant role than crude oil prices in explaining the short-run price asymmetry. The rise in crude oil prices or exchange rates has statistically significant major impact on the increase of wholesale prices on the second week, not immediately as expected in the concept of 'rockets and feathers'. And asymmetrically, the fall does not have any statistically significant effect on the same period. The finding seems to be somewhat unusual. However, for retail prices, asymmetry m connection with wholesale prices is only revealed in the long-run. A symmetric price adjustment can be assumed in the short-run. Contrary to the long-run asymmetry found in the wholesale stage, in the retail stage, the speed of adjustment for negative deviations toward long-run equilibrium is faster than for positive ones, which is a phenomenon not favorable to consumers.