• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.23-52
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• 2003

This study focus on unemployment and nonparticipation of youth. By dividing youth nonparticipants into 'house work and child care', 'studying and training', 'the others' categories, we estimate the potential wages with selectivity bias model and analyse the factors of choosing unemployment or nonparticipation with multinomial logit model. The differences between the potential market wage and the desired wage of the groups of 'studying and training', 'the others' in the nonparticipants are greater than those of the unemployment group. In the case of the man and lower age, and low schooling the differences of potential and desire wage are larger than woman and higher age, and high schooling. In the choice of unemployment and nonparticipation, man and higher age, and householder, and holder of qualification are not likely to opt nonparticipation. The experience of job lower the rate of probability to choose employment, but raise the rate of probability to choose unemployment and nonparticipation. These results mean that the quality of youth employment is very inferior.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.145-169
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• 2017

Female plays an important role in new welfare policies as emerging new social risks including care needs resulted from increasing female employment participation and changes in family structures. Whereas the effects of work and life reconciliation policies on female employment are well established, less is known for the role of production regime as an important institution on gender wage gap. This study examines the questions in what way and to what extent production regimes and work and family reconciliation policies influence gender wage gap in advanced capitalism countries using the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). The coordinated market economies (CMEs), presented as higher firm-specific skills, are associated with lower income rank for female workers than male workers, hence larger degree of gender wage gap. Longer parental leave weeks and higher childcare expenditures are associated with less degree of gender wage gap. This research highlights the importance of production regimes in understanding gender wage gap and potential interaction between production regimes and work and life reconciliation policies on gender wage gap.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.167-190
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• 2000

The Korean labor market is changing very fast after the economic crisis. In the middle of 2000, the unemployment rate has decreased to the less than 4% and wage income has recovered to its pre-crisis level. However, the number of employed and the labor market participation rate has not yet recovered, and income inequality is widening. In this situation, there is some concern about the potential for the histeresis phenomenon, which occurred in Europe after 1970, and means that a high unemployment rate could continued regardless of price levels. Therefore, focus should be placed on the labor market policy for the 21 st century reducing structural unemployment through creation of jobs in order to solve problems of unemployment and income distribution simultaneously.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.17
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• pp.215-242
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• 2005

Although shoes industry in Korea is superior in global competition in terms of material, parts, and developmental ability, it has declined due to the lack of design in consideration of OEM production and marketing ability. Shoes industry in Korea has aimed at making inroad to North American market centered with the United States, but it has not focused on Europe market that much. However, as Europe transformed into EU, which is a large economic community, European market is being considered as a great potential for Korean shoes industry, which we can never neglect of. So far, there have been researches of marketing strategic methods to make inroad to the United States and South-East Asian markets, but there has been almost no marketing approach to European shoes market. Therefore, in this study I prepare strategic marketing plans for Korean shoes enterprises to make inroads to European markets, so that they can enter the market successfully, and this is the purpose of this study. In case that Korean shoes industry makes inroads to European market, there are important terms to examine. The strategic terms for consideration to examine are as follows. First, shoes companies such as Nike and Adidas are aware of India. Turkey, and Rumania as new footholds for production, as they have accounted continuous wage claim and labor dispute. Especially Turkey and Rumania are expected to have much competitive strength in price, as they are expected countries for joining EU. Second, we need to shift our understanding of the importance of design for European shoes market. We should pay close attention to the fact that the role of leading companies is to design. Third, Germany, England, and Italy have global-level of specialize institutions and organizations for shoes education and have been succeeded in knowledge industrialization. Fourth, we should consider that the concepts for shoes are changing from innovation in production to in products. Fifth, we should develop specialized concept centered in individualized categories. Sixth, we should open up new markets actively by connecting large shopping centers and multi-shops. Seventh, we should look for the opportunities to expand market through the utilization of BIFOS. Lastly, we should expand our support for opening up markets and participating fairs in foreign countries.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.1-29
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• 2013

This paper examines the effect of trade liberalization or globalization, more broadly, on plants' growth as well as on "bi-polarization". To do so, we reviewed the possible theoretical mechanisms put forward by recent heterogeneous firm trade theories, and provided available micro-evidence from existing empirical studies on Korean manufacturing sector. Above all, the empirical evidence provided in this paper strongly suggests that globalization promoted growth of Korean manufacturing plants. Specifically, evidence suggests that exporting not only increases within-plant productivity but also promotes introduction of new products and dropping of old products. However, the empirical evidence also suggest that globalization has some downsides: widening productivity differences across plants and rising wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers. Specifically, trade liberalization widens the initial productivity differences among plants through learning from export market participation as well as through interactions between exporting and R&D, both of which increase plants' productivity. We also show that there is only a small group of large and productive "superstar" plants engaged in both R&D and exporting activity, which can fully utilize the potential benefits from globalization. Finally, we also show evidence that trade liberalization interacts with innovation to increase the skilled-unskilled wage inequality.

• Economic Analysis
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-33
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• 2020

Recent discussions about a minimum wage increase (MWI) and its influence on the economy have mainly focused on the quantitative aspects, such as labor costs and employment. However, concerning the qualitative aspects, an MWI could have positive effects by enhancing firm productivity and crowding out marginal firms from the market. These positive effects of an MWI can offset, to some extent, its potential negative effects - increasing labor costs and decreasing employment, among others. In this regard we empirically examine the impact of an MWI on firm productivity (total factor productivity). Using firm level panel data from the manufacturing industry in Korea, we calculate the influence rates of a minimum wage by sector and by firm size (number of workers), and analyze its effects on firm productivity. In particular, the production functions of the firms are estimated by taking into account endogeneity among the input factors, in order to resolve the drawbacks of existing studies - underestimating the capital factor coefficient and overestimating the labor factor coefficient. This study finds that the influences of an MWI on wages, employment, and productivity are substantially different across sectors and firm sizes. While an MWI has shown to have positive influences on productivity growth in the manufacturing industry as a whole, each sector demonstrates a different direction of effect, and the degree of productivity change also varies by sector. The impacts of an MWI on firm productivity are generally estimated to be more negative for smaller firms, but in some sectors the effects are found to be positive. In addition, the wage increases resulting from an MWI seem to cause a productivity enhancement across all sectors in the manufacturing industry. The policy implications of this study are as follows. Considering the empirical findings that an MWI causes an increase in productivity in many sectors of the manufacturing industry, it would be desirable to take into consideration not only the negative side effects but also the positive effects of an MWI when designing any future minimum wage policy. Moreover, in spite of there being a uniform minimum wage, this study finds that the diverse influence rates of a minimum wage across firms have different impacts on wages, employment, and productivity across sectors or firm size. This finding could be conducive to discussions about differentiation among minimum wage schemes by sector or firm size.

• Iberoamérica
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.273-307
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• 2021

The covid 19 pandemic led to an economic collapse and multiple impacts upon Argentina's labour dynamics. As well as in other parts of the region, falls in employment rates (both due to an increase in unemployment and significant withdrawals from the labour force) were combined with wage reductions for those who were able to keep their jobs. Thus, two important processes for the labour market complimented each other: a structural shock associated with a tasks automation as a reorganisation and substitution of factors, with a cyclical recession caused by the pandemic. The international experience shows the amplifying impact the latter has on the former, generating long-term consequences mainly in routine-intensive jobs. However, the knowledge-intensive services sector appears to be the most capable of cushioning the recessionary shock (both in terms of wages and labour absorption), even with nuances within the sector depending on the extent of the shutdown measures and its capability to switch to remote work. Finally, the task approach is decisive in capturing the ability to adapt both the cyclical and structural processes, absorbing a large part of the explanatory potential that sectoral classifications tend to bring about.

• Economic Analysis
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.43-71
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• 2020

This paper aims to derive macroeconomic implications by analyzing the business cycle characteristics of the youth unemployment. The results of empirical analysis seem to show that youth unemployment appears to be relatively less correlated with business cycle compared to other age groups, and thus it is difficult to explain the recent steady increase in the potential labor force as a result of the business cycle fluctuation alone. Moreover, the alternative unemployment measures of the youth group showing upward trend were estimated to be co-integrated with output measures. This co-integrated trend increase suggests that unlike other age groups, youth may be influenced by structural factors inherent in Korea's economic growth path. The fact that the wage difference based on firm size has widened steadily since the Asian financial crisis and that the proportion of large companies that provide relatively high-quality jobs compared to major industrialized countries is significantly lower may be the evidence of the structural changes in Korean youth labor market. The results of above analysis may explain why the job search periods for youth has lengthened amid these structural changes.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.169-193
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• 2013

This paper examines how a social investment approach can be applied in a comparative analysis of childcare arrangements. We compared changes in Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, Japan and Korea during the 2000s, focusing on four dimensions of social investment: activation, gender equality, quality of care, and the degree of state's intervention in the family. We considered leave systems and the number of children enrolled in formal care and education facilities as indicators for labour market activation. For gender equality, women's position in employment is considered with respect to labour market participation rates, proportion of permanent employment, and wage-sex ratio. Quality of care concerns child-to-staff ratio and care provided with government quality control. The state's intervention was measured as social spending on families as proportions of GDP and total social spending. Our analysis provides empirical evidence that Sweden and France are pioneers in this arena and that the UK, Germany, Korea, and Japan are path-shifters in their care paradigms, albeit to varying degrees. Is the social investment approach an adequate paradigm for care? In a normative sense, this approach has potential. However, the following issues remain unaddressed: gender equality should be achieved through an expansion in good-quality jobs, fathers should be encouraged to take on childcare duties, and families should have universal access to good-quality childcare services controlled by the government.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.29 no.12 s.148
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• pp.1562-1570
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• 2005

The purpose of this thesis is to find the effective way of practical education in the fashion related department in order to supply the appropriate experts to the Korean apparel manufacturers located in Dalian, China. The interviews were made twice from $25^{th}$ of Feb. to $15^{th}$ of Mar. 2005 and from $28^{th}$ of July to 31st of July 2005 through the method ot a direct interview with the CEOs of the 7 representative apparel manufactures. The results of the interviews were as following. Seven companies$(100\%)$ participated in the survey all complained of insufficient workers. Also the companies were having difficulties at finding appropriate workers who can handle designing, management, and circulation, because specialists who are fluent in Korean and Chinese are very rare. Moreover, Korean apparel manufacturers are now taking a step further to launch a high quality fashion brand, getting out of the simple hand work depending on low wage or low-tech(6 companies $85.7\%$). Thus, well-educated fashion specialists(intermediate manager) are required on the part of Korean clothing companies or apparel manufacturers in China. It is expected the intermediate managers and the specialists who are capable of launching a new brand will be urgently needed. Therefore, appropriate educations in Korea would be essential to minimize the problems the Korean fashion specialists might face in China. 1 would like to present three suggestions. 1. The highly educated Korean fashion specialists on apparel industry will be a solution both to the high jobless status in our country and to the deficiency in human resources of Korean apparel manufacturers in Dalian. 2. The students in the college should learn how to write down the working chart and matching chart in practical conditions. Taking an intern-ship in working factories in China during a certain period of time will be helpful. 3. The experts should be trained with emphasis on the quality, design, and value of the brand. This study will be used as a base for Koreans who work in fashion related department to enter the Chinese fashion market having a great potential.