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Food delivery applications have grown rapidly in recent years, fueled by increasing consumer demand for convenience and prepared foods. Previous studies on what factors encourage consumers to use delivery platforms rely largely on survey data, likely due to the lack of availability of restaurant or industry level data. Utilizing web-scraping techniques to collect restaurant level data from one of the biggest delivery applications in South Korea, Yogiyo, this study conducts an analysis on spatial market structure of the restaurant business. Through restaurant level data, market expansion, changes in the number of restaurants to order from, and changes in prices across regions with delivery application are considered. Analysis suggests that the average number of orderable restaurants increased from a nearby 2.3 restaurants to distant 13.5 restaurants with customers willingly paying for delivery fees according to distance via the delivery application. As the restaurant delivery market becomes spatially more competitive with an additional 13.5 restaurants, it is found that aggregate prices totaled with food prices and delivery fees from two restaurants in different locations converge to serve the customers between the two restaurants. In addition, the increased degree of competition due to increased number of restaurants leads the aggregate prices to decrease by between 5.13 and 7.56%, depending on regional characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a method to analyze market structures using changes in the number of farms and amount of farm incomes, taking Korea as a case study. We discern the market structures in agriculture by scrutinizing the impact of variations in agricultural added-value and production costs on the count of farms and farm-type specific agricultural incomes using the method. We also explore the significant influence of policy changes on agricultural market structures. As a result, in response to the increase in agricultural value-added, most types of farm households are in a short-term equilibrium state with both the number of farm households and amount of agricultural incomes increasing. In response to the increase in agricultural management costs, results of the distribution of farm households and agricultural incomes depend on farm types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers' online activities such as keyword searching and writing reviews can provide valuable information that reflects their perception of the market. This study proposes ways to analyze market structure and draw a perceptual map from the following two types of online data: keyword search and online consumer forum data. We apply our methodology to the imported car brands in South Korea automobile market. The multidimensional scaling (MDS) results provide different consumer insights depending on the nature of data. The inter-brand similarity values derived from the proposed two metrics are shown to be correlated. Especially, using consumer forum data, we apply our metric to analyzing the market structure of two sub-markets: midsize sedan and compact crossover sport utility vehicle (SUV). Furthermore, utilizing the proposed measures, we calculate the prototypicality of a brand and demonstrate its positive effect on sales. Marketing managers can apply our technique to understand the market structure and perform longitudinal studies to monitor consumers' perceptual changes without conducting a time-consuming, traditional survey method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

France and South Korea have implemented voucher programs to counter energy poverty. In contrast to goods that traditional voucher programs target, the market structure that dominates energy supply is the oligopoly. In this paper, we study the price impact of vouchers in this market structure. We first state conditions on demand elasticities that make the choice of vouchers consistent with the regulator's objective of eliminating energy poverty. We then model a game between energy suppliers and the regulator, where suppliers maximize profit while the regulator ensures that no consumer spends more than a given share of income on energy. From a benchmark case without vouchers, we show that vouchers reduce the energy price under simultaneous decision making or when the regulator moves first. However, the price impact of vouchers is ambiguous if firms move first. This scenario's price is above the price of the simultaneous decision scenario's price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the specific process, contents, and changes of early technology introduction in Korea through government documents from the 1960s and 1970s. What the government wanted to pursue through the technology introduction approval process at this time was to demand and enforce foreign technology companies to provide fair conditions that local companies could not demand due to the global market structure of vertical division. By the mid-1970s, the government had controlled the payment of additional costs by expedient methods as well as the payment of technical fees and contractual terms, and even standardized contract terms. In the late 1970s, the government began to independently select technologies to be introduced and set longer-term goals to change the existing technology introduction structure, such as technology level limits, technology sector bias, the bias to Japanese technologies. By the end of the 1970s, the government had switched to a system of introducing new high-tech products at the same time as it encouraged companies to develop technologies rather than relying on technology introduction. This study shows that the 1960s-1970s was a period of continuous learning, improvement, and systematization for the improvement of ability and the settlement of systems to introduce efficient technology into Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to assess the effect of the labour market environment on university students' labour market-related behaviour in the Republic of Korea. Using data from the country's Graduates Occupational Mobility Survey for 2005-13, the author estimates the effect of macroeconomic variables on university students' job market-related outcomes. Results indicate that labour market polarization, as measured by the labour market polarization index developed by Chung and Jung (2016), has a significant effect on both the nominal and masked (through extension of university enrolment and university transfers) unemployment of university students. These findings imply that the labour market structure is a key element in understanding youth unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Although competition is known to affect quality of care, less is known about the effects of competition on outpatient health service utilization under the diagnosis-related group payment system. This study aimed to evaluate these effects and assess differences before and after hospitalization in South Korea.Design: Population-based retrospective observational study.Setting: We used two data set including outpatient data and hospitalization data from National Health Claim data from 2011 to 2014.Participants: Participants who were admitted to the hospital for hemorrhoidectomy were included. A total of 804 884 hospitalizations were included in our analysis.Main Outcome Measure(s): The outcome variables included the costs associated with outpatient examinations and the number of outpatient visits within 30 days before and after hospitalization.Results: High-competition areas were associated with lower pre-surgery examination costs (rate ratio [RR]: 0.88, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.88-0.89) and fewer outpatient visits before hospitalization (RR: 0.98, 95% CI: 0.98-0.99) as well as after hospitalization compared with moderate-competition areas.Conclusion: Our study reveals that outpatient health service utilization is affected by the degree of market competition. Future evaluations of hospital performance should consider external factors such as market structure and hospital location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competitive pressures created by the global market, and the demonstration of market potential in one country influences the incentives to adopt successful technologies and business models in similar countries. In this paper, we explore how mobile payment operation models might evolve in China, using the more mature Japanese and South Korean markets for comparison. Comparing existing business models in the three countries, we argue that regulation has affected both the industry structure and the vertical linkages of the different participants in the mobile payments ecosystem. We predict that rather than converging onto the mobile payment models of Japan or South Korea, the Chinese mobile payment industry is likely to see the coexistence of competing business models in the intermediate term. We attribute this to the contradictory incentives created by Chinese financial sector regulation for the participants in the mobile payments industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the Republic of Korea the 1997 Asian financial crisis was more than an economic crisis, as it challenged the country to its core. The Korean government accepted the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) mandated economic reforms as a part of its financial bailout package. Korea was compelled to launch massive financial deregulation, dismantling the state-governed economic structure in favor of market governance. This process had grave repercussions for Korean society and was a turning point that transformed Korea from a regulatory regime to a neoliberal state. This article reviews Korea's restructuring process to reevaluate how the IMF produces a shaking state, triggering reconstruction of the institution for market governance by reforming national economies and thereby redirecting the course of a nation to cope with the internationalization of capital through its policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• P2P electricity trading price and strategy is proposed for prosumers and consumers. • The minimum and maximum electricity trading prices are calculated in South Korea. • The P2P trading prices were calculated based on the market participation conditions. • A maximum of US$0.27/kWh profit can be obtained through P2P electricity trading. • Prosumers and consumers can find optimal P2P trading partners for maximum profits. A successful Peer-to-Peer (P2P) electricity trading within a microgrid requires a P2P electricity trading price and strategy that enable both energy prosumers and consumers to obtain profits. Therefore, this study aims to propose a P2P electricity trading strategy based on the minimum and maximum electricity trading prices for energy prosumers and consumers that ensure their profitability, by considering the actual electricity market structure in South Korea. Towards this end, the minimum and maximum electricity trading prices for energy prosumers and consumers were calculated based on the market participation conditions and electricity trading scenarios established in this study. By matching energy prosumers and consumers based on the calculated minimum and maximum electricity trading prices, a P2P electricity trading strategy was ultimately proposed. As a result, the minimum (i.e., US$0.05–0.34/kWh) and maximum (i.e., US$0.09–0.32/kWh) electricity trading prices increased as the monthly electricity consumption of energy prosumers and consumers increased and the self-consumption and electricity purchase rates decreased. Consequently, the profitable electricity trading scenarios increased as the monthly electricity consumption was lower and the self-consumption rate was higher for energy prosumers, and as the monthly electricity consumption was higher and the electricity purchase rate was lower for energy consumers. In particular, the P2P electricity trading can provide maximum profits to energy prosumers and consumers when the monthly electricity consumption of energy prosumers is 200 kWh, the monthly electricity consumption of energy consumers is 500 kWh, and the electricity purchase rate is 20%. Based on the findings of this study, it is possible not only to determine profitable P2P electricity trading prices to market participants but also to establish an optimal P2P electricity trading strategy by matching energy prosumers and consumers that can ensure them with maximum profits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]