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China has been the most important economic partner to Korea since the resurrection of their diplomatic relationship and economic interaction. It has been suggested that China simultaneously presents challenges and opportunities to the Korean economy. This paper investigates changes in trade specialization patterns and comparative advantage of Korea and China, and analyzes the effect of market expansion of Chinese industries on market shares of Korean industries. It is found that since the early 1990s, the industries that lost market share as China’s share increased include those in which Korea has maintained a comparative advantage or improved the level of disadvantage, such as IT equipment and other transport equipments. Considering growth of trade flows and emergence of China, it is critical for Korea to actively participate in international production chains, create competitive edges and extend complementary relationship with trading partners.

This paper examines global imbalance and rebalancing issues from the viewpoint of Korea. As IMF (2009) notes, the unwinding of global imbalance seems inevitable and, in fact, it is in progress. We illustrate that Korea, with a flexible exchange rate system and relatively balanced current accounts, has little direct linkage to global imbalance. However, we also find that Korea is not immune to the costly adjustment process of imbalance due to the triangular trade between Korea, China and the U.S. The fact that Korea is ‘indirectly’ linked to global imbalance limits Korea’s ability to cope with the situation. Boosting domestic demand, often mentioned recommendation for East Asia, is not an appropriate solution for Korea with low personal savings rate. A lot depends on China’s policy. If China reduces its dependence on U.S. market and increases domestic consumption despite unemployment risk in export manufacturing sector, it will provide Korea with an opportunity for more stable growth based on China’s final demand. Korea can also make efforts to increase economic integration and expand monetary cooperation in Asia that would help to increase consumption demands and final goods trade in the region.

The economic success of East Asia was due to an export-led growth strategy, which was heavily dependent on the global trading system underpinned by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). In recent years, however; East Asian countries have shifted their trade policy focus to regional agreements and made Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) among themselves arid with other regions. Government organization has been restructured to increase FTA activities. Generally, the current literature predicts that FTA activities of East Asia would help to increase the welfare of the region. In this paper; we offer a critical assessment of East Asia FTAs. We note that East Asia FTAs provide incomplete coverage of sectors and are likely to lead to an inefficient resource allocation. FTA movements are not matched with actual trade flows. The benefits of East Asia FTAs are fairly limited and potential benefits, if any, would not likely be materialized in the near future. Our overall assessment is that the recent policy shift in East Asian countries from multilateral trade orientation or unilateral action to regionalism or a parallel multilateral and regional trade approach will not produce much gain. The governments should increase their efforts at economic reform and reduce barriers to trade and investment, rather than to allocate more resource and manpower to FTA activities.

This paper investigates the effects of risk neutral distribution (RND) from option prices on the distribution of the underlying asset. More specifically, we focus on the third moment of distribution, called skewness, which contains important information predicting the jumps of stock index. The sample period covers from January 2002 to July 2006 with the closing price returns of KOSPI200 Index and the KOSPI200 options. The skewness of the risk neutral distribution is estimated from non-parametric method of Bakshi et al.(2003) and the parametric method of Corrado and Su (1996). When estimating the skewness of the underlying assets, we employ Chen et al.(2001) model and calculate the historical skewness from the1-month ahead return underlying asset. Using statistical methodology such as VAR (Vector Autoregressive model), Granger causality test, impulse response and variance decomposition model, we examine whether the skewness of the underlying asset responds to the change of the implied RND. Followings are the major findings and implications drawn from the empirical analysis of the Korean options market. First of all, skewness of options estimated from non-parametric method have information contents predicting the third-moment of KOSPI200 index return whereas skewness of options estimated from parametric method does not have any information forecasting the skewness of KOSPI200 index return.

The main streams of the supply chain are defined as material, information and financial flow. There have been many studies and practical cases regarding the flow of material and information including information sharing. However, financial flow related studies have not been widely examined relatively, compared with their importance.

The information sharing is recognized as the method that can reduce the Bullwhip effect in supply chain management. The author intends to analyze the impact of financial information sharing on the results of the supply chain.

In the point of supply chain risk management view, the author examined the impact of financial flow among the various factors that can impede the stability of the supply chain.

In this study, the author embodied the simulation regarding the impact of financial information flow on supply chain performance and stability based on the system dynamics methodology and analyzed the performance.

Assuming the supply chain, composed of supplying company, manufacturing company and sales company , the author embodied the simulation model and assumed that working capital and cash information sharing were achieved. The author embodied the model to affect the settlement conditions according to the results of financial information sharing.

Recently the route connecting the trans-Korean railway and the trans-Siberian railway has become of particular interest for many academics and policy-makers in East Asian countries. The extensive review of previous studies, however, reveals that literature on the subject is lacking solid analytical framework. Most studies are one-sided, focusing on the political aspects of the issue or paying little attention to the economic aspects of the problem.

This study intends to develop an analytical framework through which the most efficient route among four major alternative routes connecting the trans-Korean and trans-Siberian railways can be identified. It attempts to assign priorities to the four alternative routes according to their level of economic efficiency.

This study utilizes a simple cost-benefit analysis in evaluating the four routes. Cost side, transportation time, effectiveness of customs procedures, and gauge difference are selected as the main economic factors. The volume of cargo, industrial production in adjacent regions, access to natural resources, and market size and foreign investment climate are used to evaluate the benefits of the routes.

The study concludes that Route 3, which connects ‘Busan - Seoul (South Korea) –Pyongyang -Sinuiju (North Korea) –Shenyang –Beijing - Erenhot (China) –Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) –Ulan-Ude - Moscow (Russia)’ is the most efficient route.

With luxury brands extending into restaurants and cafés, the definition of luxury consumption no longer refers to tangible products alone but to intangible and authentic experiences as well. Drawing on the Stimulus–Organism–Response framework (SOR) and the costly signalling theory, this study explores the sequential mechanisms of experiences in luxury brands’ restaurants and cafés among Korean and US consumers.

This study distributed online surveys in South Korea and the US and recruited 419 participants (South Korea = 210; US = 209). PLS-SEM and multigroup analysis were used to test the hypotheses.

Perceived quality influenced perceived luxury values positively and led to consumers’ loyalty to both the parent brand (i.e. luxury fashion brand) and extended brand (i.e. luxury restaurants and cafés).

Luxury brands seek to offer their consumers authentic and extraordinary experiences. By merging luxury fashion with gastronomy, these brands can foster synergistic long-term relationships with consumers and enhance their brand equity in the global luxury market. Our results also demonstrated that such expansion contributes to competitive advantages in luxury fashion retailing by increasing their intangible values in addition to their parent luxury fashion brands. Further, in the context of globalisation, this research provides insights into how luxury retailers’ novel approach to the F&B sector can enhance consumers’ loyalty across different cultures and strengthen their global luxury retail strategy.