How Business Interests and Government Inaction Led to the Humidifier Disinfectant Disaster in South Korea: Implications for Better Risk Governance

Humidifier sterilizers were regarded as innovative and health-promoting products; they were widespread in South Korea until 2011. However, hospitals reported mysterious deaths, and a legal investigation in April 2016 found that hundreds of people have died due to use of the sterilizing disinfectant. This article takes up that topic, discussing the government's role in dealing with the risk regarding the humidifier disinfectant. We pay particular attention to the unequal nature of the uncertainty produced by the distorted socioeconomic structure. Through in-depth interviews with key informants and an examination of relevant documents from the government, civic groups, and newspapers, we find that the government had increasingly acknowledged the risk, yet their inaction failed to stop the high number of casualties, and they have only recently responded proactively. The uncertainty of the risk was unevenly distributed between companies, the government, experts, and citizens. We argue that the proactive and transparent role of the government with the precautionary principle could fix the unequal structure of knowledge production and preserve public health.     

韩国钢铁企业应对跨国并购的国际化经营战略——以Mittal Steel公司跨国并购为例

在经济全球化浪潮下，跨国企业并购日益加剧。从韩国Mittai Steel公司的跨国并购来看，尽管韩国钢铁企业拥有跨国并购的优势，但并没有处于主动的地位。为迅速适应跨国并购的国际化趋势，韩国钢铁企业应当积极通过跨国并购，进一步加强与钢铁生产相关企业以及同已经持有股份的国外企业之间的战略联盟。韩国政府也应当把跨国并购当做企业发展的重要战略，制定相关政策，积极支持企业跨国并购。     

Same same but different? Comparing institutional performance in the long-term care systems of Japan and South Korea

Responding to a rapidly aging population, Japan and South Korea introduced social insurance-based long-term care systems (LTCSs) in 2000 and 2008, respectively. Korea studied and took up key features of Japan's system while evolving along its own trajectory in line with its healthcare system. The aim of the present study is to unpack the broad category of ‘social insurance’ to explore how distinct system inputs and designs in Korea and Japan related to outcomes in performance measured in terms of coverage, quality of care, and sustainability. In doing so, the study serves as an important starting point for advancing a new stream of social policy research on the comparative performance of LTCSs. Our findings demonstrate that despite adopting a common system type, differences in implementation of the social insurance model (particularly in terms of financing and governance) contributed to divergent performance, with Japan outperforming Korea on most indicators during the observed period. This bears contrary implications for policymaking in the two countries: Whereas Japanese policymakers are faced with the challenge of promoting quality while containing spending, in Korea greater investment is required to strengthen the workforce and build up community care.     

The effect of information system utilization and education and training on organizational innovation in public social welfare officers: Focused on the moderating effect of organizational trust

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of information system utilization and education and training on organizational innovation for public social welfare officers in Seoul and verify whether organizational trust plays a role as a moderator variable in these relationships. First, information system utilization and education and training have positive effects on organizational innovation. Second, as a result of investigating the moderating effects of organizational trust, organizational trust has a positive effect on the relationship between information system utilization and organizational innovation, as well as education and training and organizational innovation. Therefore, it is found that information system utilization and education and training are important for innovation of public welfare service. The stronger relationship we have, the higher organizational trust we acquire. Therefore, in order to innovate the organization, it is necessary to strengthen the education training that can utilize the network and the expertise to share information and communicate. It is also necessary to focus on enhancing organizational trust such as mutual consideration, information sharing, and assistance within an organization.     

Perceived Usefulness and Easiness of Information and Communication Technologies and Volunteering among Older Adults

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the association between older adults’ perception of usefulness and easiness (PUE) of Information Communication and Technologies (ICTs) and volunteering, and if this association differs across their income status. Data were obtained from the 2012 wave of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), and the sample was restricted to respondents aged between 60 and 84 (N = 901) and who completed the 2012 HRS technology module. Multinomial logistic regression was employed to examine the independent and joint influence of PUE of ICTs and of low-income status on volunteering. The results show that only people with high PUE engaged in more than 100 hours of volunteering among older adults after controlling for covariates. The positive effect of high PUE was found to be more significant in the low-income group. This is the first known research to investigate the PUE of ICTs and volunteering among older adults. This study expands the knowledge of volunteering among older adults by exploring ICTs which can be considered as one of the most influential macrosocial changes in the current society. Moreover, our findings provide some insights and an empirical foundation in volunteering programs for older adults of different PUE levels.     

Regularized boxplot via convex clustering

A boxplot is a simple and effective exploratory data analysis tool for graphically summarizing a distribution of data. However, in cases where the quartiles in a boxplot are inaccurately estimated, these estimates can affect subsequent analyses. In this paper, we consider the problem of constructing boxplots in a bivariate setting with a categorical covariate with multiple subgroups, and assume that some of these boxplots can be clustered. We propose to use this grouping property to improve the estimation of the quartiles. We demonstrate that the proposed method more accurately estimates the quartiles compared to the usual boxplot. It is also shown that the proposed method identifies outliers effectively as a consequence of accurate quartiles, and possesses a clustering effect due to the group property. We then apply the proposed method to annual maximum precipitation data in South Korea and present its clustering results.     

The Effects of Marketization of Long-term Care Services for Older Adults in Korea

To cope with the rapid increase in aging population, the South Korean government introduced new long-term care insurance in 2008 by using the market forces and mechanisms of competition and choice. The study explored the effect of the marketization of long-term care (LTC) services on the provision of services under the Korean long-term care insurance (LTCI) system. By adopting qualitative semi-structured in-depth interview methods, the experiences of 17 home visiting service provider managers were examined. The study results suggest that the marketization of LTC services faces several challenges. Some of the stakeholders in the field, such as home visiting service providers, care workers, and older clients, appear to employ unlawful activities or unprincipled behaviors to maximize their individual interests. The results also suggest that the unprincipled behavior, unlawful activities, and financial problems that service providers face contribute to low quality care services. Future studies should explore these issues using larger samples of service users and providers.     

Globalization of English teaching and overseas Koreans as temporary migrant workers in rural Korea

One of the most prominent impacts of neoliberal globalization on language is the rise of the importance of English ( Heller 2003 ; Phillipson 2003 ). In today's globalized economy, struggles over the resources of English language education tie English to processes of construction and reproduction of social differences and inequality ( Heller 2002 ). Korea's newly launched Teach and Learn in Korea (TaLK) program is one such example. The TaLK program recruits native speakers of English, including overseas ethnic Koreans, as temporary immigrant workers to teach English to rural elementary students. Using the concept of ‘language management,’ this article demonstrates how the Korean government views transnational Koreans’ ethnicity as an asset, while treating their linguistic resources as manageable commodities. Analyses of policy documents, media coverage, and essays by and interviews with TaLK participants reveal how the TaLK program may contribute to sustaining social differences and inequality in multiple ways, although the program's main goal is to provide equal opportunities to rural students. ???? ??? ??? ?? ? ?? ??? ?? ? ??? ??? ???? ????. ????? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??? ?? ??? ?? ?? ?? ??? ??? ?? ???? ??? ?????. ??? ??? ?? ?? ??? ?? ??? ??? ??? ?? ?? ?? ???? ??? (TaLK) ????? ? ? ??. ? ????? ?? ?? ??? ?? ???? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???? ????. ‘?? ??’?? ??? ??? ? ??? ??? ?? ??? ?? ?? TaLK ????? ???? ????? ???? ????? ????? ?? ??? ?? ??? ???? ?????? ????. ?? ??, ?? ??, ???? ??, ????? ???? ???? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? ??? TaLK ????? ??? ??? ??, ?????? ???? ??? ????. [Korean]     

Forecasting Performance of Information Criteria with Many Macro Series

Stock & Watson (1999) consider the relative quality of different univariate forecasting techniques. This paper extends their study on forecasting practice, comparing the forecasting performance of two popular model selection procedures, the Akaike information criterion (AIC) and the Bayesian information criterion (BIC). This paper considers several topics: how AIC and BIC choose lags in autoregressive models on actual series, how models so selected forecast relative to an AR(4) model, the effect of using a maximum lag on model selection, and the forecasting performance of combining AR(4), AIC, and BIC models with an equal weight.