Chaebol, Financial Liberalization, and Economic Crisis: Transformation of Quasi-Internal Organization in Korea

This paper argues that the Korean governmentís policy with regard to financial deregulation and liberalization was endogenously determined, being largely influenced by the interest politics of perhaps the most powerful interest group in Korea, chaebol. It also argues that the cause of Koreaís financial crisis of 1997-98 cannot be analyzed without first examining the influence of chaebol on the post-1993 financial liberalization, which planted the seeds of the crisis. The paper concludes that financial liberalization undertaken in a haphazard manner, manipulated by a few dominant players in the economy runs into the danger of producing an outcome worse than before.Financial liberalization, The Asian crisis, Chaebol, Government intervention

Visible success and invisible failure in post-crisis reform in the Republic of Korea : interplay of the global standards, agents, and local specificity

The reform package in post-crisis Korea was one of the most comprehensively designed and decisively implemented. Though impressed by the quick recovery, many are now raising doubts about real changes in the economy, as the result of a cost-benefits analysis: While the business climate is more stable and supportive, the economy is suffering from weak investment and rising unemployment. This study views the Korean story as one of"visible success and invisible failure,"based on the following findings: First, while some new laws were enacted and several quantifiable targets met, little real progress was made in changing institutional conventions, habits, and beliefs, such as enhancing transparency in management or trust in labor relations. Second, the reform process involved tension between global standards and local specificity, which accounts for the mixed results. Third, special interest politics at the implementation stage, plus the complexities caused by increasing democratization and globalization, have undermined the authorities'implementation capacity, which accounts for uneven outcomes of the reform. While globalization necessitates increasing flexibility, Korean managers are now facing much stronger labor unions. The outcome is not a fully flexible but segmented labor market, divided between the core, unionized workers and unorganized peripheral workers, and between the one overprotected and the other underprotected. Fourth, it is important to have an effective system of legislative bargaining to help resolve disputes. Only with this institutional vehicle will special interest groups reach some consensus. Korea tried to overhaul its financial system and achieve substantial financial liberalization in the early 1990s but those attempts were partly aborted and partly distorted, which paved the way for the financial crisis in 1997. This was due to the lack of clear consensus, without which reforms are more likely to be aborted or be unsuccessful. Fifth, implementation problems stem from institutional complementarities and inappropriate sequencing. One logical sequence might be banking reform, corporate governance, labor relations, and then finally business restructuring. Now, an emerging question is whether the reform blueprint was right. Post-crisis Korea just tried to be more market- or Anglo-Saxon model-oriented without paying attention to growth potential. While firms have now lowered their debt ratios, they are not borrowing to fund investments. The issue of right or wrong blueprint underscores the need to define the reform goal correctly. The goals of reform should not just be a move toward a market-oriented economy but toward a growth-oriented one or a pro-growth market-oriented one.Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Children and Youth,Economic Theory&Research,National Governance

Strong interface-induced spin-orbit coupling in graphene on WS2

Interfacial interactions allow the electronic properties of graphene to be modified, as recently demonstrated by the appearance of satellite Dirac cones in the band structure of graphene on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) substrates. Ongoing research strives to explore interfacial interactions in a broader class of materials in order to engineer targeted electronic properties. Here we show that at an interface with a tungsten disulfide (WS2) substrate, the strength of the spin-orbit interaction (SOI) in graphene is very strongly enhanced. The induced SOI leads to a pronounced low-temperature weak anti-localization (WAL) effect, from which we determine the spin-relaxation time. We find that spin-relaxation time in graphene is two-to-three orders of magnitude smaller on WS2 than on SiO2 or hBN, and that it is comparable to the intervalley scattering time. To interpret our findings we have performed first-principle electronic structure calculations, which both confirm that carriers in graphene-on-WS2 experience a strong SOI and allow us to extract a spin-dependent low-energy effective Hamiltonian. Our analysis further shows that the use of WS2 substrates opens a possible new route to access topological states of matter in graphene-based systems.Comment: Originally submitted version in compliance with editorial guidelines. Final version with expanded discussion of the relation between theory and experiments to be published in Nature Communication

Effect of Rivet Rows on Propagation of Lambn Waves in Mechanically Fastened Two-Layer Aluminum Plates

Feasibility of using Lamb waves for disbonds and corrosion detections in aircraft fuselage structures was investigated in recent years. Measurement performed on various laboratory-fabricated specimens as well as on panels removed from aircrafts has shown consistent results and demonstrated its potential applications for large area structural integrity evaluation [1–3]. It has been observed that structural flaws existing on the path of Lamb waves not only changed amplitude of waves but also affected their velocities as well. Amplitude change caused by a disbond of size less than 0.5 in. × 0.5 in. was significant and has been measured. Variation in phase velocity was used to quantify the corrosion-induced thickness reduction in aluminum sheets. An area of size 1 in. × 1 in. with 8% thickness loss in subsurface of an 1 mm thick aluminum plate was detected by monitoring the phase velocity increase of SO mode. While these tests made major progresses toward developing a practical and low cost flaw assessment system, effects due to the presence of certain structural elements, such as coatings and fasteners, on the propagation of Lamb waves are becoming important issues, and need to be analyzed. These effects are themselves interesting physical phenomenon and worth investigation, however, it is hoped that propagation variations of waves induced by structural defects can be separated from these effects and be quantitatively correlated to the physical properties of defects

Transcriptional Regulation of the rsbV Promoter Controlling Stress Responses to Ethanol, Carbon Limitation, and Phosphorous Limitation in Bacillus subtilis

The σB-dependent promoter in front of the rsbV gene of Bacillus subtilis is induced ∼5-fold in response to (1) the addition of 4% ethanol, (2) carbon starvation, and (3) phosphorous starvation. Binding sites for the global carbon and nitrogen regulators, CcpA and TnrA, were mutated, and the consequences of their loss and that of CcpA or TnrA were studied using rsbV-lacZ fusions. These responses proved to be dependent on CcpA, TnrA, and their putative binding sites upstream of the promoter. Induction in response to glucose limitation was largely abolished by loss of CcpA or the upstream region, while induction in response to phosphorous limitation was largely abolished only by the upstream mutations. The results suggest that CcpA directly influences the carbon starvation response and that both proteins exert indirect effects on all three stress responses. The integrity of the DNA sequence is important for all three responses

Magnetic and humidity sensing properties of nanostructured Cu[x]Co[1-x]Fe2O4 synthesized by auto combustion technique

Magnetic nanomaterials (23-43 nm) of Cu$_x$Co$_{1-x}$Fe$_2$O$_4$\ (x = 0.0, 0.5 and 1.0) were synthesized by auto combustion method. The crystallite sizes of these materials were calculated from X-ray diffraction peaks. The band observed in Fourier transform infrared spectrum near 575 cm$^{-1}$ in these samples confirm the presence of ferrite phase. Conductivity measurement shows the thermal hysteresis and demonstrates the knee points at 475$^o$C, 525$^o$C and 500$^o$C for copper ferrite, cobalt ferrite and copper-cobalt mixed ferrite respectively. The hystersis M-H loops for these materials were traced using the Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) and indicate a significant increase in the saturation magnetization (M$_s$) and remanence (M$_r$) due to the substitution of Cu$^{2+}$ ions in cobalt ferrite, while the intrinsic coercivity (H$_c$) was decreasing. Among these ferrites, copper ferrite exhibits highest sensitivity for humidity.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Predictive modelling using pathway scores: robustness and significance of pathway collections

Background Transcriptomic data is often used to build statistical models which are predictive of a given phenotype, such as disease status. Genes work together in pathways and it is widely thought that pathway representations will be more robust to noise in the gene expression levels. We aimed to test this hypothesis by constructing models based on either genes alone, or based on sample specific scores for each pathway, thus transforming the data to a ‘pathway space’. We progressively degraded the raw data by addition of noise and examined the ability of the models to maintain predictivity. Results Models in the pathway space indeed had higher predictive robustness than models in the gene space. This result was independent of the workflow, parameters, classifier and data set used. Surprisingly, randomised pathway mappings produced models of similar accuracy and robustness to true mappings, suggesting that the success of pathway space models is not conferred by the specific definitions of the pathway. Instead, predictive models built on the true pathway mappings led to prediction rules with fewer influential pathways than those built on randomised pathways. The extent of this effect was used to differentiate pathway collections coming from a variety of widely used pathway databases. Conclusions Prediction models based on pathway scores are more robust to degradation of gene expression information than the equivalent models based on ungrouped genes. While models based on true pathway scores are not more robust or accurate than those based on randomised pathways, true pathways produced simpler prediction rules, emphasizing a smaller number of pathways

Nearly Massless Electrons in the Silicon Interface with a Metal Film

We demonstrate the realization of nearly massless electrons in the most widely used device material, silicon, at the interface with a metal film. Using angle-resolved photoemission, we found that the surface band of a monolayer lead film drives a hole band of the Si inversion layer formed at the interface with the film to have nearly linear dispersion with an effective mass about 20 times lighter than bulk Si and comparable to graphene. The reduction of mass can be accounted for by repulsive interaction between neighboring bands of the metal film and Si substrate. Our result suggests a promising way to take advantage of massless carriers in silicon-based thin-film devices, which can also be applied for various other semiconductor devices.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Influence of Shear Reinforcement on Reinforced Concrete Continuous Deep Beams

yesTest results of 24 reinforced concrete continuous deep beams are reported. The main variables studied were concrete strength, shear span-to-overall depth ratio (a/h) and the amount and configuration of shear reinforcement. The results of this study show that the load transfer capacity of shear reinforcement was much more prominent in continuous deep beams than in simply supported deep beams. For beams having an a/ h of 0.5, horizontal shear reinforcement was always more effective than vertical shear reinforcement. The ratio of the load capacity measured and that predicted by the strutand-tie model recommended by ACI 318-05 dropped against the increase of a/h. This decrease rate was more remarkable in continuous deep beams than that in simple deep beams. The strut-and-tie model recommended by ACI 318-05 overestimated the strength of continuous deep beams having a/ h more than 1.0