Quality of institutions and foreign direct investment in developing countries: Causality tests for cross‐country panels

This paper analyzes the short‐run and long‐run dynamics between quality of institutions and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sample of 62 developing countries covering the period 1984–2003. Panel cointegration test and FM OLS (Fully Modified OLS) estimators are used to test for cointegration. For short‐run dynamics, we estimate error correction model using fixed effect OLS and system GMM estimators. Institutional quality and FDI are found to have bi‐directional cointegrating relationship in the long‐run. However, there is no evidence in favor of short‐run causality between two variables. Firstd Published Online: 14 Oct 201

New Trade Restrictive Measures and Exports: Evidence from South Korea

The world economy recently witnessed a surge in trade remedies and non-tariff measures (NTMs) as new trade-restrictive measures. This study attempts to provide empirical evidence on the effects of new trade-restrictive measures, such as antidumping, countervailing measures, technical barriers to trade, and sanitary and phytosanitary measures on trade. By using the Korean product-level export data and the new NTM data, we find that new trade-restrictive measures in trade can depend on the affected sectors and imposing countries. Exports can be adversely affected by new trade-restrictive measures in their concentrated sectors taken by importing developed countries. We also find the threatening effects of trade remedy before this investigation. However, new trade-restrictive measures imposed by importing developing countries can have positive impact on trade, particularly an increase in consumers trust in product quality and decrease in asymmetric information. Results imply that the government of an exporting party should enhance trade policies by considering the heterogeneous effects of new trade-restrictive measures across industries and trading partners.We thank the Bank of Korea for providing financial support

A Case Report of Sweet’s Syndrome with Parotitis

Sweet’s syndrome is characterized by clinical symptoms, physical features, and pathologicfindings which include fever, neutrophilia, tender erythematous skin lesions, and a diffuseinfiltrate of mature neutrophils. This is a report of our experience of Sweet’s syndrome withparotitis. A 57-year-old man initially presented with tender swelling on the right cheeksimilar to parotitis. His symptoms relapsed despite the use of an oral antibiotic agent for 3weeks. He additionally presented with erythematous papules and plaques on the perioculararea and dorsum of both hands. Histiopathologic findings on punch biopsy of the rightdorsum of the hand showed superficial perivenular histiocytic infiltration without vasculitis.We confirmed this as histiocytoid Sweet’s syndrome and used systemic corticosteroid. Afterinitiation of treatment with systemic corticosteroids, there was a prompt recovery from boththe dermatosis-releated symptoms and skin lesions. Sweet’s syndrome should be consideredin patients with therapy-refractory parotitis and unclear infiltrated nodules. We present aconfusing case who initially appeared to have parotitis but turned out to have histiocytoidSweet’s syndrome

Correlation between Histological Activity and Endoscopic, Clinical, and Serologic Activities in Patients with Ulcerative Colitis

Objectives. Recent studies suggest that histological healing is a treatment goal in ulcerative colitis (UC). We aimed to evaluate the correlation between histological activity and clinical, endoscopic, and serologic activities in patients with UC. Methods. We retrospectively reviewed medical records from patients with UC who underwent colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy with biopsies. The Mayo endoscopic subscore was used to assess endoscopic activity. Biopsy specimens were reviewed by two blinded pathologists and scored using the Geboes scoring system. Results. We analyzed 154 biopsy specimens from 82 patients with UC. Histological scores exhibited strong correlation with endoscopic subscores (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient r=0.774, p<0.001) and moderate correlation with C-reactive protein levels (r=0.422, p<0.001) and partial Mayo scores (r=0.403, p<0.001). Active histological inflammation (Geboes score ≥ 3.1) was observed in 6% (2 of 33) of the endoscopically normal mucosa samples, 66% (19 of 29) of mild disease samples, and 98% (90 of 92) of moderate-to-severe disease samples. Conclusions. Histological activity was closely correlated with the endoscopic, clinical, and serologic UC activities. However, several patients with mild or normal endoscopic findings exhibited histological evidence of inflammation. Therefore, histological assessment may be helpful in evaluating treatment outcomes and determining follow-up strategies

Ubiquitous-Severance Hospital Project: Implementation and Results

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to review an implementation of u-Severance information system with focus on electronic hospital records (EHR) and to suggest future improvements. METHODS: Clinical Data Repository (CDR) of u-Severance involved implementing electronic medical records (EMR) as the basis of EHR and the management of individual health records. EHR were implemented with service enhancements extending to the clinical decision support system (CDSS) and expanding the knowledge base for research with a repository for clinical data and medical care information. RESULTS: The EMR system of Yonsei University Health Systems (YUHS) consists of HP integrity superdome servers using MS SQL as a database management system and MS Windows as its operating system. CONCLUSIONS: YUHS is a high-performing medical institution with regards to efficient management and customer satisfaction; however, after 5 years of implementation of u-Severance system, several limitations with regards to expandability and security have been identifiedope

Firm heterogeneity in the choice of offshoring

행사명 : Firm Heterogeneity in the Choice of Offshoring: Evidence from Korean manufacturing firm

Firm Heterogeneity in the Choice of Offshoring: Evidence from Korean Manufacturing Firms

Using firm-level data on offshoring of Korean manufacturers, the paper examines the relationship between firm heterogeneity and the probability of adopting offshoring. The results of the paper suggest that firm productivity may not be an important determinant for Korean firms’ offshoring decision. Firm’s global sourcing decision may rather depend on other characteristics such as factor intensity, R&D intensity, ICT level, and affiliation with foreign markets, when industry specificity is controlled for.Offshoring, Outsourcing, Insourcing, Firm Heterogeneity.

Firm Heterogeneity in the Choice of Offshoring : Evidence from Korean Manufacturing Firms

Using firm-level data on offshoring of Korean manufacturers, the paper examines the relationship between firm heterogeneity and the probability of adopting offshoring. The results of the paper suggest that firm productivity may not be an important determinant for Korean firms offshoring decision. Firms global sourcing decision may rather depend on other characteristics such as factor intensity, R&D intensity, ICT level, and affiliation with foreign markets, when industry specificity is controlled for.Offshoring, Outsourcing, Insourcing, Firm Heterogeneity.