Statistical Analysis of the Metropolitan Seoul Subway System: Network Structure and Passenger Flows

The Metropolitan Seoul Subway system, consisting of 380 stations, provides the major transportation mode in the metropolitan Seoul area. Focusing on the network structure, we analyze statistical properties and topological consequences of the subway system. We further study the passenger flows on the system, and find that the flow weight distribution exhibits a power-law behavior. In addition, the degree distribution of the spanning tree of the flows also follows a power law.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

The legacies of state corporatism in Korea: regulatory capture in the Sewol ferry tragedy

Regarding the causes of the Sewol ferry accident that claimed 304 lives in April 2014, some scholars have blamed neoliberal reforms such as deregulation and privatization for the safety regulatory failure. Others have highlighted the role of industry influence and corruption. Our analysis shows that regulatory capture was the crucial causal factor; moreover, this capture was institutionalized from the state-corporatist arrangements of the authoritarian period rather than reflecting new arrangements under the democratic era or corruption per se. The delegation of the critical safety regulation enforcement to the shipping industry association was not introduced as a neoliberal reform but in the context of state corporatism of the Park Chung-hee regime. Democratic governments continued to protect the monopoly of the lucrative Incheon–Jeju ferry business, contrary to neoliberal logic. The legacies of state corporatism persist despite post-financial crisis reform