Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse the international political economy of Korea and its effects due to geopolitical tension between China and the USA. Design/methodology/approach - Economic war between China and the USA has prolonged longer than expected. Aftermath of the COVID-19...

Supply-chain bottlenecks emerged alongside unprecedented inflationary surges amid the resulting mismatches in supply and demand for goods and services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This study employs a local projection approach to investigate the inflationary impact of global supply-chain...

This paper investigates the impact of South Korea's rapid robotization, driven by the country's proactive robotization policies, on subjective well-being using individual and householdlevel panel data. We measure individual exposure to robotization by estimating the probability that individuals...

Authoritarian states are increasingly leveraging non-state cyber capabilities to expand their operational reach, thereby challenging conventional distinctions between state and non-state activity. This practice complicates attribution and presents obstacles for coordinated international...

This study examines the economic legacy of civilian killings during the Korean War, which disproportionately targeted local elites, educated individuals, and their families. For identification, we exploit plausibly exogenous variation in the spatial distribution of killings driven by...

The South Korean AI market has grown significantly, yet while chatbot adoption is well-studied, sustained use remains underexplored. This study surveyed 250 financial institution chatbot users in South Korea in February 2024, using SPSS and R to investigate quality effects on intention of...

On 3 December 2024, the then-President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Yoon Suk-yeol triggered the gravest political crisis in the country since its democratisation by declaring martial law in a televised address. Yoon justified martial law as a response to what he dubbed the "legislative...

Household indebtedness in Korea has surged persistently during 2003-2022. Low interest rates, coupled with escalating housing prices, are the key drivers of growing household debt. In this context, monetary tightening may play an opposite role to conventional monetary policy. Moreover,...

The global trade landscape is being reshaped by geoeconomic fragmentation and the rise of industrial policies. This paper studies the impact of these trends on the export-oriented Korean economy. It documents both positive and negative effects of U.S.-China trade tensions, technology and supply...

This paper examines the economic impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Korea. Korea is among the global frontrunners in AI adoption, with higher adoption rates among larger, younger, and technologically advanced firms. AI holds the promise for boosting productivity and output, though the...

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Korea's unemployment rate has remained significantly lower than pre-pandemic levels. This paper examines the dynamics of unemployment through a framework of labor market flows incorporating a matching function and identifies a sustained increase in labor market...

Over the past several years, North Korea has adopted legal changes that are increasing the centrality of the Workers Party of Korea and the state in agricultural production, distribution, and consumption. This development changes the basic nature of food insecurity in North Korea from one in...

Some economies are "black holes" where reliable data is scarce due to government control, low capacity, or conflict. Despite these challenges, researchers have found ways to gather useful information. This paper draws on the literature on North Korea to review six key methods: satellite imagery,...

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse the international political economy of Korea and its effects due to geopolitical tension between China and the USA. Design/methodology/approach - Economic war between China and the USA has prolonged longer than expected. Aftermath of the COVID-19...

Policies involving what are known as Free Economic Zones (FEZs) have been popular among countries interested in attracting foreign investment. While foreign investment has generally benefited the receiving country, the effect of market rivalry is known to reverse this impact. Our paper tests,...

This study examines the impact of AI exposure on industries in South Korea and the United States from 2019 to 2022, using the AI Industry Exposure (AIIE) index developed by Felten et al. (2021). In South Korea, AI exposure is positively associated with employment but negatively associated with...

This study analyzes the drivers of inflation in South Korea using a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model tailored to the characteristics of Korea as a small open economy. Employing quarterly data from 1999Q2 to 2023Q2, Bayesian estimation is used to estimate Korea-specific...

Purpose - This paper explores the impact of South Korea's partner countries' intellectual property rights protection (IPRP) level on South Korea's trade dynamics and its GVC participation. Design/methodology/approach - Through a literature review and an empirical analysis based on two models,...

This study investigates whether cryptocurrency investments have a distinct impact on corporate liquidity depending on when they are held and the stage of a firm's life cycle at the time of holding, using a sample of Korean companies. The empirical findings first show that cryptocurrency...

Driven by both political camps in Seoul, relations between South Korea and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have deepened significantly since their initiation in 2005. While this intensified relationship was shaped to a large extent by geopolitical developments and increasing...

This study examines changes in sales by business category and area in Korea's small commercial districts. Unlike previous studies that focused primarily on overall sales levels before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper emphasizes temporal variations in the inequality of sales...