The Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) is the oldest preferential trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific region. It groups six countries under the agreement, including Bangladesh, China, India, Korea, Lao PDR and Sri Lanka, and contains more than 2 billion people in its coverage. Having different levels of development, APTA has shown slow progress in widening and deepening the agreement. The fact that, however, APTA contains the two most populous countries in the world, China and India, and connects countries in Southeast and East Asia, has led the rest of the world to develop a keen interest in the agreement. From Korea's strategic point of views, APTA has its importance as a stepping stone to get to Korea-China FTA; unlike other FTAs, in which radical tariff elimination is agreed upon, APTA pursue gradual tariff reduction. In this regards, APTA can give a chance to Korea to prepare the bilateral FTA with China.
The paper summarizes the development and meaning of APTA to Korean economy. We look at the economic interdependency among APTA member countries and the effectiveness of implementing the 3rd round of APTA. Also we provide Korea's strategic approach and suggestions to develop APTA in the future.

Executive Summary 

Abbreviations 

I. Introduction 

II. Overview of the German Renewable Energy Sector 
1. Energy Mix and Trends 
2. Increasing Demand for Renewable Energy Sources 

III. Renewable Energy Policy in Germany 
1. Policy Developments at the EU level 
2. Domestic Policy Developments and Opposing Views 
3. Evaluation of German Renewable Energy Policy 

IV. Korea’s Green Growth Strategy 
1. Policy Background 
2. Renewable Energy Policy 
3. Implications from the German Case 

V. Conclusion 

References

This study is to review Germany’s renewable energy policy in order to find out the implications for the development of Korea’s renewable energy policy. Germany has put a lot of efforts to develop and promote renewable energy sources. Such efforts led to enhancing energy self-sufficiency and pursuing environmental compatibility at the same time. The success of German renewable energy policy results from the introduction of feed-in tariffs, the promotion strategies for SMEs, and the diversification strategies of local communities. Most of all, in terms of security of supply, cost-efficiency and environmental compatibility in particular, the Electricity Feed-in Act (StrEG) and the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) have greatly contributed to promoting renewable energy sources. Korea, heavily dependent on energy import, is now taking various policy actions in order to achieve ‘Green Growth.’ The implications from the German experience would lead Korea to achieve the goal by successfully deploying renewable energies.

 
I. Introduction 

II. Empirical Strategy 

III. Data  

IV. Empirical Results 
1. Firm Heterogeneity and Multinationals’ Activities 
2. Firm Heterogeneity and Country Characteristics 
3. Firm Heterogeneity, Host Country Characteristics and Location Decision by Type of FDI 

V. Conclusion and Policy Implications 

References

This paper examines the role of firm heterogeneity in multinationals’ choice of FDI type and location. Using Korean firm-level data, we find that more productive firms are more likely than their less efficient counterparts to invest in tough markets and choose horizontal FDI against vertical or export-platform FDI across different host countries. These findings, consistent with the recent theories in international economics, suggest that firm heterogeneity may play a significant role in FDI strategy as well as location decision.

 I. Introduction 

II. Model and Data 

III. Empirical Results 

IV. Conclusion 

References 

Appendix 

 This paper investigates the determinants of international transac-tions in financial assets empirically. We extend the gravity model in Portes et al. (2000) by introducing an internet variable. Using cross-country panel data on the portfolio flows between the US and other countries from 1990 to 2008, we found that the Internet turns out to mitigate the information asymmetries and thus increases cross-border portfolio flows between countries.

I. Introduction 

II. Literature Review 

III. Data  

IV. Results 
1. Indonesia’s Position in the World 
2. Demographic Variables 
3. Employment and Earnings 
4. Physical and Mental Health 
5. Trust 
6. Relative Income Standing 
7. Political Environment 
8. Robustness and Marginal Effects 

V. Conclusions 

References 

Appendix 

Happiness is often ignored in development economics even though it is generally considered the ultimate goal in life. Using the Indonesia Family Life Survey, this paper elucidates factors related to happiness in Indonesia in an ordered probit analysis. Some factors yield results consistent with those in the literature, but other factors such as unemployment and female gender turn out to be not robust. Exogenous measures are introduced for past income mobility, social trust, and political environment. Also, measures with a more immediate impact on happiness are exploited for social trust and political environment. The sign of the coefficient on past income mobility is reversed once the variable is purged of endogeneity. Also, social trust and political environment are found to have little relationship with happiness. The last finding stands in stark contrast to the findings in the literature that uses measures only remotely related to happiness.

I. Introduction 

II. Analysis of Utilization Rate for Korea’s FTAs 
1. Utilization Rate for Korean Imports from FTA Partner Countries 
2. Utilization Rate for Korean Exports to FTA Partners 

III. Restrictiveness Analysis on Rules of Origin: Korean FTAs 

IV. Empirical Analysis: Economic Impact of ROO on Korea-ASEAN FTA   Utilization Rates 
1. Model Specification 
2. Data Description 
3. Preliminary Empirical Result 

V. Conclusion 

References 

Appendix 

Despite the intense interest concerning Rules of Origin (ROO) in every corner, research regarding ROO has been relatively limited. It is primarily due to the difficulties of performing systematic research on ROO. The importance of the role of ROO in FTA, however, cannot be overemphasized since the economic effect of concluding an FTA is determined by ROO, in particular with respect to the market access. This study aims to investigate the economic effect of ROO of Korean FTAs on its FTA utilization. Using restrictive index, margin of preferences and other relevant variables, we test the relation between FTA utilization and related variables. The results show that more restrictive ROO has a negative impact on the utilization rates, when we drop the products with zero utilization rates and control for industry-specific characters. It also shows that higher MOP promotes the use of the Korea-ASEAN FTA. On the other hand, we fail to show that the average value of imports per-application has a positive impact on the use of FTA.

I. Introduction 

II. Theory 

III. Experimental Designs 

IV. Experimental Results 

V. Policy Implications 
1. Is there any learning as time passes? 
2. Does memory matter? 

VI. Concluding Remarks 

References 

Appendix 

The purpose of this paper identifies learning in games in the experimental economic settings, and applies their results on real multilateral trade negotiations. This paper argues that structure of games including a veto player(Veto games) are similar to real multilateral trade negotiations in that the players do not possess identical power. This paper’s main contribution involves showing that learning on power is dominant over learning on theory in Veto games. More importantly, this paper shows that players are concerned about how much they have gained in previous games in Veto games, although their memories generally do not last beyond the next game, and thus they tend to be selfish as they have less shares. Based on these results, it sees the possibility to be more generous in distribution of benefits; allowing players without veto power to retain special rights so that they would not be totally powerless, necessity of having ‘respite’ in the process of negotiations, and policy options for choosing partners for winning coalitions.

I. Introduction 

II. Theoretical Model 
1. Basic Elements 
2. A Benchmark Case: Autarky 
3. Open Economy 
4. Policy Implications 

III. Empirical Model 
1. Data 
2. Variables 
3. Estimation Model 

IV. Conclusion 

References 

The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework to take several key determinants of exports into consideration and to propose an empirical model to identify which factors affect firms’ export performance, whether to start exporting (export extensity) and how much they will export (export intensity). Extending the Melitz (2003) model, in our theoretical part, we consider firm heterogeneity in two dimensions; fixed cost as well as productivity. As a result, when a firm with low productivity engages in exporting, there can also be a higher productive firm facing relatively high fixed cost. This allows us to resolve the difficulty in interpreting controversial empirical results, for example, whether productivity or firm size is a key determinant of export. Furthermore, in our empirical part, by using Korean firm-level data, we conclude that productivity plays an important role when a firm decides whether to start exporting, while fixed export costs variables are important determinants of fractions of outputs to be exported.