Nearby,but Not Wanted? The Bypassing of Rural Hospitals and Policy Implications for Rural Health Care Systems

This study examines the underutilization of rural hospitals. The authors study hospital and patient characteristics to determine why and how rural patients bypass local rural hospitals despite the availability of comparable medical services. The general conditional logit analysis of data on patients and hospitals suggests that hospital characteristics (size, ownership, and distance) and patient characteristics (payment source, medical condition, age, and race) influence rural patients' decisions to bypass local rural hospitals. The study offers two suggestions (policy implications) to better utilize rural health care institutions: a market-centered approach, and more effective government intervention for horizontal and vertical hospital integration.     

How Different are Emerging Multinationals' Views of Economic Integration in Europe? A Case Study of Korean Automobile Manufacturers' Strategic Reactions

This study is a survey of Korean automobile manufacturers in Europe, which examines the different perceptions of emerging multinationals to economic integration and the subsequent strategic reactions relating to their particular characteristics. The findings show dissimilar patterns and motivations for Korean automotive foreign direct investment (FDI) when compared to those of established multinationals, which are conceptualized as a pre-emptive strategic advance, particularly in relation to the changing ownership endowments and negative perceptions of the single European market. These finding imply that conventional variables are unlikely to be applicable to emerging multinationals and show the need to segregate them from other multinationals when formulating industrial policies and firm-level competing strategies.     

Exploiting Sino-US Geostrategic Competition: The View from Seoul and Singapore

The mainstream literature on weak status quo states’ diplomacy tends to identify their regional security roles in terms of dealing with non-traditional security issues. This article argues that such a limited approach is not sufficient to explain the current security dynamics in the Asia-Pacific. This article reviews the literature on weak status quo states’ influence on regional order. It then identifies a security environment in which they are more likely to exert some impact on maintaining and building a regional order. After contextualising these discussions in the Asia-Pacific setting, the article examines the experience of South Korea and Singapore as secondary powers in the East Asian region. Although both countries enjoy high levels of security cooperation with the US, both have also been able to exercise a certain amount of influence in advancing their own geostrategic interests amidst the growing Sino-US geostrategic competition. Yet their exploitation of Sino-US geostrategic competition is neither a simple balancing strategy against China nor a simple bandwagoning with the US, since both South Korea and Singapore have been increasing bilateral and multilateral security cooperation with China.     

朝鲜与明清表笺外交问题研究

表笺是朝鲜与明清两朝所采取的主要外交工具,表笺外交成为朝鲜与明清关系的重要特征,也是朝鲜处理与宗主国关系的重要策略。但在表笺外交过程中也出现了一系列表笺问题纠纷。通过对朝鲜与明清表笺外交中表笺纠纷的考察,论文分析了表笺问题产生的原因,总结朝鲜表笺外交的成功之处和两国古代政治文化交流成果。     

韩国的当代中国政治研究述评

迄今为止,还没有对韩国的中国政治研究状况做出评估。韩国的当代中国政治研究值得关注至少有以下三个理由:第一,韩中关系在过去十多年取得了非同寻常的扩展;第二,在中国学习的外国学生中,韩国留学生的数量最多;第三,尽管刚刚起步,越来越多的韩国学者在当代中国研究的主流英文期刊如《中国季刊》(The China Quarterly)和《中国杂志》(The China Journal)上发表文章。本文主要对三类学术成果进行     

VEHICLE ACCESS AND EXPOSURE TO NEIGHBORHOOD POVERTY: EVIDENCE FROM THE MOVING TO OPPORTUNITY PROGRAM

The geographic determinants of social and economic opportunity have received much scholarly attention. A missing link in this body of research is an emphasis on the range of factors influencing low‐income households’ exposure to neighborhood poverty over time. This paper examines the dynamics of exposure to neighborhood poverty for Moving to Opportunity (MTO) program participants. Our paper is unique in its emphasis on the role of vehicle access as it shapes exposure to neighborhood poverty. We find that vehicle access is an important factor shaping residential spells and transitions to low‐poverty neighborhoods over time. We also find that the combined influence of a geographically‐targeted residential mobility requirement and vehicle access substantially elevates a household's likelihood of accessing and staying in a low‐poverty neighborhood. These findings suggest that residential mobility programs and similar efforts to spatially deconcentrate poverty should pay particular attention to the transportation needs of low‐income households.     

‘General interests’ as a rationale for the US–Republic of Korea alliance between 1998 and 2008

The US–Republic of Korea (ROK) alliance had significantly developed asset specificities and common social identities attached to it during the cold war period. If institutional features and ideational factors originating from the cold war threat can account for alliance resilience in the post-cold war period, the US–ROK alliance should be a ‘most likely case’ to support those causal links. This article shows that such is not the case. This article, instead, argues that the US–ROK alliance went beyond being an instrument of threat response to becoming a more complicated mechanism for serving ‘general interests’ in relation to North-East Asian regional order maintenance and order-building, which drove the US–ROK alliance between 1998 and 2008.     

The Double‐Edged Sword of Public‐Resource Dependence: The Impact of Public Resources on Autonomy and Legitimacy in Korean Cultural Nonprofit Organizations

As governments and nonprofit organizations build close partnerships for the provision of public services, they become interdependent in many ways. In particular, nonprofits' public‐resource dependence has significant implications for their behavior and decisions. By examining Korean cultural nonprofit organizations (CNPOs), this article posits a theoretical framework for the impact of public‐resource dependence on nonprofits' organizational autonomy and legitimacy. The empirical results of national survey data of Korean cultural nonprofits suggest that public‐resource dependence has a dual effect, reducing managerial autonomy while enhancing institutional legitimacy. Korean CNPOs seem to be constrained by public funding granted by both local governments and the central government, particularly in goal setting, resource allocations, and program choices. However, public funding also helps nonprofits earn institutional legitimacy through its reputation and recognition effects.