격식

사람 사이가 아무리 가깝고 허물없이 친한 사이이더라도 기본적인 격식을 잊어서는 안된다. 격식을 잃는다는 것은 사람과 사람 사이의 기본적인 예의를 잃는 것과 같다고 보고 따라서 더 이상 상대방을 존중하지 않는 것이라고 생각한다. 상대방을 존중하지 않는데 상대방으로부터 존중받는 것은 가능하지 않다.

반기문 UN 사무총장

나의 롤모델로 가당키나 할까?

자신이 선택한 길에 대해서는 책임을 지고 끝낸다는 반기문 UN사무총장님의 성격은 나와는 정반대인 것 같다. 1시간도 못해 흩어지는 나의 집중력... 오늘부터라도 시작을 해봐야하겠지만 험난한 길이 될 것임에 틀림이 없다.

하지만 어찌보면 나에게 가장 필요한 덕목을 지니셨기에 이렇게 성공하신게 아닐까.

문명하셨습니다.

Such an addictive game. I was barely able to stop and uninstall it until my laptop was lagging, running that program, luckily. There is even a video clip about the addicts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccn9V8V10q4

I certainly have better things to do later on, and such game won't be one of them. No more Civilization V.

Research topic idea

Infant industry policy and its validity:

It has been believed that the free trade is the best, and accordingly, there have been several multilateral trade negotiations to remove trade barriers, such as tariffs. Since the 19th century, several exceptional cases have been found, and infant industry argument was one of them.

The main argument of infant industry posits that some industries, which have initially high costs, may have comparative advantage in the long run in the world market after a temporary period of development in technology. There are mainly three conditions, which must be met to validate the argument (Krueger 1984):

(1) there must be an industry, currently uneconomic, which, if developed, would experience a sufficient decrease in costs, or generate sufficient externalities, so that the initial excess costs of the industry would be repaid with a rate of return equal to that earned on other investments;

(2) some part of the decrease in costs would have to consist of externalities generated by firms in the industry or the entire industrial sector, since otherwise private producers would themselves be willing to incur the costs in order to reap the benefits (on the assumption that the industry would be genuinely economic to develop), and

(3) the protection would in fact be temporary (i.e. vested interests to maintain protection would not be created). The validity of the infant industry argument as a case for a departure from free trade thus rests on the assumed short-term nature of the cost disadvantage the industry suffers from, on noncapturable externalities, and on the temporary nature of protection.

Firstly, the study investigates the historical data of the countries (especially East Asian countries) which supported infant industries and now are enjoying the developed economies as the result of the policy.

Secondly, the study employs the basic infant industry model and throw “political pressure” or “dependence on developed countries” factor into the model as one of the determinants of developing country governments’ decision making. I have not found any infant industry study which considered these factors as one of the decision-making factors, except a couple of articles written by Ha Joon Chang. However, Chang merely raises an argument in his articles that it is not fair for the current developed countries, which supported infant industry when they started developing their economies, to try to ban infant-industry-supporting policies in developing countries for their benefit, and his articles do not evaluate the models.

Thirdly, I would like to check whether the infant industries actually succeed to decrease their cost to compete with foreign firms. Supported by the governments, the infants are able to decrease their cost; however, the world price is also decreasing as the leading firm in the industry would keep trying to minimize their cost as well. The study of List assumes that the world price stays still, and since the rate of cost reduction in the leading firms is assumed to be slower than the infants', List's argument seems valid if the leading firm reaches the minimum cost level where there is no more possible cost reduction. However, when it comes to the empirical studies, it is fair to think that the cost reduction is still in process. One good study that I have examined was Krueger and Tuncer's, "An Empirical Test of the Infant Industry Argument."