In this study, we examine how differently gasoline prices in 25 regions of Seoul, Korea respond to asymmetric information between retailers and consumers. We estimate the region-specific likelihood that retailers engage in price undercutting under asymmetric information and investigate inter-regional differences. We find that in response to increases in wholesale price, regions with a high likelihood of price undercutting experience intensified gas station price competition while dispersions of price and markups tend to decrease more in response to cost shocks. Understanding the geographical dispersion of retailers’ price responses to information frictions and search intensity is crucial to lowering information barriers across regions and redistributing profit among market participants.

This paper analyzed the annual trends in energy consumption of 14 industries in Korea from 2000 to 2014 using an extended log mean Divisia index (LMDI) method that embedded global value chain (GVC) divisions in the standard LMDI decomposition. Using a world input–output table, we calculated foreign value-added share in the GVC activities for each industry. Based on a Cobb–Douglas production technology, we embedded GVC divisions in the ordinary LMDI factor decomposition. The key findings indicate that the production effect mainly drives energy consumption, while energy consumption has decreased by both the foreign-structure effects and the foreign-intensity effects. Together with a decline in the domestic energy intensity effects, both of the GVC effects have improved energy efficiency. Energy-intensive industries have consumed more energy than other industries, while they have more incentive to save energy costs because these costs are a large proportion of total import costs. The opposite pattern occurred in other industry groups. Industries that do not naturally depend on energy tend to consume more energy and became more energy-intensive.

This paper studies the mechanism of financial intermediaries' information production and its impact on industry-level growth, especially its difference between industries that differ in the technological composition of small firms. We build a growth model in which (i) both loan contracts and production of information on borrowing firms' productivities are endogenously determined, and (ii) the smaller firm's productivity is more costly to assess. Analytic results show that the smaller firm's innately greater degree of informational opaqueness hinders its growth, especially in the early stage of a country's financial development. We provide some evidence supporting the key mechanism.

Purpose: This paper investigates the crucial role that the trade of intermediate goods plays in elucidating trade-output synchronization. We specifically highlight the significance of incorporating intermediate trade, particularly concerning the dominance of forward linkages in the global value chains (GVCs) of countries producing intermediate goods. Design/methodology/approach: We extend Johnson (2014) international real business cycle (IRBC) model to integrate the foreign value added by intermediate exporters within a forward-linkage GVC. Findings: Model simulations indicate that the trade of intermediate goods accounts for around 31–33% of observed trade-output synchronization. Notably, the inclusion of value-added rents in GVCs within intermediate goods trade boosts the explanatory power to 55%. Research limitations/implications: Although adding input trade information does not replicate the empirical finding enough to resolve the trade-comovement puzzle within the IRBC-style framework, as Johnson (2014) pointed, this might highlight the limitations of the framework itself. The limitations of both our work and Johnson (2014) suggest that a more endogenous mechanism that correlates comovement with trade independently of the correlation between trade and comovement of TFPs should be introduced in the IRBC model. Originality/value: Our paper extends Johnson (2014) IRBC model to incorporate the foreign value added to intermediate trade within forward-linkage GVCs. The model’s explanatory power in resolving the trade comovement puzzle has improved.