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Much debate was brought forth during the South Korean credit card companies' liquidity crisis in 2003. This paper is an in-depth analysis of those credit card issuers' option embedded commercial paper (mentioned as ‘option CP’ henceforth). The main purpose of this paper is in evaluating the ‘option CP's fair value, with the decomposition and analysis on ‘option CP’.

Option CP is stipulated as a CP joined by an OTC credit derivative product. The structure is set so that anyone of the two options, put options and call options, will be executed.

Therefore, the price of option CP excluding the credit option portion will be equal to that of the standard coupon bond at the same maturity.

However, empirical evidence shows otherwise. The evidence clearly states that the option CP yield rates were generally quoted lower than the fair-value rates, even if option premium of credit option portion was included in calculating the value. This evidence has an implication that ‘option CP’s rates are generally issued and traded with unfair value. This paper has significance that it made valuation model of ‘option CP’ and evaluated its fairness, by way of the in-depth analysis of option CP which has not been before.

The aim of the present paper was the study of mechanical and microstructural behaviour of 6061/Al2O3/20p metal matrix composite sheets joined by Friction Stir Welding. The material was welded into the form of sheets of 7 mm thickness after T6 treatment and was tested in tension and fatigue at room temperature. The mechanical behaviour of the material was found to depend strongly on the particles fracture across the weld. The tensile properties in longitudinal direction resulted higher respect to the transversal ones. The fatigue endurance (S‐N) curve of the welds was obtained by using a resonant electro‐mechanical testing machine under constant loading control up to 250 Hz sine wave loading. The cyclic fatigue tests were conducted in the axial total stress‐amplitude control mode with min max R = σ / σ The microstructure resulting from the FSW process was studied by employing optical and scanning electron microscopy.

While the origin of Korean Industrial Relations goes back 150 years when the country opened its seaports to foreign countries, it didn’t emerge as a field of study until 1950s when academics began to write books and papers on the Korean labor movement, labor laws, and labor economics. In this paper, we sketch this history and describe important events and people that contributed to the development of industrial relations in Korea. Korean industrial relations in the early 20th century were significantly distorted by the 35-year-Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945). After regaining its independence, the U.S. backed, growth-oriented, military-based, authoritarian Korean government followed suit and consistently suppressed organized labor until 1987. Finally, the 1987 Great Labor Offensive allowed the labor movement to flourish in a democratized society. Three groups were especially influential in the field of industrial relations in the early 1960s: labor activists, religious leaders, and university faculty. Since then, numerous scholars have published books and papers on Korean industrial relations, whose perspectives, goals, and processes are still being debated and argued. The Korean Industrial Relations Association (KIRA) was formed on March 25, 1990 and many other academic and practitioner associations have also come into being since then. The future of industrial relations as a field of study in Korea does not seem bright, however. Issues regarding organized labor are losing attention because of a steadily shrinking unionization rate, changing societal attitude toward labor unions, and the enactment of new and improved laws and regulations regarding employment relationships more broadly. Thus, we suggest that emerging issues such as contingent workers, works councils and tripartite partnership, conflict management, and human rights will be addressed by the field of industrial relations in Korea only if this field breaks with its traditional focus on union and union–management relations.