Explaining the different ownership structure in Korea and the U.S. trucking industries

Wonchang Jang (School of Economics, Inha University; address: 253, Yonghyun-Dong, Nam-Gu, Incheon, 402-751, Korea)
Ilsoon Shin (School of Economics, Inha University; address: 253, Yonghyun-Dong, Nam-Gu, Incheon, 402-751, Korea) *

Journal of International Logistics and Trade

ISSN: 1738-2122

Article publication date: 30 June 2008

Issue publication date: 30 June 2008

124
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Abstract

One of the distinctive features in Korea and the U.S. trucking industries is the huge difference in the share of owner-operators. While it is around 10~15 percent in the U.S., 80~90% of drivers operate their own truck in Korea. Different from historical explanations of previous researches, this paper deals with this feature theoretically. We examine what brings the difference in asset ownership structures between the Korean and the U.S. trucking industries. Using an analytic framework, we investigate the determinants of truck ownership and the changes in ownership patterns. The model introduces several parameters related to productivities of drivers’ efforts and contractibility to affect drivers’ decision, and values of these parameters in both countries are discussed qualitatively and found to be consistent with the aforementioned characteristics.

Keywords

Citation

Jang, W. and Shin, I. (2008), "Explaining the different ownership structure in Korea and the U.S. trucking industries", Journal of International Logistics and Trade, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 93-110. https://doi.org/10.24006/jilt.2008.6.1.93

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2008 Jungseok Research Institute of International Logistics and Trade

License

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited


Corresponding author

*Corresponding author: Professor, School of Economics, Inha University; address: 253, Yonghyun-Dong, Nam-Gu, Incheon, 402-751, Korea, TEL: +82-32-860-7784, FAX: +82-32-860-7772, e-mail:

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