Local Organizers

The Bank of Korea, Yonsei University's College of Commerce and Economics, Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade (KIET) and Korean Association of Economic System Research (KESRA) are delighted to have the opportunity to organize the 24th International Input-Output Conference at Seoul, Korea in 2016.

Introduction

The Bank of Korea

The Bank of Korea was established on June 12, 1950 as the central bank for Korea.
The primary purpose of the Bank is the pursuit of price stability. The Bank sets a price stability target in consultation with the Government and draws up and publishes an operational plan for monetary policy that includes it. To this end, the Bank performs various functions as a central bank: issuing banknotes and coins, formulating and implementing monetary and credit policy, serving as the bankers' bank and the government's bank.
In addition, the Bank collects and compiles statistics. It compiles statistics essential to the development of appropriate economic policies across all sectors including government. These include money and banking statistics, national income statistics, the producer price index, balance of payments statistics, flow of funds statistics, and input-output tables.
The national accounts division of the bank compiles statistics to provide information that is indispensable for monitoring, analysis and evaluation of the economy. The input output statistics, especially, play a critical role in analyzing the economic interactions taking place between different sectors of the economy. To this end, the Bank has compiled Input-Output tables every five years since 1960. It also for long compiled updated tables for the year between the benchmark years, but since 2006 the tables have been updated annually. For the 2010 benchmark tables, the bank implemented the recommendations of revised system of national accounts (2008 SNA). Also, since the 2010 benchmark tables, the Bank has compiled Supply and Use tables, along with the existing Input-Output tables, achieving consistency within the national accounts.

College of Commerce and Economics at Yonsei University

The College of Commerce and Economics, Yonsei University, was established in March 1915. As the oldest business school in Korea, the College comprised two majors, Economics and Business Administration, when it started. In 1967, the Department of Applied Statistics was added to the College. In 2003, the Department of Business Administration was separated from the College to belong to the School of Business. Currently, about 1,500 students are studying in the undergraduate and graduate programs of the College. The College offers the academic knowledge to help its students become qualified economists and leading managers. In the graduate school, especially, the College provides higher levels of education to students who want to pursue academic as well as professional careers. The graduates of the College play important roles in both public and private sectors, including government ministries and agencies, financial institutions, consulting firms, and research institutes as well as business sectors.

Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade (KIET)

Founded on January 1976, KIET (Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade) is the only government funded research institute specializing in industrial research, serving as a think tank for Korean industrial economics and trade policy analysis. The organization is composed of 11 research divisions with a research focus on industrial analysis by various categories, trade policy, small and high tech start-up businesses, and regional development. Currently, 201 researchers are affiliated with KIET.
In the early stages, it was originally initiated as the Research Center for the Middle East and a year later it was expanded to become Korea International Economic Institute. In 1982, the research institute was re-launched as Korea Institute of Industrial Economic and Technology to strengthen capabilities by combining research in economics and technology. With a view to catering for the growing demand for trade analysis and its importance, it was renamed Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade. In 1991, KIET was separated from the Center for Industrial and Technical Information to improve expertise in industry- and function-specific research.
KIET makes great contribution towards the establishment of government policy by carrying research on the direction of the development of Korean industries, which the Korean government should press for at every stage. Moreover KIET's research is making strides toward improvement in the global competitiveness and management strategies of Korean enterprises in order to the aid development of the Korean business community.
In addition to these tasks, KIET undertakes research on regional development policies, regional industries, the promotion of small and medium- sized enterprises, high-tech start-ups and the direction of trade policies, and carries out projects to transfer Korean experience in industrial development to developing countries.

The Korean Association of Economic Systems Research (KESRA)

The Korean Association of Economic Systems Research was established in February 2013 in response to growing interests in and the importance of input-output models and their applications. It is a non-profit membership-based association promoting relevant research and academic cooperation in Korea. The primary goals of the KESRA are twofold. It provides forums for the exchange of ideas and knowledge between members. And it develops and promotes opportunities to stimulate participants' mutual research interests and to encourage academic study relationships among them. KESRA is, in principle, concerned with input-output analyses and economic system research, and the increased use of such discipline for the private and public sectors. In view of theoretical and practical advancements in the input-output analysis and economic systems research, KESRA prepares to deal with various economic, social and environmental issues in the national and international economies.