Enhancing Productivity through Innovation: Korea's Response to Competitiveness Challenges

서중해,Suh, Joonghae Korea Development Institute 2005 KDI Journal of Economic Policy (KDI JEP) Vol.27 No.1

한국경제는 경제전반의 생산성에 있어서 OECD 국가 중 최하위에 있다. 이러한 생산성 격차와 함께, 한국경제는 구조변화를 경험하고 있다. 설비투자는 급격하게 감소하고 있는 반면, 연구개발투자는 크게 확대되고 있지는 않다. 한국이 당면한 과제는 과거의 추격성장전략에서 지식기반경제로 전환하는 것이다. 이를 위한 과제는 무엇인가? 본 논문은 이 과제를 혁신을 통한 생산성 제고라는 측면에서 검토하고 있다. 외환위기 이후 한국의 산업혁신시스템의 괄목할 만한 변화의 하나는 혁신네트워크가 새롭게 등장하고 있다는 것이다. 이러한 혁신 네트워크는 향후 산업혁신시스템의 중핵으로 자리할 것이며, 한국경제의 생산성 제고에 긍정적으로 기여할 것이다. 본 논문은 자동차산업에 대한 사례를 통하여 이러한 변화를 명시적으로 보여준다. 향후 한국 산업혁신시스템의 강화를 위해서는 산업의 상위부문의 강화, 중소기업의 혁신기반 확대 및 국내기업과 외국인기업 사이의 기술협력 촉진이 필요하다. Korea is far behind other OECD countries in economy-wise productivity: Korea's labor productivity in terms of GDP per hour worked is the lowest among OECD countries. Against the existing productivity gap, there is a worrying sign in Korea's investment trend - rapid fall in machinery and equipment investment with slow increase in R&D investment. The challenge facing Korea is how to transform her economy from catching-up model to a knowledge-based one. The paper shows that, in tandem with the structural changes that today's Korean industries are experiencing, industry's innovation system is also changing. Innovation networks are emerging as the result of economy-wise restructuring since the financial crisis of 1997 and, though still not a dominant force, the newly emerging innovation networks will be the main threads of industry's innovation activities in the future. The changes in industrial innovation system would positively contribute in raising the productivity of the Korean economy. The paper contains a case study on Korea's automobile industry in order to highlight some of main characteristics of the structural changes, in addition to a chapter that gives an overview of the evolutionary paths of the Korea's industrial innovation. The paper assesses that changes can be considered as a positive sign of future growth perspective; but there are further challenges to make the Korea's industrial innovation system effective. The list of such challenges includes strengthening upstream sectors of currently leading industries, expanding the innovation base to SME and promoting technological co-operation between domestic firms and foreign firms.

Knowledge, Knowledge… Knowledge for My Economy

FREEMAN, RICHARD B. Korea Development Institute 2015 KDI Journal of Economic Policy (KDI JEP) Vol.37 No.2

The creation of S&T knowledge and development of S&T- based innovation has spread worldwide from traditionally advanced countries to traditionally developing countries, often under the direction of governments. Korea is an exemplar in this new locus. Korea's burst in Science and Technology during the last three decades has made Korea a substantive player in the global production of S&T knowledge and its application to business. Although Korea still trails the US and other top countries in the quality of research, it has leaped from its 1980s standing as bit player in the knowledge economy to being among the leaders in the early 21st Century. This paper shows that Korea's advance benefited from its active participation in the global market in higher education, in international research collaborations, and its close ties to the U.S. Korea's experience offers lessons for other countries who seek to advance by becoming knowledge economies. Korea proves that a developing country can gain comparative advantage in knowledge production and use; that government policy can stimulate such a development; and that openness to the world of higher education and research is the best way to move forward and overcome the middle income trap.

Finding Loopholes in Sanctions: Effects of Sanctions on North Korea's Refined Oil Prices

KIM, KYOOCHUL Korea Development Institute 2020 KDI Journal of Economic Policy (KDI JEP) Vol.42 No.4

The international community's sanctions against North Korea, triggered by North Korea's nuclear tests and by missile development in the country, are considered the strongest sanctions in history, banning exports of North Korea's major items and limiting imports of machinery and oil products. Accordingly, North Korea's trade volume decreased to the level of collapse after the sanctions, meaning that the sanctions against North Korea were considered to be effective. However, according to this paper, which analyzed the price fluctuations of refined petroleum products in North Korea through the methodology of an event study, the market prices of oil products were only temporarily affected by the sanctions and remained stable over the long run despite the restrictions on the volumes of refined petroleum products introduced. This can be explained by evidence that North Korea has introduced refined oil supplies that are not much different from those before the sanctions through its use of illegal transshipments even after the sanctions. With regard to strategic materials such as refined oil, the North Korean authorities are believed to be desperately avoiding sanctions by, for instance, finding loopholes in the sanctions to meet the minimum level of demand.

The Interaction between China, Japan, and Korea in the Export Market

JUNG, KYU-CHUL Korea Development Institute 2016 KDI Journal of Economic Policy (KDI JEP) Vol.35 No.3

This paper analyzes changes in the export potential and competitiveness of China, Japan, and Korea. The analysis of Japan's export market share reveals that in sectors where Korea's potential was strong in the early 1990s, Japan's market share diminished. This suggests the possibility that Korea was catching up with Japan, eating into Japan's market share. The same analysis of Korea's export market share in the 2000s shows, for items in which China's export potential was high, Korea's market share has declined comparatively since 2010, with the tendency growing much larger. China's export potential continues to expand in markets for Korea's key export products, making it difficult to rule out the possibility that Korea's competitiveness in key export products will be hindered, driven by the catching up of China. To respond to these challenges, it is important for Korea continuously to foster and enhance creative and core capabilities that latecomers will not easily be able to emulate.

Adoption of Foreign Technologies in Korean Manufacturing Firms: Characteristics and Microfoundations

SUH, JOONGHAE Korea Development Institute 2015 KDI Journal of Economic Policy (KDI JEP) Vol.37 No.3

The primary goal of this paper is to explore the microeconomic foundation of Korean firms' adoption of foreign technologies. The paper also reviews the overall trend of international technology transfers to Korea. The period covered in this paper is Korea's high growth era, from the 1960s to the 1990s. The works of this paper center on the two questions of what characterizes foreign technologies which had been imported through licensing contracts, and which driving forces expedite technology adoption by firms. The Korean experience provides the context of success in the catch-up growth. The co-movement of technology imports with capital goods imports manifests Korea's effort to improve the technical efficiency toward the world frontier. Underlying this trend are firms' decisions to adopt new technologies. The paper shows that firms respond proactively to wage increases by adopting newer technologies and thus, in turn, increasing employment, which implies the existence of a virtuous interactive mechanism among these factors.

Korea's Aging Population and Household Saving Rate: Evidence for an Extended Life Cycle Income Hypothesis

Kwack, Sung Yeung Korea Development Institute 2004 KDI Journal of Economic Policy (KDI JEP) Vol.26 No.1

Korea is entering the class of aging population nations. This paper investigates the extent demographic factors and the aging population affect the saving rate, using an extended life-cycle/permanent-income hypothesis on saving. The results of the tests with Korean household survey data from 1977 to 2002 reveal that real saving rates increase when the duration of lifetime and per household real disposable income rise, and decrease when the growth rate of income and net worth-to-GDP ratio rises. The growth rate of per household real disposable income has negative effects, suggesting that households calculate their life cycle income in a forward looking manner. The elasticities with respect to a change in the lifetime horizon and the growth rate of per household income are 0.58 and -0.03, respectively. A one percent rise in the net worth to GDP ratio reduces the saving rate by 0.3 percent. A one percent rise in per household income increases it by 0.33 percent. The younger-age and the elder-age dependency ratios have insignificant effects on the household saving rate behavior. When Korean life expectancy rises, the private saving rate declines modestly and the government saving rate declines substantially. The economy's real net saving rate declines from 33 percent in 2002 to 30 percent by the year 2030.

Korea's Capital Market Promotion Policies: IPOs and Other Supplementary Policy Experiences

KIM, WOOCHAN Korea Development Institute 2015 KDI Journal of Economic Policy (KDI JEP) Vol.37 No.2

This paper studies a series of capital market promotion policies Korea pursued over a 30-year period during its development era (1960s - 1980s). The purpose of this paper is twofold. The first purpose is to understand the policy approaches Korea took, and the second is to extract lessons that can benefit policymakers in the developing world, where capital market promotion is an important policy goal. There are two key features of Korea's capital market promotion policies. First, the government was actively involved, sometimes indirectly by giving tax incentives to encourage IPOs. However, in other times, it was directly involved by giving IPO orders and threatening those that did not comply. No stock exchange in a developed country has ever experienced such government involvement. Combined with rapid economic growth, this interventionist approached allowed the Korean stock market to experience phenomenal growth over a short period of time. Second, the capital market promotion policies had multiple objectives. One was to mobilize domestic capital for economic development. Another was to lower firms' debt-to-equity ratios. Most interestingly, however, the Korean government wanted to popularize stock ownership, thereby allowing ordinary Koreans to share in the fruits of economic growth.

Exchange Rate Pass-Through and Market Response: Competition between Korea and Japan in the US Steel Market

차문중,김재훈,Tcha, MoonJoong,Kim, Jae H. Korea Development Institute 2004 KDI Journal of Economic Policy (KDI JEP) Vol.26 No.2

환율의 변화에 따른 개별 교역재 가격의 변화는 '환율전이효과(Exchange rate pass-through)'로 불리며, 국제경제학의 가장 중요한 연구분야 중의 하나로 인식되고 있다. 또한 환율변화 당사국의 교역재 가격변화에 따라 시장전체에서 일어나는 환율의 전이현상은, 수출시장과 특정수출국의 환율이 변화할 때 수출국의 가격책정전략과 시장전체의 반응에 대한 정보를 제공해줄 수 있다는 점에서 깊은 연구가 필요하다. 그러나 대부분의 연구는 환율변화에 따른 특정 국가의 수출재 가격변화만을 고려할 뿐, 경쟁국 재화가격의 변화나, 이에 따른 수출대상국의 재화시장이 전체적으로 받는 충격에 대한 연구는 거의 이루어지지 않고 있다. 본 논문은, 한국과 일본의 대미 달러 환율변화에 따른 철강재의 가격변화를 통해 시장의 반응을 분석한다. Bootstrap-after-bootstrap을 활용한 vector error correction 모형과 이에 따른 충격반응함수분석, 그리고 Phillips-Hansen의 추정방법(fully modified estimation)을 통한 분석은 몇 가지 중요한 시사점을 제공하는데, 그중 가장 중요한 두 가지를 요약하면 다음과 같다. 즉, (i) 한일 양국의 환율변화는 미국 철강시장에서의 양국 수출철강가격에 대해 서로 다른 개별적 전이효과를 야기하며, (ii) 여타 수출국의 반응도 한일 양국 중 어느 나라 제품의 가격이 변화하는가에 따라 달라진다는 것이다. 이에 따라 같은 비율의 환율변화에 대해서도 그 당사국에 따라 시장의 가격반응은 달라지게 됨을 알 수 있다. This paper theoretically formulated and empirically explored the relationship between exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) for (average) market price and an individual country's price, using steel products data in the US market, with special reference to two major steel exporting countries, Korea and Japan. It was found that the direction of market ERPT can be different from that of individual ERPT that each exporter experiences, due to strategic interactions among producers and different parameters. Vector error correction (VEC) models and impulse response analysis were used with the statistical inference based on the bootstrap-after- bootstrap of Kilian (1998) for short-run, and the fully modified estimation of Phillips and Hansen (1990) was used for long-run. Empirical results indicate that market ERPT in the US market due to changes in Korea-US exchange rates is different from those due to changes in Japan-US exchange rates. The framework developed in this study indicates that this phenomenon is attributed to either (i) the two countries have individual ERPTs of different magnitudes and directions for the products in the US market, or (ii) the pricing strategies of the other exporters' (to the US steel market) respond differently depending on whether the price of the product from Korea changes or that from Japan does. As each exporter's ERPT can be significantly different, and market response to each country's ERPT can be also different, this study concludes that it is crucial for an exporter to understand how competitors in the market respond to changes in its price, as well as to understand how its price changes when the relevant exchange rate fluctuates.

Population Aging in Korea: Importance of Elderly Workers

JAEJOON LEE Korea Development Institute 2023 KDI Journal of Economic Policy (KDI JEP) Vol.45 No.2

Korea's population is aging at a faster pace than any other major country, and the adverse impact of this trend on the economy is predicted to be significant. This paper focuses on the macroeconomic effects of population aging with particular attention paid to the pace of aging in Korea. According to our analysis, it is difficult to offset the decline in the labor supply driven by rapid population aging, even if the labor force participation rate of the working-age population rises to a significantly high level. We suggest a re-orientation of policy directions to correspond to the behavioral changes of economic agents. Policies must focus on promoting labor force participation among the elderly while pushing towards human capital advancement and higher productivity.

Korea's Demographic Transition and Long-Term Growth Projection Based on an Overlapping Generations Model

KWON, KYOOHO Korea Development Institute 2017 KDI Journal of Economic Policy (KDI JEP) Vol.39 No.2

This paper employs an Overlapping Generations Model to quantify the impacts of Korea's demographic transition toward an older population on the total output growth rate. The model incorporates the projected population through 2060 according by Statistics Korea. The effects of the low fertility and increased life expectancy rates are studied. The model is considered suitable for analyzing the effects of demographic changes on the Korean economy. Under the assumption that the TFP growth rate will not slow considerably in the future, remaining at 1.3% per annum, the gross output growth rate of the Korean economy is projected to slow to 1.1% per annum in the 2050s, from 4.0% in the 2000s. The shrinking workforce due to the decline in fertility plays a significant role in the deceleration of the Korean economy. The increased life expectancy rate is expected to mitigate the negative effect, but the magnitude of its effect is found to be limited.