금융화의 노동 수요탄력도에 대한 영향 = Effects of Financialization on the Elasticity of Labor Demand

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Research regarding widening of wage gap and reduction in wage share between skilled and unskilled labor has been focused on factors such as international trade, FDI, outsourcing and technological changes. Deepening of globalization and informatization can be two focal points from which many economic papers have been approached. Unlike such traditional approach, we cast our attention on financialization; how the progress of financialization and surge of shareholder value orientation in corporate management system affect the elasticity of labor demand. This paper empirically tests the relation between financialization and the elasticity of demand for labor, using 13 Korean manufacturing sectors for 1995~2007.
From the empirical test, we find first, the elasticity of demand for labor had decreased before the Asian economic crisis in 1997, while it had increased up to 2002 after the crisis. The absolute value of elasticity had been stable since then and scored 0.39 in 2007. Secondly, deepening of financialization and surge of shareholder value orientation make the demand for labor more elastic during 1995~2007 period. In addition, the coefficient of interaction term which combines outsourcing and financialization has statistically significant negative value. Thirdly, among financialization variables, dividend payout ratio and payments to financial market variables turns out to be statistically significance during 2000~2007 period, implying that progress of financialization makes demand for labor elastic. Lastly, during 1995~1999 period, 10% increase in dividend payout ratio rises the absolute value of elasticity of labor demand by 0.65.
Tridico (2012) and Stokhammer (2013) indicated the deepening of financialization, especially development of shareholder value orientation, as one of major reasons for the widening of income inequality. The results show that excessive elasticity of labor market resulting from shareholder value orientation can threaten the stability. This implies that cooperative management structure among interested parties is required to have overall systematic stability in the economy.