AN ANALYSIS ON THE LABOR/CAPITAL PRODUCTIVITY OF THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

The purpose of this study is to clarify the reality of labor and capital productivity in the construction industry through an industry-level approach and to analyze the relationship between labor and capital productivity using a Cobb-Douglas production function. According to the research results, the construction industry has shown a very high capital productivity, while labor productivity has kept up a low level during the 1980s and 1990s. The reason was because of the lack of skillful construction workers and the decrease of capital. Meanwhile, the construction productivity has greatly increased since 2000 when there was no change in wages. This was because of a large inflow of low-wage foreign workers while the amount of value added has dramatically increased due to the liberalized sale price of apartment buildings. According to the analysis by the Cobb-Douglas production function, the elasticity coefficient of V/L to K/L in the construction industry had decreased from 1.1663 in the 1^st period(1971-1988) to 0.4465 in the 2^nd period(1989-1997), and to 0.1664 in the 3^rd period(1998-2003). Such a result means that the allocation of labor has gradually increased while the allocation of capital has decreased. Moreover there was a big increase in allocation of labor after 1998 due to the excessive deterioration of capital. In conclusion, in order to raise the construction productivity and to avoid labor-intensive production methods, investment for capital should be more increased. In particular, new machinery and equipment that can actually substitute human labor in construction sites should be more developed and applied to construction sites.