The Characteristics and Impacts of the Relocating of Production Facilities to Abroad: A Case of Korea

생산시설 해외이전의 유형별 특성 및 효과분석

Entering the 1990s, Korean economies experienced the high-cost and low-efficiency situation which evetually caused many Korean firms led to relocate their production facilities to lower labor cost countries. This paper aims to draw out the characteristics of FDI and to evaluate the impacts of FDI in manufacturing sectors. Firstly, we try to categorize the indutries into three groups, labor intensive, capital intensive, and the technology intensive industries figuring out the characteristics of FDI of Korean firms. Secondly, we compare the three categories by grouping high and low foreign investment areas using value added data. Thirdly, we analyse the impacts of foreign production relocation the number of firms, production volume and jobs creation in Korea during the period 1991-1996. This paper concludes that the FDI of Korean firms concentrates to labor intensive industry and the hollowing effect caused by FDI was observed partially in the labor intensive industry.