Input-Output Analysis on the Medical Service Industry between Korea and Japan

의료서비스산업의 산업연관분석

This paper empirically explores the nature of the medical service industry and its various propagation effects on the economy in the input-output model, as revealed by a comparative analysis between Korea and Japan. The main findings of the paper are as follows; First, the growth of medical industry induces above-average effect on employment. Second, the industry is of the characteristics of weak both backward and forward linkage effects implying a 'final demand dependency industry'. When compared with public service sectors, however, the medical services industry shows stronger backward linkage effect than those sectors. Furthermore, it has strong repercussion effects on the goods industries. Third, in order to produce per unit of services, the medical services industry of Korea uses relatively more drugs and medical devices than that of Japan. In general, it has been shown that production structure of medical service industry in Korea is 'hardware-oriented' one; on the other hand, 'software-oriented' in Japan which means that, as intermediate inputs, outsourcing and informatization has been used than those of Korea. From the findings of the paper it could be emphasized that the medical organizations in Korea should put more efforts on shifting the current hardware-oriented production structure to strengthen core competence by enhancing productivity and by outsourcing to improve efficiency of production process. However, the medical organizations in Korea would not have enough incentives for high value-added production structure because they enjoy high operating surplus. Therefore, it would be necessary that government policy should be taken into account of these environments.