The Journal of the Korea Contents Association (한국콘텐츠학회논문지)

The Korea Contents Association (한국콘텐츠학회)
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The Relationship Between English Language Proficiency and the National Economic Performance: Focusing on non-English-Speaking OECD Countries

영어능력과 국가 경제성장과의 관계: OECD 비영어권 국가들을 중심으로

  • Received : 2010.05.25
  • Accepted : 2010.06.09
  • Published : 2011.01.28
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Abstract

This study aims at investigating how English proficiency affects economic development of a country by analyzing the relationships among English proficiency, economic activities (amount of trade, R&D investment, etc), and the rate of economic growth, focusing on twenty-one non-English-speaking OECD countries. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and Seemingly Unrelated Regression Estimation (SURE) were used for the data analysis in the study. The findings reveals that there existed little statistical significance to support the fact that English proficiency was directly related to the economic development in a positive way in many countries except Mexico, the Czech Republic, Finland, and Poland. However, English proficiency indirectly influenced the economic development in the way of increasing the amount of trade. These results can lead to the conclusion that English proficiency is not a sufficient element but a necessary one. Furthermore, it is expected that English proficiency can positively affect the economic development when it plays a part as sufficient complementary goods which make up for physical capital, technology accumulation, political stability, and worthy government.

본 연구는 비영어권 OECD 21개 국가들을 대상으로 영어능력과 경제활동(국가별 무역량, R&D투자 등), 그리고 경제 성장률과의 관계 분석을 통하여 영어능력이 국가의 경제성장에 미치는 영향을 실증적으로 규명하고자 하였다. 단순회귀분석(OLS)과 표면상무관회귀분석(Seemingly Unrelated Regression Estimation: SURE)의 기법을 사용하여 추정한 결과 체코, 핀란드, 그리고 폴란드를 제외한 여타 국가들에서는 영어능력이 직접적으로 경제성장에 정(+)의 효과를 미친다는 통계학적 유의성이 발견되지 않았다. 그러나 영어 능력은 무역량 증진의 기여를 통하여 간접적으로 경제성장에 영향을 끼치는 것으로 나타났다. 따라서 영어 능력은 경제성장에 있어서 하나의 필요조건이지 충분조건은 아닌 것으로 결론 지울 수 있다. 더불어 영어 능력은 최소한의 물적 자본과, 기술축적, 정치적 안정, 그리고 훌륭한 통치를 보완하는 충분한 보완재 역할을 담당한다면 경제성장에 긍정적인 영향을 끼칠 것이 예상된다.

Keywords

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