Policy Study on Korean Retail Micro Business

국제 비교를 통한 소매업 소상공인 현황과 정책적 시사점

The unabated influx of micro businesses has turned the Korean retailing market to a rat race, which causes severe financial distress for micro business owners due to heavy competition. The woes of these micro business owner's are exacerbated by the presence of large scale distributors such as Super Supermarket(SSM) and large discount stores. In summary, the Korean retail market is overburdened an uneconomically viable. Retailing has low barriers to entry which attracts unskilled labor or those with little capital. These start-ups have low opportunity costs since they would make low wages elsewhere in the economy. Thus, these owners are content with relatively low returns on their investment. These 'subsistence ventures' are maintained for economical viability rather than economic growth. These 'subsistence ventures' intensifies competition among small-scale businesses. The presence of large retail corporations also aggravates the situation. The recent stagnation of the economy has worsened the retail market in Korea. The overwhelming competition solidifies the coarse structural system and the prolonged economic sluggishness has increased the risk of insolvency for micro business owners. As the economy continues to stagnate, the imminent risk in retailing market will rise up to surface threatening economic stability. More systematic inflows and outflows of retailers are required in order to redress this structural problem. It has been empirically shown that the self-employment rate is high in Korea compared to other OECD countries. To draw the comparison of self-employment rate by industry, Korea shows high rates among transportation, whole sale, retail, education, lodging, and restaurants. In the case of the transportation and education service sectors, this high rate can be explained by the idiosyncratic nature of Korean culture. In the transportation sector, political policies favor private cap service and private freight carriers. In the education service sector, Koreans put particular emphasis on education that leads to many private institutions that outnumber other OECD countries. For these singular reasons, Korea maintains high micro business, self-employed rates particularly in retailing. A comparable nation is Japan, with its similar social, economic, cultural environment among OECD countries. Unlike Korea, Japan has much lower rates of micro business which continues to decrease. Also Korean retailers are much more destitute than Japanese. The fundamental problem of Korean retailing is the involuntary exit of these 'subsistence ventures,' micro businesses with low margins, in which a small drop in demand can lead to financial difficulties for the owner. This problem will be exacerbated when Korean babyboomers retire and join the micro business ventures. The first priority in order to cope with the severity of oversupply in retailing is to provide better opportunities for the potential self-employers. There should be viable alternatives to subsistent ventures. Strengthening the retirement program, scrutiny of exit process, reconfiguration of policy funds are the recommendations.

한국에서 소매업은 소상공인 및 자영업 비중이 매우 높아 공급과잉 및 과당경쟁으로 인한 경영 악화 문제가 첨예하게 발생하고 있을 뿐만 아니라 대형마트 및 기업형 슈퍼마켓(Super Supermarket; SSM), 편의점 등 기업형 유통의 확대 등으로 위기가 심화되고 있다. 이에 더하여 최근에는 상당기간 지속되고 있는 경기침체로 인해 부실 위험성이 더욱 커지는 문제까지 직면하고 있다. 소상공인 및 자영업의 경영악화 및 그로 인한 상당한 규모의 비자발적 퇴출은 막대한 사회적 비용을 초래할 수 있다. 한국의 소매업 자영업 비중은 국제 비교를 통해 보더라도 매우 높은 수준이다. 이는 OECD 평균과 비교해보거나, 개별 국가 중에서는 유럽 및 미국 등 서방국가에 비해 경제발전 과정 및 문화와 환경 측면에서 우리나라와 유사한 측면이 많은 일본과 비교해 보더라도 상당히 높은 수준이며, 또한 산업구조도 매우 영세한 편이다. 우리나라 소매업에서 생계형 자영업의 공급과잉으로 인한 경영 악화 문제는 향후 베이비붐 세대의 은퇴로 인해 더욱 심화될 것으로 전망된다. 이에 본 연구에서는 국내 소매업 소상공인 현황 분석 및 국제 비교 분석을 수행하고, 이에 기초하여 자영업의 유입 및 퇴출 관리 방안을 제안한다. 구체적으로 베이비붐 세대에 대한 퇴직지원 프로그램 강화, 퇴출의 용이성 제고, 정책자금 흐름의 재구성 등 세 가지 정책 방안을 제안한다.