• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.83-98
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• 2021

This study aims to examine the effects of international trade in intermediate input on the implications of international business cycle properties in Korea. To do this, I have extended standard one goods New Keynesian international business cycle model to incorporate the role of intermediate inputs. After constructing the DSGE model, I have analysed the impulse response function and varian decomposition results. The results show that the model could introduce a new channel, that is, "cost channel" like Eyquem and Kamber (2014). In other words, the model has changed the dynamics of aggregate inflation by the cost channel. When the trade in intermediate goods increase, which is measured by openness of foreign input, the volatility of output, consumption and inflation increase two or three times. However, the model itself fails to explain the full account of cycle behavior of historical data, but the results imply that the trade in intermediate input assumption can help to improve the forecasting ability of international business cycle models.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.25-44
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• 2021

Purpose - This research aims to provide empirical evidence that highlights the importance of imported intermediate goods in long-term economic growth. To this end, this paper develops an index that measures the productivity gains associated with a country's intermediate goods imports using highly disaggregated trade data. Design/methodology - The basic hypothesis is that countries sourcing higher-productivity (or higher-quality) inputs from developed economies derive a larger benefit from foreign R&D. To explore this hypothesis, standard cross-country growth regressions are performed using the highly disaggregated data from the United Nations (UN) Commodity Trade Statistics Database (COMTRADE). To address the endogeneity issue, I apply an instrumental variable (IV) approach. Findings - The results of this study demonstrate that the index predicts subsequent economic growth in middle- and low-income countries. This finding is consistent with previous studies that have argued that developing countries can achieve substantial productivity gains by importing intermediate inputs from developed countries. By contrast, there is no evidence of a significant association between the index and economic growth in high-income countries. Originality/value - This paper contributes to our understanding of the causal relationship between international trade and economic growth. From an economic policy perspective, the results suggest that developing countries with limited technology endowment can boost growth from input-tariff liberalization.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.147-175
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• 2006

One of the biggest problems of Korean economy is polarization of firms for export and domestic demand and that of conglomerates and SME's achievement. One of the culprits lies weakness of intermediate industry such as machine tool. Since intermediate industry is important path where export performance affects domestic demand and whose actor usually is SMEs with high spill over effect in labor market. Especially, intermediate industry Is vulnerable because of industrial policy biased In backward linkage effect. However if a country fails to develop intermediate industry above some critical point, that country would fall in low-tech equilibrium without growth. In case of benign circle where final goods industry growth leads growth of intermediate industry and again it leads that of final goods industry, it can reach high-tech equilibrium. By contrast, in opposite case where in industrialization latecomer fails to link industries likewise above some critical point that country would fall in low-tech equilibrium without growth. Moreover, for several reasons, machine tool firms of Korea have difficulty in catching up technology above critical point. Firstly. Conglomerate demander neglects their product. Secondly, even after success of development overcoming difficulties they fail to get market share for response of dumping of foreign competitors. And the last one is patent litigation of foreign competitors that incapacitate the technology development. For these, Korean machine tool firms fell in 'middle-income country trap' itself, since they stuck in some extent when they technologically catch up. Consequently, for latecomer country in machine tool industry to leapfrog meaningfully policy support is necessary, Weak intermediate industry does not Induce domestic firms and remained fragile. Therefore, localization, policy should reflect condition of technological catch up more than before, in order to be effective and fruitful. There should be turning point over relationship between conglomerates, major demander of machine tool and SME's, for only with active purchasing of conglomerate Korean machine industry can grow.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.173-187
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• 2022

Since the economic reform 1991, Indian has been implementing policies to promote trade and foreign direct investment (FDI). In particular, since the inauguration of the Modi government in 2014, India has created an economic environment in which more FDI can be launched and more jobs created in manufacturing sector. This study aims to analyze between FDI outflows and export from Korea to India. Using the quarter data from 2000 to 2021, this study examines panel regression. From the panel regression result, Korea's FDI outflows to India has a significantly positive impact on the Korea's export into India. Therefore, the relationship between FDI outflows and export from Korea to India is complementary. It is due that Korea's companies invest into India directly for the purpose of construction of production factors, and export capital goods and intermediate goods for producing in the factors. Therefore, for promoting FDI and export between Korea and India, Korean government should do continuous economic cooperation and discussion for the cooperation with Indian government.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.71-97
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• 2015

This study examines the effects of several factors indicating economic openness-imported intermediate goods, total imports, IFDI (inward foreign direct investment), and foreign ownership-on regular, irregular jobs and the ratio of irregular employment to regular employment. Findings revealed that imported intermediate inputs and IFDI affected neither regular nor irregular job figures. However, an increase in total imports led to a decrease in the number of irregular jobs without affecting regular full time jobs, leading to a decrease in the ratio of irregular jobs to regular jobs. On the other hand, changes in foreign ownership structure had a contrary effect, that is, a decrease in the number of regular jobs and an increase in irregular ones, and, thus, an increase in the ratio of irregular jobs to regular jobs. Overall results showed that a rise in imports results in depressed overall employment, irregular employment in particular, while more IFDI results in more irregular jobs replacing regular ones, effectively exacerbating job insecurity. The implication of this analysis is that greater economic openness may have a negative impact on the South Korean labor market overall.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.3-29
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• 2010

The purpose of this paper is to examine the transmission of domestic and foreign real and monetary disturbances into a small country with heavy imports of intermediate goods, and to analyze how the wage indexation in a small country affects the transmission of foreign disturbances into a small country. We consider the two countries, a small country and the rest of the world, two goods, and rational expectations world model under flexible exchange rate system with perfect capital mobility. We find out that foreign disturbances are transmitted into a small country through the price channel, the foreign output multiplier channel, and the nominal interest rate channel, and the foreign real balance channel. We have conducted an empirical investigation by using the Korean data for a small country and the U.S. data for a large country to see how real and monetary disturbances originating from the US affects the Korean economy with wage indexation.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.1-22
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• 2018

Utilizing OECD-WTO's Trade in Value Added (TiVA) data, this study investigates the effects of economic integration (EI) on TiVA Empirical results obtained from structural gravity specifications reveal that EI increases trade between member countries, irrespective the types of exports in final goods and intermediate goods as well as foreign value added in total exports and domestic value added in total exports. The empirical results also reveal that EI does not decrease the share of domestic value added in total exports.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.102-116
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• 2022

Purpose - This paper empirically investigates the relationship between firm productivity and importing intermediate inputs in the Korean manufacturing sector. Design/methodology - This paper tests the two related hypotheses on the relationship between importing and productivity for a sample of Korean manufacturing firms. We test the self-selection hypothesis by comparing pre-entry levels of productivity between importers and non-importers. We test the learning-by-importing hypothesis by employing propensity score matching with differencein-differences approach. Findings - Future importers are more productive than future non-importers years before they start to import, which supports the self-selection hypothesis. In contrast, there is no strong evidence for learning-by-importing. Originality/value - This paper is the first study to explore the relationship between importing and firm-level productivity for Korean firms. The results have an important implication on trade policies to lower or raise trade barriers in imported inputs.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.51-65
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• 2020

According to an analysis of 560 foreign-invested companies investing in South Korea's manufacturing industry, the following three facts were found. First, the proportion of sales by manufacturing foreign-invested companies is divided into 68.5 percent of domestic sales and 31.5 percent of exports. From 68.5 percent of domestic sales, sales to Korean companies are 60.5 percent, including 37.1 percent for large companies and 23.4 percent for small and medium-sized companies, while only 8.0 percent for domestic consumers. Second, the investment sectors of manufacturing foreign-invested enterprises are 'machine and equipment manufacturing', 'chemical and chemical-chemical material manufacturing-excluding pharmaceuticals', 'electronic components, computers, video, sound and communication equipment manufacturing' and 'vehicle and trailer manufacturing'. It overlaps with electric·electronics, petro-chemicals and automobiles, which are Korea's main industries and areas of Korean global companies. Third, 31.5 percent of the sales of foreign-invested companies in the manufacturing sector are exported. Foreign-invested companies export their products to use them for their parents or affiliates or to the third countries. The analysis shows that foreign-invested companies invested in Korea for B2B transactions with Korean companies. The implications are that Korea can attract foreign investments by utilizing Korean companies' demand for intermediate goods. Foreign-invested companies can invest in Korea in order to use Korea, which has signed free trade agreements with the US, the EU and ASEAN, as an export platform.

• Economic Analysis
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.72-113
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• 2020

This study investigates the relationship between mineral exports to China, North Korea's most important source of foreign currency acquisition, and its imports of various items from China from the first quarter of 1995 through to the third quarter of 2019. The results from a cointegration analysis suggest that there exists a long-run equilibrium relationship between mineral exports and imports of food, fuel, and some intermediate goods, such as industrial supplies, parts, and accessories. The results from a vector autoregression using first-differenced variables indicate that the short-run relationship between mineral exports and imports is different between the period before and after the third quarter of 2010. Prior to structural changes, i.e., before the third quarter of 2010, import shocks affected mineral exports. However, after the third quarter of 2010, an increase in mineral exports led to an increase in the import of vehicles, intermediate goods, and luxury goods. This paper shows both the possibilities and the limits that mineral exports can contribute to North Korea's economic growth. The results, which show that mineral exports have a long-run relationship with intermediate goods, such as industrial supplies, parts and accessories, imply that mineral exports to China could have a positive effect on the North Korean economy. However, the fact that mineral exports do not have any significant effect on the import of machinery and equipment, which helps the accumulation of capital formation, shows that mineral exports have a limited effect on inducing long-term growth in the North Korean economy.