• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.45-76
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• 2016

This paper measures the extent to which South Korea participated in global value chains (GVCs) from 1995 through 2011 and scrutinizes the consequences of such participation on the Korean economy. To this end, the World Input Output Database is utilized to calculate GVC income, GVC employment, and value-added exports created by Korean and foreign industries. Our findings show that Korea radically internationalized its production activities during the sample period, widening the gap between gross exports and value-added exports. We also document that Korea's participation in GVCs has changed the value-added and employment structures in domestic industries in accordance with their comparative advantages while exacerbating the degree of wage inequality.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.107-125
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• 2019

This study analyzes the effects of FDI on the global value chain (GVC) using participation and export value added using panel data from 2005 to 2016 for 63 countries. This study used the GLS method. Results are as follows: First, foreign direct investment had a positive impact on the global value chain (GVC) participation and export value added of non-OECD economies. Furthermore, tariff rates were more sensitive to non-OECD countries than OECD countries. In addition, logistics infrastructure had a negative impact on global value chain (GVC) participation and export value added, while developed countries, such as OECD countries, with good infrastructure, had a positive impact on non-OECD countries. Finally, research and development costs have been shown to play a very important role in non-OECD countries. This study found that various service sectors, such as research and development (R & D) as well as the general manufacturing industry, are expanding beyond two countries to form global value chains (GVC) in which several countries are connected from production to consumption.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.45-63
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• 2021

This paper investigates the effects of China's participation in global value chains (GVC) on the productivities focusing on the manufacturing industries. In this study, several indicators of participation in global value chains were used. These include GVC participation, forward GVC participation, backward GVC participation and GVC position index. In particular, we used the data obtained from 18 manufacturing industries in China during 15 years from 2000 to 2014. The main results of the analysis are as follows. First, the higher the degree of total participation in GVC, the higher the productivity. This means that with the increase in exports and imports of intermediate goods, productivity has increased through technology spillover effects or competition effects, and so on. Second, the backward participation does not increase the productivities significantly while forward participation leads higher productivity. Third, the productivity improvement effects of GVC participation was larger in the high-tech industries than in the low-tech industries. These results show that GVC participation was helpful for the economic growth of China and the efforts for moving toward upstream production stage in GVC is necessary for the improvement of international competitiveness in Chinese manufacturing industry.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.233-254
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• 2022

Although there is growing literature evidence of linkages between global value chains (GVCs) and foreign direct investment (FDI), the results are mixed and ambiguous by geographic dimension, time period and sectoral scope. Moreover, bilateral approaches on these connections have been rarely analyzed. In this context, we investigate the effect of bilateral greenfield FDI and cross-border M&A on GVC linkages between host countries and source countries. We match three-year averages of bilateral FDI and UNCTAD-Eora GVC value-added data from 2005 to 2019 between 37 OECD sources and 176 host countries (37 OECD versus 139 non-OECD countries). In the structural gravity model, the empirical specification includes bilateral and country-period fixed effects and uses a Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimator. We find that greenfield and M&A FDI promote forward and backward GVC linkage for all sectors between OECD countries, whereas greenfield FDI promotes backward GVC linkage between OECD and non-OECD countries. In addition, the results indicate that the degree of influence of GVCs by FDI flows is greater for forward GVC than backward GVC among OECD countries.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.95-112
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• 2021

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) signed by the 15 Asian countries in 2020 forms the world's largest free trading bloc. Using data for the period 2001 - 2019, this study evaluates global value chains (GVCs) among the RCEP members, with a primary focus on GVC backward participation which involves imports intermediates embodied in exports. This study finds that the RCEP's intra-regional linkages, particularly with the ASEAN members, are significantly higher than its extra-regional linkages in trade and GVC backward participation. Among the individual RCEP member countries, Korea is found to have a particularly strong intra-regional linkages with the ASEAN members in both trade and GVC participation.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.75-94
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• 2021

Purpose - This article will take the Korean manufacturing industry as an example to estimate Korea's global value chain status from the perspective of overall and sub-industry, hoping to provide a theoretical reference for Korean manufacturing to climb the global value chain. Design/methodology - Based on the WIOD data. The data is calculated by using MATLAB (2014a) coding. The data for 6 sectors are classified according to the International Standard Industrial Classification revision 3 (ISIC Rev. 3), the WIOD data are used to calculate and compare the position, participation and dynamics of the Korea, China and USA' manufacturing industry in the 1995-2016. Findings - The empirical results supported conclusions of the theoretical model. In the Korean GVC of electrical and optical sector, while stronger forward linkages than backward linkages to GVC are advantageous for an average advanced country, the benefits of downstream tasks are pronounced for non-advanced countries. And proved the correlation for an index to capture a country's upstream position or downstream position, it makes sense to compare that Korea's exports of intermediates in the same sector that are used by China and USA. Originality/value - The first is to re-examine the characteristics of South Korea's participation in global value chains under a more systematic and accurate theoretical framework, which provides a new empirical reference for related research; the second is to content covers of the manufacturing 6 sectors, so as to more completely describe the characteristics of Korean manufacturing's participation in global value chains; The value of this paper is providing empirical evidence of the effect of Korea's the GVC of manufacturing sectors. In the GVC of 6 sectors, first three have a higher position in the value chain and are in the upper middle and upper reaches of the GVC. The latter two have a low GVC position index, which has become the main sector that pulls down the overall position of Korea's manufacturing industry.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.96-117
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• 2022

Purpose - Considering the recent instability of world economy and its heavy dependence on foreign, Korea must formulate breakthrough approaches to proactively cope with these adverse global developments. As such, this study aims to ascertain how participation in global value chains (GVCs) relates to corporate productivity and derive policy implications. Design/methodology - This study utilizes the microdata of Korean manufacturers to develop indicators of GVC participation at the enterprise level and analyzes the effects of GVC participation on the firm's total factor productivity by using fixed effect model. Findings - Enterprises with highest rates of export-side GVC participation see their productivity grow as their export-side GVC participation rates increase. In addition, when companies are classified by their export-side GVC participation rates, increasing export values improves all firm's productivity. In particular, those with low participation rates are analyzed to achieve higher productivity by increasing their imports, not only exports, which implies that companies with lower export-side GVC participation can boost productivity by reinforcing their export and import activities. Originality/value - This research paper distinguishes itself from others in that it makes a novel attempt to design the indicators of GVC participation at the enterprise level, not at the national or industry level. In addition, this study contributes to the existing literature by dividing companies into subgroups depending on their GVC participation rates for each of export and import and identifying variances in the effect of GVC participation on productivity growth among subgroups.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.123-157
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• 2016

As the WTO·DDA continues to stagnate, mega FTAs such as the TPP will likely play the leading role in rule-making of trade for some time to come, creating a 'spaghetti bowl' of trade rules. FTAs, notably high-standard and broad-based regional or mega-FTAs, are the appropriate means to achieve this objective, because they cover many of the policy measures that are needed for the development of global value chains(GVC). The highest quality FTAs are increasingly adding new features like regulatory harmonization that may also foster GVC growth in partner countries. Complementary relationships among markets along value chains, involving both goods and services, also complicate analysis. This is particularly relevant when thinking about policy, since the traditional tendency to think about policies and regulate markets in unconnected silos can lead to unintended and undesirable results. This paper examines the current states of FTAs to determine which are more likely to push this latest wave of globalization further and faster, and explores the plans that are most helpful for GVC growth.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.1-19
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• 2021

This paper examines the impact of sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS) and technical barriers to trade (TBT) on Korean exports, taking global value chains (GVC) participation into consideration. Using product-level import data from 2000 to 2014, we find heterogeneous effects of importers' SPS and TBT on Korean exports depending on the degree and position of GVC participation. According to the results, trade restrictive effects of SPS and TBT are smaller for industries that are more deeply involved in GVC. However, trade restrictive effects are greater for industries located at a relatively upstream production stage in GVC.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.209-228
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to analyze the changes in trade and industry of Korea and suggest implications from the perspective of global value chains following the spread of COVID-19. To this end, products for prevention of epidemics which is directly related to COVID-19 and IT industries with high GVC participation were analyzed. Due to the spread of COVID-19, the variation in import and export of products for prevention of epidemics was large. In the case of masks, import and export of final goods changed drastically, but the change in intermediate goods was not significant relatively. Korea's IT industry has been differentiated according to major trading partners amid overall changes in GVCs which is summarized as higher forward participation and lower backward participation. While no particular change resulted from COVID-19 has yet been made directly, the need for diversification strategies should be taken into account at a time when the production links with China and Vietnam are close and the dependence on trade with these countries is high. The COVID-19 is still in progress, requiring corporate strategies and policy efforts to respond to changes in GVCs in the post-COVID-19 era.