간호사 노동시장의 수요독점에 대한 연구 - 종합병원을 중심으로 -

Monopsony Power of General Hospitals in Nurse Labor Market

Nurses are medical personnel, who play a key role in supporting patient care, so it is important to supply them adequately in balance with ever increasing medical demand. But there appears severe shortage of nurses in some hospitals because of their uneven distribution, especially in small sized-hospitals and rural-hospitals. As nationwide distorted distribution of nurses in Korea is just like what monopsony model(a kind of market structure model) tells us, it is attempted to explain this situation of nurse labor market in Korea on the basis of monopsony model and presented in this paper. Specifically, determinants of nurse wage and the level of their relative employment were examined, and monopsony impact on their wage and the level of relative employment controlling those determinants were studied. Major results of this study arc as follows. The most important determinant of nurse wage level in this study was the wage level of a local community where each hospital located Hospital owner's characteristics an educational function of each hospital were also important factors. With these factor controlled, it was found that monopsony power of each hospital was negativel associated with nurse wage level as expected. 1% increase in monopsony power of hospital(measured by Herfindah-Hirschman Index) reduced nurse wage by $5,674{\sim}19,19$ won(in Korean currency). With regard to the level of relative employment, the most important determinant wa the capacity for supplying nurses of the local community. Again, hospital owner characteristics and educational function of each hospital were also important. With these factors controlled, it was found that monopsony power of each hospital was negative associated with the number of nurses per bed, as expected. 1% increase in monopsony power of each hospital(again measured by Herfindah-Hirschman Index) reduced the number of nurses per 100 bed as much as $0.46{\sim}0.67$. In conclusion. structural factors of nurse labor market influence the instability of nurse labor supply in Korea. Further consideration for these market structural characteristics needed for policy making related to nurse resource allocation.