Journal of Technology Innovation (기술혁신연구)

Korea Society for Innovation Managemetn & Economics (기술경영경제학회)
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Aging and Research Performance of the Government-funded Research Institutes in the Field of Science and Technology

과학기술분야 정부출연연구기관의 평균연령 증가 추세가 연구성과에 미치는 영향

  • Received : 2014.04.04
  • Accepted : 2017.06.25
  • Published : 2017.08.31
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Abstract

Declining research competitiveness and inefficiency are constantly being raised in the National Assembly and the media for the Government-funded Research Institutes(GFRIs), which are highly dependent on government funding. These external stakeholders point to the workforce aging of the GFRIs as one of the main causes of inefficiency. They insist that the aging leads to an increase in labor costs, a discontinuity in research, a decrease in employment of new researchers, and a decrease in research competitiveness. However, the GFRIs argue that the aging is a natural phenomenon due to an increase in the age of recruitment, and even if there is an side effect, it is extremely small or even vice versa. It is interesting that there is no empirical study identifying the correlation between the workforce aging and the research performance of the GFRIs, despite the discussion. This study tracked and analyzed the changes of the research performance and the workforce for the five years from 2011 to 2015, and tried to demonstrate the correlation between the workforce aging and the research performance. As a result, we confirmed that there is an inverted U-type correlation between the aging and the papers, one of the research performance, and that the optimal age is 44.96 years. Also, we could not find any correlation between the aging and the patents.

정부재정에 대한 의존도가 높은 과학기술분야 정부출연연구기관[이하 '출연(연)]에 대해 국회와 언론을 중심으로 연구경쟁력과 비효율성 문제가 지속적으로 제기되고 있다. 이들 외부 관계자는 출연(연) 평균연령의 증가를 비효율의 주된 원인 중 하나로 꼽는다. 평균연령 증가가 인건비 상승, 연구명맥 단절, 신진 연구자 유입 저하 및 연구경쟁력 약화 등을 야기한다는 것이다. 하지만, 출연(연) 내부에서는 평균연령 점증은 입직(入職) 연령증가 등에 따른 자연스러운 현상이며, 연구성과에 미치는 부작용은 낮거나 오히려 그 반대라고 주장한다. 이처럼 논쟁이 극화되고 있음에도 불구하고 평균연령과 연구성과 간의 상관관계를 실증한 기존 연구가 없다는 점은 흥미로운 사실이다. 본 연구는 이와 같은 인식하에 2011년도부터 2015년도까지의 5개년도 출연(연) 연구성과 및 인력구조를 추적 조사 및 분석하고, 평균연령과 연구성과 간의 상관관계의 실증을 시도했다. 그 결과 논문성과와 평균연령은 역U형 상관관계가 존재하고, 최적 평균연령은 44.96세라는 점을 확인하였다. 특허성과에 있어서는 평균연령과의 상관관계를 확인할 수 없었다.

Keywords

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