• Korea Trade Review
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.47-67
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to determine factors of FDI inflows which positively influence economic development. While MNCs ultimately decide on which country to engage in FDI, it can be affected by the general investment environment of host countries. Thus, it may be closely linked to national macro socio-economic factors. In the fixed-effect panel regression analysis using 30 years of data of 13 developed countries and 15 developing countries, results indicate that labor redemption exerts the greatest influence on global FDI inflows; this implies that FDI decisions are based on locations featuring higher productivity by the reduction of labor costs. According to the level of economic development, the motive of FDI inflows differs. In developed countries, GDP, government expenditure and consumer expenditure exert the greatest influence on FDI inflows; which shows characteristics of market seeking and horizontal investment. However, in developing countries, labor redemption and human capital exert the greatest influence on FDI inflows; which shows characteristics of efficiency seeking and vertical investment.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.355-375
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• 2003

Since the mid 1980s, the emergence of the Newly Industrialized Countries has been the most remarkable mutation in the foreign direct investment. This emergence is creating the new international spacial flows constituted by the developed country, the newly industrialized country and the developing country. According to the active foreign direct investment of the Asia Newly Industrialized Countries (ANICs) into East Asia from the middle of the 1980s, the intra-East Asia direct investment flow has a observable structure hierarchic composed of Japan, ANICs, ASEAN and China. In the inflow of intra-East Asia direct investment, Japan and ANICs flows from the extra-developed country and Japan, AESAN from ANICs, Japan, and China from the ANICs. In the outflow, Japan flows relatively into the ANICs and ASEAN, ANICs into ASEAN and China, ASEAN and China into the ANICs. In conclusion, the emergence of ANICs and theirs role intermediate in the East Asian economy causes the intra-East Asia direct investment flows to make a hierarchical structure.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.256-273
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• 2023

This study analyzed the structural changes in the global foreign direct investment (FDI) network using stock data from the International Monetary Fund's Coordinated Direct Investment Survey (CDIS) for 2009~2021. The results showed that the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the FDI links between countries and the activities of reciprocal relationships. The United States, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom consistently play central roles in the global FDI network. The degree centrality of China has changed significantly over time in confronting the volatile situation of the world economy. Cross-tabulation analysis revealed a significant association between FDI clusters and geographic regions. Within each cluster, the linkage structure of FDI partners of closely connected individual countries has exhibited differential characteristics as the global economic environment changes.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.245-267
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate the current situation of foreign direct investment of Korea based on GVC (Global Value Chain) perspective and to presentthe policy direction. From GVC perspective which comprehensively describes the world's increasing FDI and imports/exports phenomenon since the 2000s, the level of internationalization of Korea is excessively concentrated in trade. Therefore, the expansion of foreign investment (OFDI, IFDI) is urgently needed. The results of regression analysis using data from 50 countries and the international comparison of major countries including Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, etc, showed that the level of foreign direct investment of Korea is 20 to 30 years behind compared to those major countries. Therefore, exploiting the benefits of trade and foreign direct investment at the same time is needed to increase the level of GDP per capita.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.105-114
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• 2013

Recently, foreign direct investment of Korea has increased significantly. Foreign direct investment is motivated by various reasons and renewable energy investments in foreign countries can be performed by many causes. Korean companies can enjoy the export of products, related EPC contracts, acquisition of the knowledge of the project management technique, pre-occupying effect of the market and profit itself. Wind power projects have biggest share in the investment amounts among the renewable energy business. So, in this study, one wind farm project was selected and supposed to be invested in China, USA, Germany and UK at the same time and the effect of electricity price, corporate income tax, inflation rate and interest rate of debt were analyzed. The result showed that investing in Germany is most profitable because of the highest electricity price and electricity price and debt interest rate are the most sensitive factors for IRR. This approach would be helpful to make decisions in investing foreign wind power projects.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.1-23
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• 2006

This study investigates the effects of inward foreign direct investment on local workers' wages by focusing on U.S. manufacturing industries for the period from 1987 to 1992. Contrary to public perception that foreign ownership is positively associated with higher wages, previous studies show mixed results. Since most of the previous studies used industry or firm level average wages, they can not control for the impact of individual characteristics on wages. I use two different approaches to control individual characteristics and to implement estimation in this study: (1) One-step estimation with industry-state level of inward foreign direct investments by using individual level data, and (2) Two-step industry characteristic regression approach. The higher presence of foreign firms is associated with higher local wages after workers' observable characteristics are controlled for in the first approach. This effect, however, disappears once workers' industry affiliations and regions are controlled for in cross-section analysis. In a panel data analysis, I did not find any statistically significant positive association between inward FDI activities and industry wage premiums within industry. Further, inward FDI activities appeared to be negatively associated with worker's industry wage premium for workers with more than high school education.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.241-255
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• 2004

The main aim of this article is to identify the fundamental reason for changes in the geography of Korean foreign direct investment (FDI) in China. More specifically, the article argues that changes in the industrial sectors and the location of FDI resulted from the transition of strategies for Korean FDI in China since the late 1990s is not based on ownership specific advantages, internalization advantages and locational advantages (OIL), but on changes in site where both the needs of Korea and China are articulated, i.e. the strategy for business integration, centering on market, institution and technology. In other words, changes in the location of Korean FDI in China have been the result of changes in the Chinese market structure, institutional changes in Chinese inward FDI incentives and regulations and the accumulation of Korean technology capability since 2000. In addition, by investigating production networks in China, this article attempts to identify the relationships between changes in Korean FDI location and changes in market, institution and technology. Therefore, the empirical evidence provided by the case study of CDMA (code division multiple access) mobile communications FDI since 2000 in China is used to identify the impact of market, institution and technology on the location of Korean FDI in China.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.35-51
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• 2000

International trade flows have been determined by social, cultural and political environment around the world as well as economic elements. The environment of international trade has changed rapidly as the world has globalized. Significant changes have been generated in the international trade flows. This study investigates the influences of economic globalization on the international trade flows. The changes in international trade flows examined comprehensively by integrating trade with industrial locations, investment, and the various trade related environments. The focus laid on the integration of world economies, such as widening and intensifying international linkages in economic, political and social relation. Special concerns are laid on the impacts of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) by Trans National Corporations (TNCs), which affect the supply-demand distributions of commodities by industrial relocations, and the expansion of intra-firm trade flows on the international trade flow patterns. The geographical characteristics of tile origins and destinations of FDI flows analyzed, since the spatial patterns of the intra-firm trade flows are determined by them. The FDI and intra-firm trade flow patterns have changed significantly over time.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.65-81
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• 2004

Foreign direct investment (FDI) by firms has various motives in terms of the strategy for firms' long-term growth. This research uses the case study of Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama to analyze the motives of the Korean auto industry's FDI in the U.S. and the locational factors that determined the selection of the site. This paper starts from the question of why Hyundai made the decision to invest in the U.S., which is not favorable in terms of production cost, especially considering that its exports to the U.S. have been on the increase. The results indicate that the strongest motive for the decision to invest in the U.S. was to ameliorate the trade friction between Korea and the U.S. Given that Hyundai depends on the U.S. market to a large extent for its exports, the foremost motive was to use local production in order to reduce the serious trade imbalance in the automobile sector between Korea and the U.S. in order that trade friction with the U.S. may be avoided and causes for trade disputes may be reduced. Other motives such as improving the access to local consumers were of secondary importance. After the selection of the country in which to invest, however, various factors were considered in the decision regarding the location of the plant, and incentives by local governments ultimately played a key role in this decision. The results imply that the Korean manufacturing industry's investment in the U.S. cannot be explained by traditional FDI theories and instead was greatly driven by a strategic defensive motive. In addition, the results confirm that the design of an appropriate incentive structure by host governments is important for attracting FDI.

• Proceedings of the Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.15-32
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• 2002