• 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.2
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• pp.1-19
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• 2019

This paper investigates the effects of TPP on Korean domestic employment. Using data from 1995-2011 obtained from the world input-output database (WIOD) and firm-level data, this paper attempts to identify changes in global value chain (GVC) structures involving Korea and TPP member countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Three stage least squares estimation is employed, and empirical findings show that there exists a statistically positive and significant causal relationship between GVC and domestic manufacturing employment. The positive impacts of TPP on Korean domestic employment suggest that Korea actively encourage TPP negotiation. TPP will bring positive domestic employment effects and opportunities for structural transformation in the manufacturing and services industries in Korea.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.1217-1230
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• 2021

Using a multinomial logit model with the panel-data set of Vietnam manufacturing firms, this paper investigates the impacts of foreign direct investment (FDI) - small and medium enterprises (SMEs) linkages and other factors on SMEs' participation in the global value chain (GVC). We consider GVC firms are those engaging in any of the three modes including (i) using domestic inputs to export (D2E), (ii) using imported inputs to produce for the domestic market (I2P), (iii) using imported inputs to export (I2E). We discover that FDI-SME linkages statistically encourage Vietnamese SMEs to integrate into the GVC via I2P and I2E, while no statistical association between FDI-SME linkage and D2E participation is found. GVCs participation likelihood is also positively correlated with the introduction of new product introduction. The establishment of firms' production facilities in industrial zones and foreign ownership are both reported to be significantly decisive factors to SMEs' decisions on GVC participation. Besides, there is a strong association between firms' attributes, i.e. employment, capital intensity as well as financial access, and their participation in the GVC. Local governance quality (proxied by the Provincial Competitiveness Index) and the share of skilled labor at the province-level can facilitate firms' integration into GVCs, while greater market concentration may be a hurdle to such potential.