• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.133-186
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• 2012

This paper analyzes the effectiveness of social networks in finding jobs and estimates the value of job search network using the Korean Laber and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) dataset and utilizing the Difference-in-Difference Propensity Score Matching (PSM) methodology (Heckman et al., 1997). While the wide use of social networks in the Korean labor market is often perceived as 'nepotism,' this study confirms that social networks, by serving as an effective information transmitter between job search and recruitment, make a significant contribution to improving the adequacy of job matching in the domestic labor market. In order to verify the effectiveness of using social networks for getting jobs, this study looks into the cases of labor turnover using social networks and also not using it. In the aspect of individual satisfaction improvement relating to workplace and job duties, both cases of turnover turn out to experience an increased satisfaction by 2~3 points (on a 100-score scale). Meanwhile, as for the educational and technical adequacy improvement, no positive effects are found in the case of turnover without social networks, whereas the educational and technical adequacy improvement turns out to increase by 2.13 and 2.52 points, respectively, in the case of turnover using social networks. The effect of income increase through turnover using social networks registered 40,074 Korean won per month (as of 2010), which can be considered as the result from the improved educational and technical adequacy. Of all things being considered, the value of job search network per wage worker in the Korean society is estimated to be 18.72 million won in terms of life-cycle wage improvement, and 758.2 scores in terms of the improvement of working life satisfaction. Provided that the cash value of satisfaction score 1 is equivalent to 'n' times 10,000 won, the aggregate value of job search network is estimated to be 18.72+7.582n million won, which means the total amount of costs that a wage worker in the Korean society willingly pays to maintain and manage job networks for lifetime.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.31-46
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to explore the ways of improving Korean apparel firms' competitiveness by examining the Korea's number one trading partner U.S. apparel industry. Especially, the Los Angeles area apparel industry which is the second largest and the primary market center on the west coast was analysed. The following strategies are suggested to Korean apparel firms to function more effectively in incleasingly competitive U.S. markets: l)Basics can be produced in lower wage countries meanwhile quick turnaround and high quality works can be produced either in Korea or U.S. 2)Manufacturers might try to have direct relationship with powerful retailers who have their own private labels of store-brand lines. 3)Apparel companies can open market showrooms in the California Market Center. For small firms they can contact with independent representatives who receive commissions for showing lines for manufacturers or rent space for showing the lines during market weeks. 4)Apparel firms can contact buying offices to introduce their products to retail buyers. 5)Korean firms can contact Korean-American apparel firms to gain easy access to U.S.Market.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.917-929
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• 2017

Korean income data obtained from Korea Labor Panel Survey shows excessive zeros, which may not be properly explained by the Tobit model. In this paper, we analyze the data using a zero-inflated Tobit model to incorporate excessive zeros. A zero-inflated Tobit model consists of two stages. In the first stage, individuals with 0 income are divided into two groups: genuine zero group and random zero group. Individuals in the genuine zero group did not participate labor market since they have no intention to do so. Individuals in the random zero group participated labor market but their incomes are very low and truncated at 0. In the second stage, the Tobit model is assumed to a subset of data combining random zeros and positive observations. Regression models are employed in both stages to obtain the effect of explanatory variables on the participation of labor market and the income amount. Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are applied for the Bayesian analysis of the data. The proposed zero-inflated Tobit model outperforms the Tobit model in model fit and prediction of zero frequency. The analysis results show strong evidence that the probability of participating in the labor market increases with age, decreases with education, and women tend to have stronger intentions on participating in the labor market than men. There also exists moderate evidence that the probability of participating in the labor market decreases with socio-economic status and reserved wage. However, the amount of monthly wage increases with age and education, and it is larger for married than unmarried and for men than women.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.109-126
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• 1998

We analysed the determinants of part-timer labor demand and supply in Kwangju. The findings of the paper are as follows; First, firms employ part-timer workers in the unskilled or skilled jobs not demanding much training cost. There are two reasons for firms to employ part-time workers: labor cost cut and flexible employment adjustment. Estimated wage differential is 40% not including fringe benefits differential. Second, we find lots of married women to want part-time jobs. The more probably married women choose part-time work, the younger and the less educated they are, and the less kids and the less other income they have.

• Economic Analysis
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-33
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• 2020

Recent discussions about a minimum wage increase (MWI) and its influence on the economy have mainly focused on the quantitative aspects, such as labor costs and employment. However, concerning the qualitative aspects, an MWI could have positive effects by enhancing firm productivity and crowding out marginal firms from the market. These positive effects of an MWI can offset, to some extent, its potential negative effects - increasing labor costs and decreasing employment, among others. In this regard we empirically examine the impact of an MWI on firm productivity (total factor productivity). Using firm level panel data from the manufacturing industry in Korea, we calculate the influence rates of a minimum wage by sector and by firm size (number of workers), and analyze its effects on firm productivity. In particular, the production functions of the firms are estimated by taking into account endogeneity among the input factors, in order to resolve the drawbacks of existing studies - underestimating the capital factor coefficient and overestimating the labor factor coefficient. This study finds that the influences of an MWI on wages, employment, and productivity are substantially different across sectors and firm sizes. While an MWI has shown to have positive influences on productivity growth in the manufacturing industry as a whole, each sector demonstrates a different direction of effect, and the degree of productivity change also varies by sector. The impacts of an MWI on firm productivity are generally estimated to be more negative for smaller firms, but in some sectors the effects are found to be positive. In addition, the wage increases resulting from an MWI seem to cause a productivity enhancement across all sectors in the manufacturing industry. The policy implications of this study are as follows. Considering the empirical findings that an MWI causes an increase in productivity in many sectors of the manufacturing industry, it would be desirable to take into consideration not only the negative side effects but also the positive effects of an MWI when designing any future minimum wage policy. Moreover, in spite of there being a uniform minimum wage, this study finds that the diverse influence rates of a minimum wage across firms have different impacts on wages, employment, and productivity across sectors or firm size. This finding could be conducive to discussions about differentiation among minimum wage schemes by sector or firm size.

• Journal of Labour Economics
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.167-190
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• 2000

The Korean labor market is changing very fast after the economic crisis. In the middle of 2000, the unemployment rate has decreased to the less than 4% and wage income has recovered to its pre-crisis level. However, the number of employed and the labor market participation rate has not yet recovered, and income inequality is widening. In this situation, there is some concern about the potential for the histeresis phenomenon, which occurred in Europe after 1970, and means that a high unemployment rate could continued regardless of price levels. Therefore, focus should be placed on the labor market policy for the 21 st century reducing structural unemployment through creation of jobs in order to solve problems of unemployment and income distribution simultaneously.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.241-251
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• 2022

As a 4th industrial revolution technology, robots are changing the form of labor market and trade in Korea. In the future, changes in the international trade order are expected to move in the direction of shortening global supply chains and restricting trade between countries. Accordingly, reshoring of relocating overseas production facilities to Korea or near-shoring of relocating overseas production facilities to neighboring allies may expand. In this context, this study analyzed the impact of robot introduction on the domestic labor market and trade based on firm-level data. As a result of analysis based on the 'business activity data' accumulated from 2017 to 2019, the introduction of robot technology was analyzed to expand low-wage, low-skilled employment. Analysis on trade shows that the introduction of robots decreases exports and increases imports. In order to expand exports through the technology of the 4th industrial revolution, employment expansion and robot introduction should occur at the same time, rather than replacing the labor force with robots. In addition, it is thought that reshoring's goal of risk management can be achieved when a stable supply chain for imports of raw materials or essential goods, which are difficult to transfer to Korea, is established together.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.168-189
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• 2015

The job creation has been the most pressing issue after financial crisis in many countries around the world. Various policies for creating jobs have been implemented in order to revitalize regional economy in Korea. It has been known that the jobs have been created more in low-wage and part-time work than high-wage and full-time work. The purpose of this study is to analyze the differentiation of startups job in local labor market areas(LLMAs) in terms of job quantity as well as job quality. As the spatial unit, 121 local labor market areas which were delineated based on self-containment rate(demand and supply side of labor market) and numbers of resident workers are used. Also due to difference of the size of employment, LLMAs are classified into 3 groups: large, Medium, small LLMAs. The major results are as follows: First, the characteristics of the job creation are varied among 3 groups in terms of the quantitative and qualitative aspects. Highly waged and highly value-added jobs have been created more in large LLMAs, but full-time jobs created more in small LLMAs. Secondly, the job creation of LLMAs is somewhat weakly correlated to regional economic performance. While the quality of jobs is correlated to regional economic performance in Medium LLMAs, the quantity of jobs is significantly correlated to regional economic performance in small LLMAs. The results of this research give some implications for implementing the effective policy to create jobs related to regional economy, indicating that differentiated strategies for 3 groups of LLMAs is critically important.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.75-97
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• 2008

Recently Korea is expected with the decrease of population in working ages and also population structure, especially age structure, has changed as aging goes faster. This study focuses on the relationship between age structure and wage structure to analyzes the cohort size effect on the change of age-earnings profile. Our empirical analysis based on Wright(1991)'s model takes weighted OLS regression using the male worker's data of Ministry of Labor 'Wage Structure Survey'($1990{\sim}2006$). In pooled data, we take the conclusion that the cohort size effect was found in high school and college graduate workers, but the effect is different between them. The labor market entry effect of high school graduate workers is negative(-) and his persistent effect is positive(+). On the other hand, the cohort size effect of college graduate workers have appeared the opposite directions in contrary with the existing results of Welch(1979) and Wright(1991). This results are seen as the possibility that college graduate worker has the benefit of wage level by his relative cohort size in spite of high unemployment of young graduate. It will be the sign of need that we should interest in the change of age structure with balancing the labor supply side approach and the demand side study which the previous studies was mainly tended to focus on.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.17
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• pp.215-242
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• 2005

Although shoes industry in Korea is superior in global competition in terms of material, parts, and developmental ability, it has declined due to the lack of design in consideration of OEM production and marketing ability. Shoes industry in Korea has aimed at making inroad to North American market centered with the United States, but it has not focused on Europe market that much. However, as Europe transformed into EU, which is a large economic community, European market is being considered as a great potential for Korean shoes industry, which we can never neglect of. So far, there have been researches of marketing strategic methods to make inroad to the United States and South-East Asian markets, but there has been almost no marketing approach to European shoes market. Therefore, in this study I prepare strategic marketing plans for Korean shoes enterprises to make inroads to European markets, so that they can enter the market successfully, and this is the purpose of this study. In case that Korean shoes industry makes inroads to European market, there are important terms to examine. The strategic terms for consideration to examine are as follows. First, shoes companies such as Nike and Adidas are aware of India. Turkey, and Rumania as new footholds for production, as they have accounted continuous wage claim and labor dispute. Especially Turkey and Rumania are expected to have much competitive strength in price, as they are expected countries for joining EU. Second, we need to shift our understanding of the importance of design for European shoes market. We should pay close attention to the fact that the role of leading companies is to design. Third, Germany, England, and Italy have global-level of specialize institutions and organizations for shoes education and have been succeeded in knowledge industrialization. Fourth, we should consider that the concepts for shoes are changing from innovation in production to in products. Fifth, we should develop specialized concept centered in individualized categories. Sixth, we should open up new markets actively by connecting large shopping centers and multi-shops. Seventh, we should look for the opportunities to expand market through the utilization of BIFOS. Lastly, we should expand our support for opening up markets and participating fairs in foreign countries.