• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.94-110
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• 2008

This study examines the unemployment and labor market demand dynamics as well as their implication for social exclusion in the metropolitan areas of Korea since the financial crisis of 1997. The unemployment research containing significant implication for social exclusion is a key area to be explored with the research of skill and income polarization due to structural economic transformation. Skill polarization usually results in the job loss for some people, which most likely leads to the economic deprivation and social exclusion. The unemployment rate and its regional disparity began to fall since 2000, but the disparity reversed to increase after 2005. The labor market dynamics of the metropolitan areas are turned out to be related with the size of the city and the relative shares of both manufacturing and service sectors. In addition, the employment growth is turned out to be related with the changes of both output and productivity. It is also found that the unemployment is affected with the job change and the tertiarization of the economy. However, it is of more significance to recognize that the dynamics and patterns of the labor market in the metropolitan areas are quite spatially differentiated and the differentiation is likely determined by the factors such as industrial structure, employment dynamics and job demand changes.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.85-102
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• 1998

The Changing Characteristics of Office Location in Central Seoul In recent years, central Seoul has been experiencing a dynamic transformation. In the process of reorganization of urban industrial structure including tertiarization and quaternarization of the economic base of Seoul, business services are growing very rapidly and large scale urban renewal projects are agilely implemented. Downtown office activities become a nucleus for economic performance of Seoul and high-rise office buildings steer the landscape transformation of central Seoul. Even though there appear to exist some evidences that office districts have dispersed to several subcenters, major office activities are still concentrated in the central Seoul. This paper redefines office industry in a narrow meaning comprising only relevant economic sectors and office buildings as office activity-functioning units. It then explores the industrial networking and territorial specialization of office activities focusing on the dual process of concentration and dispersion in Seoul. The changing characteristics of the downtown linkages of office activities in this post-industrial era transforms the spatial economy of central Seoul into more flexible and volatile, while territorial concentration of power and control functions are fortified at the same time. Finally, the paper addresses the development of manufacturing-tertiary-quaternary industrial complex, which can be regarded as new industrial clusters, selling cultural economy of urban space and possessing placeness or images for clients and customers, in relation to urban competitiveness and territorial specialization of large metropolitan areas.

• Economic Analysis
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.61-96
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• 2021

This study is to structurally examine the regional income disparity in Korea. It measures the regional income inducement by household consumption expenditure per unit income, and the regional interdependency of income using 2005 and 2015 Regional Input-Output Tables of 16 provincial regions of Korea. The results are as follows. Firstly, the income inducement by consumption expenditure per unit income decreased overall, mainly due to the decrease in the income inducement of other regions than due to that of their region. Secondly, in many regions, the inter-relational income dependency per unit income decreased also, this too, mainly due to the decrease in the income transfer to other region. And, the income inducement effects of consumption expenditure per unit income of Seoul and Gyeonggi, which occupy a large portion of the Korean economy, were lower than that of other regions, but took the largest portion of income inducements generated by other regions as well as by themselves and absorbed the income transfers from other regions the most. The higher income inducement and income absorption in Seoul and Gyeonggi by consumption expenditure of other regions were mainly because of the high share in service of their consumption structure, the progress in tertiarization of their industrial structure, and the high wage portion. These results also mean that viewed from the regional interdependency of income, the income of Seoul and that of Gyeonggi are highly dependent on the income of other regions. Especially, Gyeonggi which leads the overseas exports of high-tech based manufactured products, has other external factors that contribute to their high income inducement, whereas, Seoul which shows high income absorption using its inter-relations with other domestic regions based on the services, has an income-generating structure that is sensitive to other regions' economic situation. Amid overall declines in regional income inducements and in income transfers, and continuing concentrations into Seoul and Gyeonggi regions, to alleviate the regional disparity, the regional industry policies should, rather than benchmarking the policies of the two concentrated regions, enhance their own inter-regional relationships by strengthening the comparative advantage of their regionally specialized industry.