수출과 고용 및 기술숙련도 간의 관계: 한국의 제조업을 중심으로

Abstract

We examine the role of export in skill upgrading in Korean manufacturing sector during 1990s utilizing a unique panel data set with rich information on all individual plants employing five or more workers. Considering the vital role of export in economic development and industrial changes in Korea, we believe that Korean experiences may offer an excellent opportunity to investigate the impacts of export on labor market. Three interesting changes in Korean labor market for manufacturing sector were identified. First, a significant degree of skill upgrading seems to have occurred during 1990’s. Two indicators of skill composition, the ratio of non-production workers to total manufacturing employment and proportion of wage bill paid to non-production workers out of total wage bill, increased in a considerable degree both at industry and individual plant levels. Second, in an attempt to identify the possible sources of changes in skill composition we found that there had been considerable differences between exporters and non-exporters. While majority of between changes in employment and wages of skilled labor could be attributed to non-exporters, most of within changes were explained by adjustment of labor force by exporters. Third, regression analysis offers even stronger evidences to indicate that export stimulated skill upgrading process. Both within and between components of skill composition changes are shown to be positively correlated with exporting activities. We believe that these findings bear important implication on Korean labor market