SIM, Seung-Gyu
   Department   Aoyama Gakuin University  Department of International Economics, School of International Politics, Economics and Communication
   Position   Professor
Language English
Publication Date 2018/01
Type Academic Journal
Peer Review Peer reviewed
Title A Quantitative Study on Endogenous Formation of Comparative Advantage in South Korea
Contribution Type Collaboration
Journal International Review of Economics and Finance
Journal TypeAnother Country
Publisher Elsevier
Volume, Issue, Page 53,pp.71-87
Author and coauthor Seung-Gyu Sim and Dongwoo Yoo
Details This paper incorporates search friction and human capital accumulation into an international trade framework to analyze the endogenous formation of comparative advantage induced by long-term employment relationship. The calibrated model demonstrates that the long-term employment relationship, by facilitating both human and physical capital formation, has contributed to South Korea's rapid ‘export-oriented industrialization.’ The counterfactual experiment reports that aggregate output in 2013 would have been reduced by one quarter, if South Korea had stayed as an autarky economy. Further counterfactual experiments find that had a typical worker's job duration been about two years from 1960s to 2010s, output in 2013 would have been reduced by more than 42 percent. Also, South Korea might have exported primary products, not secondary products with even shorter job duration or less efficient learning-by-doing.