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Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries / Department: Economics.

The thesis presents a useful and effective blend of insights about macroeconomic business fluctuations and the effects of government expenditure in economic growth in Korea. In Chapter I, I show that the joint behavior of key Korean macroeconomic variables is consistent with traditional Keynesian interpretation of macroeconomic business fluctuations by using standard VAR analysis and structural VAR analysis. Both analyses consistently confirmed that aggregate demand shocks move output and prices in the same direction, whereas aggregate supply shocks move output and prices in the opposite direction in the short run, and that aggregate demand shocks are reflected mostly in prices in the long run, while aggregate supply shocks are likely to have long run effects on output. In Chapter II, I analyze the long run effects of different types of government spending on economic growth in Korean economy by using Transfer Function Analysis and Impulse Response Analysis. Both analyses indicated that the most efficient way to enhance the economic growth in Korea is by increasing expenditure on health, education, electricity, gas and water without ignoring expenditures on roads, social security and welfare, transportation and communication. / Graduation date: 1997

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This study has sought to probe the origin of Korean chaebols by employing theories that have been developed to account for the rise of American business organizations. By examining the top four chaebols qualitatively through detailed case analyses and 143 business groups quantitatively through statistical analyses, this study tests hypotheses raised by the three theoretical perspectives. The major findings of this study indicate that the political economy has been the dominant factor that contributed to transforming mediocre business groups into large chaebol groups. In particular, an organization's relationship with the state was of utmost significance. This study also indicates that the institutional isomorphism approach can complement politically motivated or efficiency-oriented theories. One of the major findings of this study is that Chandler's theory accounting for the rise of Korean chaebols is weak. However, its weakness does not stem from its main proposition that strategy calls for structural reform, but from its premise that growth strategy and structure presuppose economic and technological development. Williamson's transaction cost economics has a limited capability to account for the rise of the Korean chaebol. It is argued that the relative weakness of this theory may be inherent in its "universal" nature, which makes little provision for societal and cultural differences between the United States and Korea.

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The relationships between technological change and economic growth, and research and development and economic growth in the manufacturing sector of Korea were investigated. This study was based on an analysis of capital and labor input, research and development (R&D) stock, productivity, and output data for the period of 1971-1989. The effects of technological change and other factor inputs on economic growth were examined using ordinary least squares regression and generalized least squares in the Cobb-Douglas production function. As expected, the results indicated that there is a significant relationship between technological change and output growth. A strong relationship was also found between Research and Development (R&D) and output growth. And the results indicate that R&D stock accumulated domestically has a positive correlation with the stock of imported technology. The rate of return to R&D investment was estimated at 64 percent and was reduced to 20 percent with consideration of the time lag between R&D investment and the application and commercialization of the R&D innovation. The rate of return to imported technology stock was found larger than that of R&D stock accumulated domestically. A description of the theoretical framework, the methodology applied, and the detailed results are included. / Master of Arts

[Truncated abstract] The Asian Financial Crisis was a wake-up call to the South Korean economy that a change to its economic structure was needed. Prior to the Crisis, South Korea enjoyed healthy economic growth and low unemployment. With the onset of the Crisis, Korea experienced severe recession. Unemployment levels soared and turnover in the labour market became commonplace. The Korean government enacted a series of policies and succeeded in combating unemployment in the short-term. To the present time, unemployment levels have been lowered, albeit with job instability and insecurity. A more effective longer-term solution is needed to increase the resilience of this NIE. The role of inter-sector labour mobility as a policy tool to combat unemployment using the relevant determinants of mobility has not been explored in Korea (Asia), although it has been debated at length in the West since the 1980s. Part of the reason for this lies in the lack of longitudinal data to facilitate appropriate research. Recently, such data have been made available by the Korean Labour Institute (KLI). This thesis extends research into the labour mobility-unemployment relationship to South Korea. The priority is to establish whether a mobility-unemployment relationship exists in Korea, and to obtain a thorough understanding of the factors affecting sectoral mobility in this country in order to facilitate the crafting of potential tools for addressing the unemployment problem. The thesis is organised into two parts. ... The main finding is that whilst the monetary variables and worker/industry characteristics impact male and female mobility differently, sectoral unemployment and sectoral shock affect male and female mobility similarly. The thesis is summarised and some policy measures provided in the sypnosis. It is argued that the 'new' mobility-unemployment phenomenon appears to have emerged in Korea after the Crisis, whereas it had been a feature of Western economies in much earlier time periods. Traditional monetary and fiscal policies are inadequate when it comes to combating unemployment in the presence of this mobility-unemployment phenomenon. A combination of macro-policies, given the relevance of the ADH, and micro-policies, given the validity of the SSH, is required. The multi-dimensional nature of mobility implies that the micro policies to control or reduce mobility rates using the relevant variables (to alleviate unemployment) should cover measures related to monetary wages, labour market groups and sector performance. The sypnosis notes a dearth of Asian studies on sectoral mobility, possibly due to the lack of longitudinal data. The collection of quality longitudinal data for other Asian countries, so that research along the lines conducted in the thesis could be undertaken for other NIEs, was seen as being of vital importance. With such data, the standard of research on Asian economies can be at par with that of the Western countries, and the apparently considerable potential benefits of microeconomic policies via sectoral mobility for Asia could be realised.