Hyuk-Hwang Kim

International Investment Location Decisions: The Case of Korean firms into China

Recent literature maintains there are at least two explanations for the motivations of FDI, one involving trade barriers (horizontal-FDI) and the other factor proportions hypothesis (vertical-FDI). The first view is that multinationals act in order to overcome trade barrier, and the second view is that multinationals arise to take advantage of international factor price differences. The purpose of this paper is to study the motivations of Korean foreign direct investment in China. Using the panel data on Korean FDI in China for the years 1988~2002, we examined the geographic determinants of direct investment in China from Korean firms. In doing so, we investigated, on the one hand, to what extent multinational activity is consistent with the factor proportions theory, i.e., to what extent multinational activity is related to cheap factor supplies. On the other hand, we study the market access motivation for multinational activity. Our econometric results suggest that factor proportions hypothesis is indeed the dominant influence on investor calculations for the early period of Korean FDI in China. Since end of 1990s, however, market-seeking FDI pattern is more common than FDI motivated by factor price differentials. We also find that the hypothesis that good-quality infrastructure is conducive to attracting FDI is not supported for Korean firms. Evidence supports the claim that regions with high degree of reform, which implement preferential treatments to foreign investors, still have advantage over other regions in attracting FDI. In sum, the findings in this paper indicate that Korean FDI for the early period of KorRecent literature maintains there are at least two explanations for the motivations of FDI, one involving trade barriers (horizontal-FDI) and the other factor proportions hypothesis (vertical-FDI). The first view is that multinationals act in order to overcome trade barrier, and the second view is that multinationals arise to take advantage of international factor price differences. The purpose of this paper is to study the motivations of Korean foreign direct investment in China. Using the panel data on Korean FDI in China for the years 1988~2002, we examined the geographic determinants of direct investment in China from Korean firms. In doing so, we investigated, on the one hand, to what extent multinational activity is consistent with the factor proportions theory, i.e., to what extent multinational activity is related to cheap factor supplies. On the other hand, we study the market access motivation for multinational activity. Our econometric results suggest that factor proportions hypothesis is indeed the dominant influence on investor calculations for the early period of Korean FDI in China. Since end of 1990s, however, market-seeking FDI pattern is more common than FDI motivated by factor price differentials. We also find that the hypothesis that good-quality infrastructure is conducive to attracting FDI is not supported for Korean firms. Evidence supports the claim that regions with high degree of reform, which implement preferential treatments to foreign investors, still have advantage over other regions in attracting FDI. In sum, the findings in this paper indicate that Korean FDI for the early period of Korean FDI in China is consistent with motives related to the factor proportions hypothesis, which explains that one of the determinants of FDI is to exploit the cheap labor of this country. On the other hand, recently motives related to horizontal FDI are more common.

R&D effects on firm productivity, exports, and OFDI Korean firm-level analysis

This report empirically analyzes the effects of firm R&D on firm performance, particularly on firm productivity, exports, and outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by using Korean firm-level data. While this report lies in line with prior literatures that examined firm R&D effects on firm performance, we further explores the pathway connection between the two. That is, we not only examine firm R&D effects on particular firm performance, but also study the significance of firm productivity as a pathway that links firm R&D with firm exports and OFDI. Our estimation results indicate that firm R&D significantly heightens firm performance, particularly by showing stronger impact on firm performance over time. On the other hand, by using firm productivity as a mediator variable in a triangular structural equation to estimate direct R&D effects and indirect R&D effects through firm productivity, our results show that firm R&D has significant effects on export and OFDI increase directly and indirectly through firm productivity increase. Examining direct and indirect firm R&D effects across different industry sectors, we found that firm R&D is significantly effective on exports and OFDI among capital-intensive sectors, while it does not exhibit a significant influence among labor-intensive sectors. Our estimation results imply that while R&D promotion policies towards the private sector are effective for improving firm performance, these policies would yield more effective consequences if they are targeted at specific industry sectors. In particular, our results suggest that R&D promotion policies towards firms inside capital-intensive sectors would be more effective on exports and OFDI than policies towards firms inside labor-intensive sectors.

Korea-U.S. FTA in its Third Year: Current Status of Implementation and Issues

March 15, 2015 marks the third year since the entry into force of the KORUS FTA. The effect of the FTA has been positive in trade and investment. During the 34 months since its entry into force, Korea saw an increase of 31.54% in exports to and 10.77% in imports from the U.S. The effect of the trade increase under the KORUS FTA was 82.4% for exports and 8.44% for imports. In analyzing the portion of Korean trading products with the U.S. in overall trade products, the KORUS FTA was considered as to have contributed not only to the intensive margin, but also the extensive margin, with a 2.1% increase in the portion of exports to the U.S. and a 1.9% increase in the portion of imports from the U.S. Although the utilization rate has increased after FTA effectuation, the rate for exports was 43.8% and that of imports was 60.7% in 2014. In order to overcome the severe deviation in industrial impact, we need to find a solution involving active utilization in industries that were insufficiently affected by the KORUS FTA. There should therefore be an attempt to improve the environment for appropriate FTA application to mitigate this deviation.Continuous monitoring is necessary from the present moment on. There are differences in the two countries’ perspectives concerning the contents and levels of implementation, and newly imposed measures by Korea could become problematic with respect to KORUS FTA implementation.Issues such as origin verification, express delivery packages and financial data transfer also reveal the divergence of views between Korea and the U.S. Detailed regulations or specific agreements are called for.A close review is also required for newly enforced measures in Korea, including the incentive-penalty system based on automobile emission figures, policies to reduce the price of pharmaceuticals and the verification system for processed organic food, to verify whether or not these measures are consistent with the KORUS FTA’s objective and purpose.

Different Types of Liberalization and Jobs in South Korean Firms

This study examines the effects of several factors indicating economic openness- imported intermediate goods, total imports, IFDI (inward foreign direct investment), and foreign ownership-on regular, irregular jobs and the ratio of irregular employment to regular employment. Findings revealed that imported intermediate inputs and IFDI affected neither regular nor irregular job figures. However, an increase in total imports led to a decrease in the number of irregular jobs without affecting regular full time jobs, leading to a decrease in the ratio of irregular jobs to regular jobs. On the other hand, changes in foreign ownership structure had a contrary effect, that is, a decrease in the number of regular jobs and an increase in irregular ones, and, thus, an increase in the ratio of irregular jobs to regular jobs. Overall results showed that a rise in imports results in depressed overall employment, irregular employment in particular, while more IFDI results in more irregular jobs replacing regular ones, effectively exacerbating job insecurity. The implication of this analysis is that greater economic openness may have a negative impact on the South Korean labor market overall.

Korea-U.S. FTA in Its Second Year: Current Status of Implementation

Since the Korea-U.S. (KORUS) FTA entered into force on March 15, 2012, both sides have reviewed its status of implementation through various joint committee and working group meetings, and discussed ways to further advance their cooperation on bilateral trade issues for successful implementation. This article provides an overview of the status of implementation of the liberalization commitments made in the KORUS FTA, focusing on the trade in goods, services, investment, and other regulatory areas.

The First Anniversary Evaluation of the Korea-U.S. FTA and Its Implications

Since it was signed in April of 2007, and after undergoing additional negotiations in 2011, the Korea-U.S. FTA finally came into effect as of March 15, 2012, with the completion of the ratification process in the two countries after six years since negotiations began. Some were hopeful while others remained concerned about the KORUS FTA, as it is a high-level and comprehensive FTA that was signed with a mega-economic power. Accordingly, there had been many tough challenges in internal negotiations for the KORUS FTA to become effective. This paper aims to evaluate, however on a limited basis, the effect the KORUS FTA had on the trade and investment in the two countries as of its first anniversary.