IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/intecj/v26y2012i3p407-430.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Microeconomics of North--South Korean Cross-border Integration

Author

Listed:
  • Stephan Haggard
  • Marcus Noland

Abstract

Economic integration between North and South Korea occurs through three modalities: traditional arm's-length trade and investment, processing on commission (POC) trade, and operations within the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC). In order, these three modalities are characterized by decreasing exposure of South Korean firms to North Korean policy and infrastructure. Through a survey of 200 South Korean firms operating in North Korea we find that these modalities of exchange matter greatly in terms of implied risk. For example, firms operating in the KIC are able to transact on significantly looser financial terms than those outside it. We find that direct and indirect South Korean public policy interventions influence these different modalities of exchange and thus impact entry, profitability, and sustainability of South Korean business activities in the North. In effect, the South Korean government has substituted relatively strong South Korean institutions for the relatively weak Northern ones in the KIC, thus socializing risk. As a result, the level and type of cross-border integration observed in the survey is very much a product of South Korean public policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephan Haggard & Marcus Noland, 2012. "The Microeconomics of North--South Korean Cross-border Integration," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3), pages 407-430, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:intecj:v:26:y:2012:i:3:p:407-430
    DOI: 10.1080/10168737.2012.707872
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10168737.2012.707872
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/10168737.2012.707872?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John McMillan & Christopher Woodruff, 1999. "Interfirm Relationships and Informal Credit in Vietnam," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1285-1320.
    2. Simon Johnson & John McMillan, 2002. "Courts and Relational Contracts," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 221-277, April.
    3. Stephan Haggard & Marcus Noland, 2018. "Networks, Trust and Trade: The Microeconomics of China–North Korea Integration," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 277-299, September.
    4. Johnson, Simon & McMillan, John & Woodruff, Christopher, 1999. "Contract Enforcement in Transition," CEPR Discussion Papers 2081, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. James E. Anderson & Douglas Marcouiller, 2002. "Insecurity And The Pattern Of Trade: An Empirical Investigation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(2), pages 342-352, May.
    6. Shang-Jin Wei, 2000. "How Taxing is Corruption on International Investors?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 82(1), pages 1-11, February.
    7. Haggard, Stephan & Lee, Jennifer & Noland, Marcus, 2012. "Integration in the absence of institutions: China–North Korea cross-border exchange," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 130-145.
    8. McMillan, John & Woodruff, Christopher, 1999. "Dispute Prevention without Courts in Vietnam," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(3), pages 637-658, October.
    9. Moenius, Johannes & Berkowitz, Daniel, 2011. "Law, trade, and development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 451-460, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jeffrey J. Schott & Euijin Jung & Cathleen Cimino, 2015. "An Assessment of the Korea-China Free Trade Agreement," Policy Briefs PB15-24, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    2. Marcus Noland, 2019. "North Korea: Sanctions, Engagement and Strategic Reorientation," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 14(2), pages 189-209, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stephan Haggard & Marcus Noland, 2018. "Networks, Trust and Trade: The Microeconomics of China–North Korea Integration," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 277-299, September.
    2. Haggard, Stephan & Noland, Marcus, 2016. "Hard Target: Sanctions, Inducements, and the Case of North Korea," MPRA Paper 105812, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Pyle, William, 2006. "Resolutions, recoveries and relationships: The evolution of payment disputes in Central and Eastern Europe," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 317-337, June.
    4. Beckmann, Volker & Boger, Silke, 2004. "Courts and contract enforcement in transition agriculture: theory and evidence from Poland," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 31(2-3), pages 251-263, December.
    5. Haggard, Stephan & Lee, Jennifer & Noland, Marcus, 2012. "Integration in the absence of institutions: China–North Korea cross-border exchange," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 130-145.
    6. Beckmann, Volker & Boger, Silke, 2003. "Courts And Contract Enforcement In Agricultural Transition - Theory And Evidence From Poland," 2003 Annual meeting, July 27-30, Montreal, Canada 22213, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    7. Shingo Ishiguro, 2011. "Relationships and Growth," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 11-31-Rev, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics, revised May 2013.
    8. Andrei A. Levchenko, 2007. "Institutional Quality and International Trade," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 74(3), pages 791-819.
    9. Martin Raiser & Alan Rousso & Franklin Steves, 2004. "Trust In Transition: Cross Country And Firm Evidence," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 2004-640, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    10. John McMillan & Christopher Woodruff, 2002. "The Central Role of Entrepreneurs in Transition Economies," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 153-170, Summer.
    11. Se Mi Park, 2021. "The interrelation between formal and informal institutions through international trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1358-1381, November.
    12. Troya-Martinez, Marta, 2017. "Self-enforcing trade credit," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 333-357.
    13. Theresa Thompson Chaudhry, 2005. "Industrial Clusters in Developing Countries: A Survey of the Literature," Lahore Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, The Lahore School of Economics, vol. 10(2), pages 15-34, Jul-Dec.
    14. Luis Araujo & Emanuel Ornelas, 2005. "Trust-Based Trade," IBMEC RJ Economics Discussion Papers 2005-08, Economics Research Group, IBMEC Business School - Rio de Janeiro.
    15. Steer, Liesbet & Sen, Kunal, 2010. "Formal and Informal Institutions in a Transition Economy: The Case of Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 1603-1615, November.
    16. Susan Rose-Ackerman, "undated". "Trust, Honesty, and Corruption: Reflection on the State-Building Process," Yale Law School John M. Olin Center for Studies in Law, Economics, and Public Policy Working Paper Series yale_lepp-1013, Yale Law School John M. Olin Center for Studies in Law, Economics, and Public Policy.
    17. Zhang, Chuanchuan, 2020. "Clans, entrepreneurship, and development of the private sector in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 100-123.
    18. Janvier D. Nkurunziza, 2005. "Reputation and Credit without Collateral in Africa`s Formal Banking," Economics Series Working Papers WPS/2005-02, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    19. John Rand, 2007. "‘Credit Constraints and Determinants of the Cost of Capital in Vietnamese Manufacturing’," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 1-13, June.
    20. Bertrand, Jérémie & Murro, Pierluigi, 2022. "Firm–bank “odd couples” and trade credit: Evidence from Italian small- and medium-sized enterprises," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • P3 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • P33 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - International Trade, Finance, Investment, Relations, and Aid

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:intecj:v:26:y:2012:i:3:p:407-430. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RIEJ20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.