IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ums/papers/2014-13.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Labor market reform and wage inequality in Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Kim, Hyeon-Kyeong

    (Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs)

  • Skott, Peter

    (The University of Massachusetts at Amherst)

Abstract

Temporary workers make up a sizeable part of the labor force in many countries and typically receive wages that are significantly lower than their permanent counterparts. This paper uses an efficiency wage model to explain the wage gap between temporary and permanent workers. High-performing temporary workers may gain promotion to permanent status, and a high wage to permanent workers therefore serves a dual purpose: it affects the effort of both permanent and temporary workers. Applying the model to the Korean experience, we discuss the effects of the labor market reforms in 1998 on inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Kim, Hyeon-Kyeong & Skott, Peter, 2014. "Labor market reform and wage inequality in Korea," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2014-13, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ums:papers:2014-13
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.umass.edu/economics/publications/2014-13.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter Skott & Frederick Guy, 2013. "Power, Luck and Ideology in a Model of Executive Pay," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2013-01, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    2. Gyeongjoon Yoo & Changhui Kang, 2012. "The Effect of Protection of Temporary Workers on Employment Levels: Evidence from the 2007 Reform of South Korea," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(3), pages 578-606, July.
    3. Alison L. Booth & Marco Francesconi & Jeff Frank, 2002. "Temporary Jobs: Stepping Stones Or Dead Ends?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(480), pages 189-213, June.
    4. Cahuc, Pierre & Postel-Vinay, Fabien, 2002. "Temporary jobs, employment protection and labor market performance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 63-91, February.
    5. Jai-Joon Hur & Hwan-Joo Seo & Young Soo Lee, 2005. "Information and communication technology diffusion and skill upgrading in Korean industries," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(7), pages 553-571.
    6. Cho, Joonmo & Lee, Kyu-Young, 2007. "Deregulation of dismissal law and unjust dismissal in Korea," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 409-422, December.
    7. Sanghoon Ahn & Kyoji Fukao & Keiko Ito, 2008. "Outsourcing in East Asia and its impact on the Japanese and Korean Labour Markets," OECD Trade Policy Papers 65, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Fomba Kamga, Benjamin, 2012. "Contrats de travail et segmentation du marché du travail dans le secteur manufacturier camerounais," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 88(2), pages 197-229, Juin.
    2. Mussida Chiara & Sciulli Dario, 2015. "Flexibility Policies and Re-employment Probabilities in Italy," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2), pages 621-651, April.
    3. Marco Di Cintio & Emanuele Grassi, 2015. "Wage Incentive Profiles in Dual Labour Markets," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82(328), pages 790-812, October.
    4. Alonso-Borrego, César & Fernández-Villaverde, Jesús & Galdon-Sanchez, Jose Enrique, 2004. "Evaluating Labor Market Reforms: A General Equilibrium Approach," IZA Discussion Papers 1129, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Salvatori, Andrea, 2010. "Labour contract regulations and workers' wellbeing: International longitudinal evidence," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 667-678, August.
    6. Bratti, Massimiliano & Conti, Maurizio & Sulis, Giovanni, 2018. "Employment Protection, Temporary Contracts and Firm-Provided Training: Evidence from Italy," IZA Discussion Papers 11339, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Guell, Maia & Petrongolo, Barbara, 2007. "How binding are legal limits? Transitions from temporary to permanent work in Spain," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 153-183, April.
    8. Tai Lee, 2022. "The Impact of Employment Protection on the Probability of Job Separation: Evidence from Job Duration Data in South Korea," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 369-414, December.
    9. Diego Daruich & Sabrina Di Addario & Raffaele Saggio, 2023. "The Effects of Partial Employment Protection Reforms: Evidence from Italy," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(6), pages 2880-2942.
    10. Pierre Cahuc & Pauline Carry & Franck Malherbet & Pedro S Martins, 2022. "Employment Effects of Restricting Fixed-Term Contracts: Theory and Evidence," Working Papers hal-03881622, HAL.
    11. Fabrizio Alboni & Furio Camillo & Giorgio Tassinari, 2009. "A data mining approach for the monitoring of active labour market policies," Quaderni di Dipartimento 2, Department of Statistics, University of Bologna.
    12. Guell, Maia & Hu, Luojia, 2006. "Estimating the probability of leaving unemployment using uncompleted spells from repeated cross-section data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 307-341, July.
    13. Cabrales, Antonio & Dolado, Juan J. & Mora, Ricardo, 2014. "Dual Labour Markets and (Lack of) On-the-Job Training: PIAAC Evidence from Spain and Other EU Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 8649, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Gagliarducci, Stefano, 2005. "The dynamics of repeated temporary jobs," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 429-448, August.
    15. Michael Gebel, 2013. "Is a Temporary Job Better than Unemployment?: A Cross-Country Comparison Based on British, German, and Swiss Panel Data," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 543, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    16. Lawrence M. Kahn, 2016. "The Structure of the Permanent Job Wage Premium: Evidence from Europe," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 149-178, January.
    17. Bentolila, Samuel & Dolado, Juan J. & Jimeno, Juan F., 2019. "Dual Labour Markets Revisited," IZA Discussion Papers 12126, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Karabchuk Tatiana, 2009. "Determinants of temporary employment for men and women in Russia," EERC Working Paper Series 09/11e, EERC Research Network, Russia and CIS.
    19. Engellandt, Axel & Riphahn, Regina T., 2005. "Temporary contracts and employee effort," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 281-299, June.
    20. Pierre Cahuc & Pauline Carry & Franck Malherbet & Pedro S. Martins, 2023. "Spillover effects of employment protection," Nova SBE Working Paper Series wp655, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Temporary workers; inequality; deregulation; efficiency wages; Korea.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • D33 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Factor Income Distribution

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ums:papers:2014-13. 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: Daniele Girardi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deumaus.html .

    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.