IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/9285.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Productivity Growth and Efficiency Dynamics of Korean Structural Transformation

Author

Listed:
  • Jeong,Hyeok

Abstract

This paper documents the sources of the Republic of Korea's economic growth, as well as the associated productivity growth and efficiency dynamics during its process of structural transformation from 1970 to 2016. The analysis includes land as a separate production factor to sort out the significant effect of changes in intersectoral land allocation, which makes significant differences in measuring the magnitudes and directions of change in sectoral total factor productivity (TFP). Input-based growth and structural changes contributed to the early take-off stage of growth in the 1970s. However, in the following three decades, the source of growth switched to productivity improvements, mainly engineered by the industry sector. This was the reason behind the country's sustained growth and escape from the "middle-income trap." Furthermore, agricultural TFP growth also made an important contribution to structural transformation by pushing out factors from agriculture to industry. Since 2011, however, when the Korean economy seemed to reach a steady state of constant capital-output ratio, TFP has suddenly stagnated. The wedge analysis suggests that the intersectoral allocation of labor was biased toward agriculture while that of capital and land was biased toward industry, compared to efficient levels. Meanwhile, the inter-temporal wedge analysis suggests that the Korean economy was in an over-investment mode throughout its structural transformation. The analysis also shows that the periods of productivity growth are not always associated with the enhancement of allocative efficiency, while growth-disturbing external macroeconomic shocks, such as joining the WTO and the Asian financial crisis, led to improvements in allocative efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeong,Hyeok, 2020. "Productivity Growth and Efficiency Dynamics of Korean Structural Transformation," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9285, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9285
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/216711592488286605/pdf/Productivity-Growth-and-Efficiency-Dynamics-of-Korean-Structural-Transformation.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    2. Francisco Alvarez-Cuadrado & Markus Poschke, 2011. "Structural Change Out of Agriculture: Labor Push versus Labor Pull," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 127-158, July.
    3. L. Rachel Ngai & Christopher A. Pissarides, 2007. "Structural Change in a Multisector Model of Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(1), pages 429-443, March.
    4. Douglas Gollin & Stephen Parente & Richard Rogerson, 2002. "The Role of Agriculture in Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 160-164, May.
    5. Syrquin, Moshe, 1988. "Patterns of structural change," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 7, pages 203-273, Elsevier.
    6. Herrendorf, Berthold & Rogerson, Richard & Valentinyi, Ákos, 2014. "Growth and Structural Transformation," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 6, pages 855-941, Elsevier.
    7. Robert E. Hall & Charles I. Jones, 1999. "Why do Some Countries Produce So Much More Output Per Worker than Others?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(1), pages 83-116.
    8. Hollis Chenery† & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), 1988. "Handbook of Development Economics," Handbook of Development Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    9. Jeong Hyeok & Kim Yong, 2015. "Complementarity and transition to modern economic growth," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 15(1), pages 365-412, January.
    10. Alwyn Young, 1995. "The Tyranny of Numbers: Confronting the Statistical Realities of the East Asian Growth Experience," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(3), pages 641-680.
    11. Ju-Ho Lee & Hyeok Jeong & Song Chang Hong, 2018. "Human Capital and Development," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 17648.
    12. Hyeok Jeong, 2018. "Analysis of Korea’s Long-Term Growth Process and Lessons for Sustainable Development Policy," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 34, pages 237-265.
    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. Betts, Caroline, 2021. "Accounting for Japan's Lost Score," MPRA Paper 109285, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Afolabi Tunde Ahmed & Tsimisaraka Raymondo Sandra Marcelline & Sabi Couscous Mouhamadou Nazirou, 2021. "Empirical Study of the Impact of Governance on Economic Structural Change: Evidence from Sub-Saharan African Countries," International Journal of Science and Business, IJSAB International, vol. 5(8), pages 260-277.
    2. Herrendorf, Berthold & Rogerson, Richard & Valentinyi, Ákos, 2014. "Growth and Structural Transformation," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 6, pages 855-941, Elsevier.
    3. Hassan, Fadi, 2016. "The price of development: The Penn–Balassa–Samuelson effect revisited," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 291-309.
    4. Barker, Tom & Üngör, Murat, 2019. "Vietnam: The next asian Tiger?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 96-118.
    5. Murat Ungor, 2017. "Productivity Growth and Labor Reallocation: Latin America versus East Asia," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 24, pages 25-42, March.
    6. Ho, Chi Pui, 2015. "Population growth and structural transformation," MPRA Paper 68014, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Roberto ESPOSTI, 2007. "On the Decline of Agriculture. Evidence from Italian Regions in the Post-WWII Period," Working Papers 300, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    8. Tohari, Achmad & Parsons, Christopher & Rammohan, Anu, 2021. "Capital Fundamentalism and Structural Transformation," IZA Discussion Papers 14444, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Ho, Chi Pui, 2016. "Industrious Selection: Explaining Five Revolutions and Two Divergences in Eurasian Economic History within a Unified Growth Framework," MPRA Paper 73862, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Gangopadhyay, Kausik & Mondal, Debasis, 2021. "Productivity, relative sectoral prices, and total factor productivity: Theory and evidence," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    11. Ju, Jiandong & Lin, Justin Yifu & Wang, Yong, 2015. "Endowment structures, industrial dynamics, and economic growth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 244-263.
    12. Fabian Eckert & Michael Peters, 2018. "Spatial Structural Change," 2018 Meeting Papers 98, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    13. Ye, Longfeng & Robertson, Peter E., 2019. "Hitting the Great Wall: Structural change and China's growth slowdown," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-1.
    14. Antonio Mele & Radoslaw Stefanski, 2019. "Velocity in the Long Run: Money and Structural Transformation," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 31, pages 393-410, January.
    15. Chen, Chaoran, 2020. "Technology adoption, capital deepening, and international productivity differences," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    16. Kjetil Storesletten & Bo Zhao & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2019. "Business Cycle during Structural Change: Arthur Lewis' Theory from a Neoclassical Perspective," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2191, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    17. Anne Villamil & Xiaobing Wang & Yuxiang Zou, 2020. "Growth and development with dual labor markets," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 88(6), pages 801-826, December.
    18. Diego Comin & Danial Lashkari & Martí Mestieri, 2021. "Structural Change With Long‐Run Income and Price Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(1), pages 311-374, January.
    19. Jones, C.I., 2016. "The Facts of Economic Growth," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 3-69, Elsevier.
    20. Antonios Garas & Sophie Guthmuller & Athanasios Lapatinas, 2021. "The development of nations conditions the disease space," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(1), pages 1-35, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Food Security; Labor Markets; Economic Growth; Economic Theory&Research; Industrial Economics; Employment and Unemployment;
    All these keywords.

    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:wbk:wbrwps:9285. 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.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.