IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/79072.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Trade, Reform and Structural Change in South Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Betts, Caroline
  • Giri, Rahul
  • Verma, Rubina

Abstract

We develop a two country, three-sector model to quantify the effects of Korean trade policies for structural change from 1963 through 2000. The model features non-homothetic preferences, Armington trade, proportional import tariffs and export subsidies, and is calibrated to match sectoral value added data on Korean production and trade. Korea’s tariff liberalization increased imports and trade, especially agricultural imports, accelerating de-agriculturalization and intensifying industrialization. Korean subsidy liberalization lowered exports and trade, especially industrial exports, attenuating industrialization. Thus, while individually powerful agents for structural change, Korea’s tariff and subsidy reforms offset each other. Subsidy reform dominated quantitatively; lower trade, higher agricultural and lower industrial employment shares, and slower industrialization were observed than in a counterfactual economy with no post-1963 policy reform.

Suggested Citation

  • Betts, Caroline & Giri, Rahul & Verma, Rubina, 2017. "Trade, Reform and Structural Change in South Korea," MPRA Paper 79072, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:79072
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/79072/1/MPRA_paper_79072.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Margarida Duarte & Diego Restuccia, 2010. "The Role of the Structural Transformation in Aggregate Productivity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(1), pages 129-173.
    2. Zimmermann, Christian, 1997. "International real business cycles among heterogeneous countries," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 319-356, February.
    3. Ito, Takatoshi & Krueger, Anne O. (ed.), 1995. "Growth Theories in Light of the East Asian Experience," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226386706, December.
    4. Michelle Connolly & Kei-Mu Yi, 2015. "How Much of South Korea's Growth Miracle Can Be Explained by Trade Policy?," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(4), pages 188-221, October.
    5. repec:fth:nystbu:92-6 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Susan M. Collins & Won-Am Park, 1989. "External Debt and Macroeconomic Performance in South Korea," NBER Chapters, in: Developing Country Debt and the World Economy, pages 121-140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. David K. Backus & Patrick J. Kehoe & Finn E. Kydland, 1992. "Dynamics of the trade balance and the terms of trade: the J-curve revisited," Discussion Paper / Institute for Empirical Macroeconomics 65, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    8. Kei-Mu Yi, 2003. "Can Vertical Specialization Explain the Growth of World Trade?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(1), pages 52-102, February.
    9. Giri, Rahul, 2012. "Local costs of distribution, international trade costs and micro evidence on the law of one price," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 82-100.
    10. Uy, Timothy & Yi, Kei-Mu & Zhang, Jing, 2013. "Structural change in an open economy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(6), pages 667-682.
    11. Backus, David K & Kehoe, Patrick J & Kydland, Finn E, 1994. "Dynamics of the Trade Balance and the Terms of Trade: The J-Curve?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 84-103, March.
    12. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2003. "Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 170-192, March.
    13. Michael E. Waugh, 2010. "International Trade and Income Differences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2093-2124, December.
    14. Verma, Rubina, 2012. "Can total factor productivity explain value added growth in services?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 163-177.
    15. Takatoshi Ito & Anne O. Krueger, 1995. "Growth Theories in Light of the East Asian Experience," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number ito_95-2, July.
    16. Berthold Herrendorf & Richard Rogerson & ?kos Valentinyi, 2013. "Two Perspectives on Preferences and Structural Transformation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(7), pages 2752-2789, December.
    17. Susan M. Collins & Won-Am Park, 1989. "Introduction to "External Debt and Macroeconomic Performance in South Korea"," NBER Chapters, in: Developing Country Debt and Economic Performance, Volume 3: Country Studies - Indonesia, Korea, Philippines, Turkey, pages 153-158, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Chong-Hyun Nam, 1995. "The Role of Trade and Exchange Rate Policy in Korea's Growth," NBER Chapters, in: Growth Theories in Light of the East Asian Experience, pages 153-179, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Susan M. Collins & Won-Am Park, 1989. "II. External Debt and Macroeconomic Performance in South Korea," NBER Chapters, in: Developing Country Debt and Economic Performance, Volume 3: Country Studies - Indonesia, Korea, Philippines, Turkey, pages 151-152, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Namdoo Kim, 1996. "Measuring the Costs of Visible Protection in Korea," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 33, January.
    21. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Susan M. Collins, 1989. "Developing Country Debt and Economic Performance, Volume 3: Country Studies - Indonesia, Korea, Philippines, Turkey," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number sach89-2, July.
    22. Teignier, Marc, 2018. "The role of trade in structural transformation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 45-65.
    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. Caroline Betts & Rahul Giri & Rubina Verma, 2017. "Trade, Reform, and Structural Transformation in South Korea," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 65(4), pages 745-791, November.
    2. Michelle Connolly & Kei-Mu Yi, 2015. "How Much of South Korea's Growth Miracle Can Be Explained by Trade Policy?," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(4), pages 188-221, October.
    3. Murat Üngör, 2009. "De-industrialization of the Riches and the Rise of China," DEGIT Conference Papers c014_040, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    4. Cai, Wenbiao, 2015. "Structural change accounting with labor market distortions," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 54-64.
    5. Kose, M. Ayhan & Yi, Kei-Mu, 2006. "Can the standard international business cycle model explain the relation between trade and comovement?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 267-295, March.
    6. Sposi, Michael, 2019. "Evolving comparative advantage, sectoral linkages, and structural change," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 75-87.
    7. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew Warner, 1995. "Economic Reform and the Process of Global Integration," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 26(1, 25th A), pages 1-118.
    8. M. Ayhan Kose & Kei-Mu Yi, 2002. "The trade comovement problem in international macroeconomics," Staff Reports 155, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    9. Trevor Tombe, 2012. "The Missing Food Problem," Working Papers tt0060, Wilfrid Laurier University, Department of Economics, revised 2012.
    10. 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.
    11. Anderson, James E. & Yotov, Yoto V., 2020. "Short run gravity," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    12. Luciana Juvenal, Luciana; Santos Monteiro, Paulo, 2010. "Trade and Synchronization in a Multi-Country Economy," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 31, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    13. 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.
    14. Kim J. Ruhl, 2008. "The International Elasticity Puzzle," Working Papers 08-30, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    15. Logan T Lewis & Ryan Monarch & Michael Sposi & Jing Zhang, 2022. "Structural Change and Global Trade," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 476-512.
    16. Robert Zymek & Alejandro Cunat, 2017. "International Value-Added Linkages in Development Accounting," 2017 Meeting Papers 1136, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    17. Maroula Khraiche, 2009. "Trade, Firm Structure, and Migration of Talent," Working papers 2009-35, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    18. Juvenal, Luciana & Santos Monteiro, Paulo, 2017. "Trade and synchronization in a multi-country economy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 385-415.
    19. Tomasz Swiecki, 2017. "Determinants of Structural Change," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 24, pages 95-131, March.
    20. Uy, Timothy & Yi, Kei-Mu & Zhang, Jing, 2013. "Structural change in an open economy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(6), pages 667-682.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trade policy; comparative advantage; industrialization; structural change.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F43 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Economic Growth of Open Economies
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models

    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:pra:mprapa:79072. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.