Search

This study examines the effects of several factors indicating economic opennessimported 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to identify the relation between OFDI (Outward Foreign Direct Investment) and wage inequality. In order to analyze various effects of OFDI on wages depending on the types of workers, the research classified laborers into four categories: permanent/skilled worker, permanent/unskilled worker, temporary/skilled worker, and temporary/unskilled worker. With controlling wage determining factors such as education, labor union, individual fixed-effect, and industry-level effect, this paper examines whether OFDI attributes to the wage inequality among each type of workers. Moreover, this study also analyzes possible effects on wages that could vary according to the different characteristics of investments by classifying OFDI into two groups: OECD and non-OECD. The results reveal that OFDI makes certain differences according to skill-intensity and contract type in terms of influences on wages. It also shows that the effect of OFDI on wages is more subject to contract type than to skill-intensity. The classification of OFDI into OECD and non-OECD proves that effects on wages can vary by characteristics of the subject of investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]