Investment, Exports, and Output in South Korea: A VAR Approach to Growth Empirics

This study examines the time-series behavior of investment, exports, and output in South Korea from 1956 to 1996. Impulse-response analysis and variance decompositions indicate that investment rates and export growth rates have significant short-run effects on the growth rates of per capita output. While there are long-run effects to the levels of per capita output, statistically all growth rate effects disappear within four years. No special role for equipment investment was found. These findings are consistent with the predictions of the Solow growth model. The study found no empirical support for endogenous growth theory.