한국 건설산업의 노동수요 결정요인 분석

Abstract

A lot of articles has pointed that recent polarization in Korean society is mainly attributed to wage discrepancy in labor market which contributes to income discrepancy between laborers and that it is quite related with segmentation of labor market. This kind of phenomenon has been expanded since Korean economic crisis which happened in 1998.

Under this social background, this thesis aims to empirically analyze the determinants of labor demand in Korean construction industry, based on the human capital theory and the segmented labor market theory. First it was examined whether the labor market in Korean construction industry is substantially segmented. It is founded that due to the unique labor market structure of construction industry, such as subcontracting system in working, complexity of products, space-centered working system, the tendency of segmentation in labor market of the industry is more reinforced than that in other manufacturing industry, in terms of institution and market structure through the date issued by the National Statistical Office, Korea Construction Association.

Second, based on these findings, I set up the model which is designed to make analysis of how and by which factors labor demands is determined in each segmented labor market. To do this, three factor-Cobb-Douglas production function which consists of capital, labor I(low-educated labor, unskilled labor and labor II, , is used. Labor I means labor demand from external labor market while labor II means that from internal labor market. The estimation equations which can make it possible to estimate the determinants of labor demand in each segmented labor market were derived by applying cost-minimizing principle to this production function, with the results that the labor demands in each labor market are determined by relative production factor price between three factors, the quantity of production and technical progress. The derived estimation equations are as follows.

Based on the above estimation equations, in terms of estimation method was SUR(seemingly unrelated regression) method used, because ORS(ordinary least square) that assumes independent and identical disturbance terms cannot cover the simultaneous equation system with auto-correlated disturbance term.

The purport of the estimation results are as follows.

First, the labor demand of low-educated laborer in the whole labor market is not affected by the relative price of any production factor, while the quantity of production and technical progress have a positive effect on labor demand. But the substitutive relation between male and female laborers was founded

Second, the labor demand of high-educated laborer in the whole labor market was increased only when technical progress takes place. Male laborers with high education year increase with increment of production quantity and technical progress while female laborers with high-education year increase when the relative price of capital() in terms of the price of high-educated labor rise.

The labor demand of unskilled laborers increases when the relative price of the skilled laborer()rises. The rise of relative skilled laborer and technical progress increases labor demand of male unskilled laborer while female laborers are not affected by any factors.

Fourth, only technical progress increases employment of skilled laborers. The same results appear in case of male and female laborers. But it has a larger effect on female skilled laborers than male skilled ones.

Fifth, technical progress decreases the labor demand of irregular laborers

Sixth, technical progress increases the labor demand of regular laborers and technical employees.

Seventh, the relative price of capital() increases female labor demand. The labor demand of high-educated female laborers are the same case, while that of low-educated female labores are not affected by any factors.

Eighth, technical progress increases labor demand of male labores. The labor demand of high-educated male laborers are the same case, while that of low-educated male labores are increased by increment of production quantity.

Based on these findings, two things can be shown as implication of policy.

First, the clearest result is that technical progress causes the unemployment of irregular laborers.

Second, it is found that there are generally the substitutive relation between two labors and the complimentary relation between physical capital and two labors. Therefore, government should prepare the labor policy considering this point.