한국 자동차산업 산업내무역의 특성 및 결정요인 분석 : 품질차이, FDI 및 무역불균형을 중심으로

초록

Conventional theory of comparative advantage hardly explains intra-industry trade which is defined as simultaneous exports and imports of products within the same industry between countries with similar production factor abundance. Proliferation of intra-industry trade has been followed by tons of theoretical and empirical research on it. In the late 1980’s, arguments was raised that intra-industry trade be decomposed into vertical and horizontal intra-industry trade on the basis of product characteristics. While some previous domestic researches analyzed intra-industry trade in Korea’s auto sector, they failed to identify that intra-industry trade in Korea’s auto sector may be materialized by vertical. This is a theoretical prediction, because auto industry is typical durable consumer product industry. With the motivation, this article is to analyze the characteristics and determinants of vertical intra-industry trade in auto sector between Korea and OECD member countries during 1991~2012, using gravity model. Empirical analysis employs not only country-specific variables such as average economic scale, per capita GNI gap and geographic distance between trading partners, but also industry-specific variables such as FDI, product quality difference and trade imbalance ratio. Empirical approach of this paper is in contrast with the previous research, particularly in the following aspects. By decomposing IIT index(Grubel-Lloyd index), it seeks to examine the vertical intra-industry factor and its trade pattern in Korea’s intra-industry trade in auto sector. Level of trade imbalance is another concern to check, since it is associated with downward bias of IIT index. Along with due adjustment of downward bias from trade imbalance, product quality difference and FDI are also reflected as explanatory variables in estimating determinants of vertical intra-industry trade. First of all, research output confirms that Korea’s intra-industry trade vis-a-vis OECD is represented by vertical one, where Korea exports low quality products and imports high quality. Another important finding is significant level of trade imbalance in vertically differentiated product category and downward bias of IIT index, accordingly. Among explanatory variables, economic size, geographic distance and trade imbalance turn out best significant fits in interpreting vertical intra-industry trade. Product quality difference proves to be highly significant variable, but unexpectedly negative relationship with vertical intra-industry trade in auto parts sector.

키워드