In Korea, the number of foreign workers has been continuously growing since the late 1980s. Theoretically, if socio-cultural costs are excluded, the inflow of foreign workers would help distribute economic resources in a more effective manner so that the total income of natives should rise. However, while native workers and capitalist complementary to foreign workers earn benefits, native workers substituted for by foreign workers suffer losses. Hence, there are rooms for government intervention.

This study analyzes the impacts of the inflow of foreign workers on the natives’ economic performance, particularly employment, through the employment permit system, the basis of Korea’s system to introduce low-skilled immigrants.

The analysis of the original data on the National Employment Insurance reveals that the adjustment cost caused by the introduction of foreign workers was not substantial over the period from August 2004 to 2005. However, according to the results of estimation by industry, the substitutability exists between the employment of native and foreign workers in the service industry. In terms of skill levels, the substitutability exists between native workers with less than a high school diploma and foreign workers. This is not necessarily conclusive given the statistical confidence of estimation, but it is still reasonable to interpret that policy assistance is needed to lessen the impacts caused by the inflow of foreign workers and to enhance the sector-by-sector adjustment within the labor market.

This study bears its significance in that it evaluates the consequence of the adoption of the employment permit system in terms of the employment of native workers at the individual level. Meanwhile, this study has limitations that the concerned period of this study is only the incipient phase of the employment permit system and that it only includes the workers registered in the National Employment Insurance. Therefore, further research is needed to investigate the economic impacts of immigrants in a more recent period and for a more general population.

요 약

제1장 서 론

제2장 외국인력 정책 및 유입의 현황
　제1절 외국인력정책
　제2절 외국인력 유입 현황

제3장 이론적 논의
　제1절 외국인력 유입과 내국인의 경제적 성과
　제2절 선행연구와의 차별성
　제3절 가 설

제4장 실증분석
　제1절 통계모형
　제2절 자료 설명
　제3절 추정 결과

제5장 결 론

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