한국의 노동생산성에 대한 평균교육수준의 영향(1982～2006)

The Impact of Education Level on Labor Productivity in Korea(1982～2006)

본고는 1982～2006년 기간 동안 한국에서 취업자의 노동생산성에 대한 교육수준(평균교육년수로 대용)의 영향을 분기자료에 한계검정법(bounds test) 방식의 공적분 검정과 오차수정 모형(Error Correction Model : ECM)을 적용하여 고찰한 것이다. 공적분 검정결과, 교육수준과 노동생산성 간에는 장기적 연관관계가 존재했으며, 모형에 포함된 여타 변수들 간에도 장기적 연관성이 있었다. 노동생산성에 대한 교육수준의 영향은, 첫째 교육으로 축적된 지식스톡이 생산요소로서 직접 노동생산성에 영향을 미치는 경우와, 둘째 교육수준이 기술계수를 통하여 간접적으로 노동생산성에 영향을 미치는 경우 등 2가지 경로를 구분하여 모형을 설정하여 분석하였다. 분석결과, 교육수준의 제고는 노동생산성에 대해 단기(short term) 혹은 초기에는 부(-)의 영향을 미쳤으며, 장기(long-run)적으로는 분명한 정(+)의 영향을 준 것으로 나 타났다.

This paper investigates the impact of education level(proxied by average years of schooling) on per capita employed labor productivity in Korea through the application of bounds testing cointegration technique and restricted error-correction methodology. The data span for the study is from 1980:1 to 2006:4. The results of the cointegration examination suggest that there is long run relationship between the level of education with productivity of per worker. The study also able to establish long run relationship among the other series in the model. Two different channels are analyzed, through which education level can affect productivity of per worker. The first channel(model 1) is when education is a direct input in the production function and the second channel(model 2) is when the education affects the technical parameter, that is, total factor productivity(TFP). In model 1, the rise of education level had a negative effect on labor productivity in the short run, but a positive effect in the long-run. In model 2, the rise of education level had a negative effect on labor productivity at first, and gradually turned out to have a positive effect. Thus the results indicate that the improved education level which led by a rising rate of higher education had a negative effect on labor productivity due to increase opportunity costs at an early stage, but eventually, in the long-run, made a positive and significant impact on labor productivity both via factor accumulation as well as on th evolution of total factor productivity. In Korea, where the ratio of students who entrance to a higher education institutions is the highest level in the world, education has made a significant contribution to an increase in productivity by TFP, which tells the bright outlook for the Korean economy.