A Study on Balanced Regional Development

우리 사회는 지역균형발전의 추구를 위한 다양한 정책이 시행되었다. 하지만 그 논의과정에서 기본적인 문제들 - 지역균형발전의 개념, 필요성, 방법론 및 표과- 에 대한 검토가 진지하게 이루어지지 않은 것 같다. 특히, 지역균형발전의 추구가 국가경쟁력에 미치는 효과에 대한 논의는 한국경제의 성장과정에서 매우 중요한 측면임에도 불구하고 체계적인 분석이나 논의를 찾아보기 힘들다. 지역균형발전이란 무엇이고, 그것이 왜 필요한가라는 주제에 대한 정확한 이해가 없는 상태에서 지역균형 발전에 대한 논의는 지역이기주의에 기초한 소모적인 논쟁을 야기할 뿐이다. 본 고는 지역균형발전이란 무엇이고 지역균형발전의 장점이나 단점에 대한 논의, 국가경쟁력에 미치는 효과, 지역의 균형발전이 왜 필요한가에 대한 체계적인 논의를 하고자 한다. 특히, 지식기반경제에서 지역균형이 갖는 의미가 이전의 경제구조와 어떻게 다른지를 이해하여 정책적 함의를 도출하고자 한다.

This paper deals with the issue of economic development among regional economics in the knowledge-based economy. There would be two types of growth paths among them, balanced or unbalanced one. The former means that all ot most regional economies grow evenly while the latter does that they grow unevenly. The first question is which growth path among regional economies is efficient for the national competitiveness. That is, we examine the possible relationship between the balanced regional development and national competitiveness. While most (quickly) developing countries experience the problem of unbalanced regional development, there are, however, no rigorous discussions about what balanced regional development means, its benefit and costs, basically why it is necessary and how it can be achieved. Without answering them, the policy effort of balancing regional economic development may cause time and resource-consuming conflicts among selfish regional economies. This paper shows theoretically that balanced regional economic development improves the efficiency of national economy, the degree of which may be measured by the distribution of the marginal productivity of capital among regional economies. That is, the balanced regional growth among regional economies is a necessary condition to maximize national competitiveness.And the fact that the current economy is knowledge-based has an important policy implication on this issue. It is shown that in the knowledge-based economy, balanced regional development of regional economies may not be attained in the market without government intervention. Finally, several policy suggestions are provided to achieve the balanced regional development among regional economies and to maximize the national competitiveness.