세종시 출범이 인접지역의 경제성장에 미치는 영향

Economic Impacts of Sejong City on its Neighboring Cities

Sejong City was newly established as administrative capital of South Korea in 2012, to promote balanced territorial development within the country. Due to its unique characteristic as administrative capital city and considerable population size, the city is expected to have significant social and economic impacts on its surrounding areas at the regional level. The previous research on its impacts, however, has focused mainly on population migration within the region, raising concerns on larger migration from surrounding areas into Sejong City, referring to so-called population black hole. Against this background, the study aims to assess the economic impacts of Sejong city on the surrounding area. We compared the total number of employees before and after the establishment of Sejong City using a shift-share analysis and a difference-in-difference model. The result from the difference-in-difference model does not confirm that the negative impact of economic growth on the surrounding area is statistically significant, however the local comparative advantage of the surrounding areas has certainly decreased since the establishment of Sejong City based on our analysis using the shift-share analysis. The results from the study raise a need for continued monitoring on the economic impact of Sejong City on the neighboring cities to minimize potential negative impact but to maximize synergies among cities in the region.