Aggregate Productivity Growth and Firm Dynamics in Korean Manufacturing 2007–2017

We study aggregate productivity growth of the Korean manufacturing industry for the 2007–2017 period after the Great Recession. We find the nature of such growth was quite different for two measures of productivity. For labor productivity, most of growth comes from productivity changes among surviving firms while, for TFP, most of the productivity growth comes from that of new entrants. We observe interesting industry dynamics, as exiting firms contributed positively to aggregate productivity growth, which suggests that the market had gradually eliminated firms of lower productivity in this period. Using the dynamic Olley and Pakes (1996. The dynamics of productivity in the telecommunications equipment industry. Econometrica, 64, 1263–1298.) decomposition, we find that a substantial productivity growth after the Great Recession was due to market share reallocations between firms, but this between-firm contribution has reduced since the recovery. Our industry sector level analysis also demonstrates that there has been heterogeneous productivity growth patterns and components across manufacturing sectors. Finally, we speculate that the wage level also plays a role as a moderating or accelerating factor for different productivity growth paths among surviving, entering, and exiting firms.