From a Spoke to a Hub: The Case of South Korea

Abstract

A few East Asian newly industrialized countries that used to belong to the Global South not only have joined the Global North but also have organized their own production chains in specific industries. Given the imperialist and exploitative nature of global production chains established by the Global North, it should be questioned whether the production chains organized by the East Asian newly industrialized countries are free from the innate nature of production chains. This article adopts a multiregional input-output analysis to examine the bilateral trade relationship between Korea and Vietnam. It finds that the Korean economy has unequally captured the benefits from the bilateral trade with Vietnam in terms of the domestic value-added share and the spillover effect derived from the final demand for Vietnamese products in the textile and electronics industries. JEL Classification: F62, F63