The Role of Extensive and Intensive Margins in Korean Exports to China

This paper examines relative contributions of extensive margin and intensive margin of Korean exports growth to China after 1990s’, based on an analytical approach proposed by the Hummels and Klenow(2005). In this paper, extensive margin is defined as a weighted count of Korean exports categories relative to the rest of world’s export categories to China. On the other hand, intensive margin refers to Korean exports to China relative to the rest of the world’s exports to China, exclusively in those product categories that Korea exports to China. According to the results of the analysis, the expansion of Korean exports to China was induced mainly by the increase of intensive margin. This result is consistent with Besedeš and Prusa(2007) as well as the Helpman, Melitz and Rubinstein(2007) who suggest that intensive margin is a more important factor than extensive margin for sustaining growth of export in the long term. In addition, this paper shows that the survival rates of exports of parts and components and capital goods is relatively higher in comparison to those of primary and consumption goods. This implies that the expansion of international division of labor under the global production network could substantially affect the survival of exports.2