COMPETITION AND GROWTH: A TIME SERIES ANALYSIS FOR SOUTH KOREA

By utilising South Korea’s annual data from 1986 to 2004, the regression results are found to be consistent with the hypothesis that more intense competition makes a substantial contribution to real per capita income growth rate. It is also evident in the structural change analysis that competition has intensified due to the regulatory reform over the period 1999 to 2004, which in turn enhanced the real per capita income growth rate. It has been observed that competition is highly sensitive to real per capita income growth rate. Therefore, the choice of South Korea’s policy instruments should be based upon the intensity of competition through the market monitoring mechanism of large companies (e.g., private lawsuits for damage compensation in antitrust cases) as well as regulatory reform.