지역노동시장권(LLMAs)의 측정과 적용 가능성에 관한 연구

This paper is an empirical study on the estimation of Local Labour Market Areas in Korea and their application to the analyses of economic variables. Using commuting matrices of micro-level census data, 122 LLMAs are identified based on a 70～75% self-containment criterion. In Korea, the number of LLMAs has decreased during the period from 1995 to 2005, and has also shown considerable differentials in scope between education level groups. In the next step, we test the conceptual validity of LLMAs through a comparison with basic administrative districts. We find that, compared to basic administrative districts, LLMAs exhibit relatively lower net- migration rates, thus better satisfying the conceptual description of independent labour markets than basic administrative districts do. Lastly, we investigate the applicability of LLMAs through analyses on the determinants of inner migration. We find that LLMAs explain the relations of key economic variables more appropriately. Particularly, because the definition of an LLMA itself contains the functional characteristics of localities, LLMAs are better suited for interpreting the parameters of variables such as employment rates. We show that these resulting differences become more pronounced if separate labour market areas are defined for each education level group.