소비형태 변화, 소상공인의 시장 선별과 산업진화, 정책 한계: 소상공인 자료 기반 소상공인 진화의 경제적 이해와 정책 탐구

Using data on the current status, the surveys, and the birth and death statistics of small businesses, we find that even shocks like COVID-19 do not produce a "cleaning effect." Furthermore, to consider the environmental factors that drive small business decision-making, we developed an economic theory model of inter-temporal resource allocation. This model analyzes the management status of small businesses, reflecting future market uncertainty, imperfect competition, industry evolution through market selection, and maximizing consumer welfare through product diversity. This model divides small businesses into three categories: sustainable survival, unstable survival, and exit, based on profit sustainability. A disproportionately high proportion of small businesses in Korea is in the unstable survival zone, while the proportion of sustainable businesses is relatively low compared to advanced economies with a lower proportion of the self-employed. This finding is fully supported by business survival statistics. Three factors of management barriers faced by small business owners in the Small Business Survey―"decline in commercial districts," "intensifying competition," and "raw material prices"―have consistently appeared in the survey since 2018, providing prior information to entrepreneurs. These factors determine the competitive advantage of the self-employed in a monopolistic competition market, and they represent challenges that the self-employed must address. The degree to which these challenges are addressed will determine their continued survival or exit. To address the minimum wage issue in the management difficulties highlighted in the field study for small business owners, the participation of small business representatives in the Minimum Wage Committee is necessary, and the qualified expense principle applied to credit card fees, must be introduced by the government in determining both delivery apps and franchise store fees. A key element of the government’s support policy for small business owners is to emphasize to them that their survival depends on achieving sustained profits in market competition, and that market competition determines the evolution of an industry to quote Alchian (1950) again: Success is based on results, not motivation.