서강대학교

초록/요약

This paper intends to detail the economic effects of discounters in Korea in order to see if there are economic feasibility of the bills pending at the Assembly which are related to regulation of discounters. First, I find that discounters have a positive impact on improving purchasing power of consumers by stabilizing or decreasing the price levels. This paper also shows that there are negative effects of discounters in Korea especially on local communities, in view of the fact that discounters make small retailers weaken the business footings and increase traffic and environmental spendings of local governments. Second, in the empirical analysis part of this paper, I find robust price effect of discounters for grocery products, including vegitables, beverages, and teas ; magnitudes vary by product, but generally range from 0.1~0.5% in the short run(for a month). I expect that this paper provide an evidentiary basis for making a progmatized regulation of discounters, through this paper''s findings which include negative as well as positive impacts of discounters in Korea.