What explains the trend reversal in the size distribution of Korean manufacturing establishments?

Although Korea is known for a size distribution of manufacturing firms and establishments increasingly skewed toward large size, this paper shows that there has been a significant reversal in that trend since the mid-1970s. Various explanations of the original trend and its reversal, including technology, government policy, and transaction costs, are examined with pooled cross-section and time series data for manufacturing establishments between 1963 and 1988. The results show that two general types of factors stand out in explaining both the original trend and its subsequent reversal, namely, the changing characteristics of both domestic financial markets and international marketing.