IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/lawdev/v12y2019i3p865-885n10.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

South Korean Economy at the Crossroads: Structure Issues under External Pressure – An Essay from a Law and Development Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Lee Yong-Shik

    (The Law and Development Institute, Atlanta, GA, USA)

Abstract

South Korea is one of the most successful economic development cases in history. This country, stricken with crushing poverty and torn by a disastrous war two generations ago, rose from the ashes of the war and underwent unprecedented economic development for over three decades. By the mid-1990s, South Korea had built an advanced economy with world-class industries and also achieved a liberal democracy based on the rule of law. Since its 1997 financial crisis, however, Korea’s economic growth has been continually slowing down with widening income gaps among its populations. The Korean economy has also faced increasing external pressure, which has recently been dramatized by Japan’s export restraint measures on some of the key materials used to produce semiconductors, one of the most important export products for the Korean economy. This note discusses structural issues in the Korean economy, such as its over-dependency on a small number of conglomerates (“chaebols”) and the weakness of its SMEs, which cause the Korean economy to slow down and render the economy vulnerable to external pressure. This note examines these issues from a legal and institutional perspective and offers proposals to remedy some of the problems in the Korean economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee Yong-Shik, 2019. "South Korean Economy at the Crossroads: Structure Issues under External Pressure – An Essay from a Law and Development Perspective," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 865-885, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:lawdev:v:12:y:2019:i:3:p:865-885:n:10
    DOI: 10.1515/ldr-2019-0063
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/ldr-2019-0063
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/ldr-2019-0063?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lee,Yong-Shik, 2016. "Reclaiming Development in the World Trading System," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107098930, October.
    2. Oliver Kim & Mark Walker, 1984. "The free rider problem: Experimental evidence," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 3-24, January.
    3. Randall S. Jones & Jae Wan Lee, 2018. "Enhancing dynamism in SMEs and entrepreneurship in Korea," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1510, OECD Publishing.
    4. Lee Yong-Shik, 2018. "Law and Development: Lessons from South Korea," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 11(2), pages 433-465, December.
    5. Haider A. Khan, 2004. "Global Markets and Financial Crises in Asia," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-00079-7, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lee Yong-Shik, 2018. "Law and Development: Lessons from South Korea," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 11(2), pages 433-465, December.
    2. Lee Yong-Shik, 2019. "Political Governance, Law, and Economic Development," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 723-759, October.
    3. Ambrus, Attila & Pathak, Parag A., 2011. "Cooperation over finite horizons: A theory and experiments," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 500-512.
    4. Yong‐Shik Lee, 2020. "New general theory of economic development: Innovative growth and distribution," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 402-423, May.
    5. Fangfang Tan, 2008. "Punishment in a Linear Public Good Game with Productivity Heterogeneity," De Economist, Springer, vol. 156(3), pages 269-293, September.
    6. Tan Celine, 2019. "Beyond the ‘Moments’ of Law and Development: Critical Reflections on Law and Development Scholarship in a Globalized Economy," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 12(2), pages 285-321, June.
    7. Englmaier, Florian & Gebhardt, Georg, 2010. "Free Riding in the Lab and in the Field," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 344, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    8. Béatrice Boulu-Reshef & Samuel H. Brott & Adam Zylbersztejn, 2017. "Does Uncertainty Deter Provision of Public Goods?," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 68(5), pages 785-791.
    9. James C. Cox & Vjollca Sadiraj, 2007. "On Modeling Voluntary Contributions to Public Goods," Public Finance Review, , vol. 35(2), pages 311-332, March.
    10. Rodriguez-Sickert, Carlos & Guzmán, Ricardo Andrés & Cárdenas, Juan Camilo, 2008. "Institutions influence preferences: Evidence from a common pool resource experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 215-227, July.
    11. Lederman, Daniel & Roubini, Nouriel, 2004. "Comments," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 123087, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Beverlley Madzikanda & Cai Li & Francis Tang Dabuo, 2021. "What Determines the Geography of Entrepreneurship? A Comparative Study Between Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 7(2), pages 246-262, July.
    13. Maertens, Annemie & Michelson, Hope & Nourani, Vesall, 2015. "Cooperative Behavior in Farmer Clubs: Experimental Evidence from Malawi," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205551, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Masel, Joanna, 2007. "A Bayesian model of quasi-magical thinking can explain observed cooperation in the public good game," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 216-231, October.
    15. Khan, Haider, 2023. "China’s Augmented National Innovation System (ANIS) and the Future: A Nonlinear Complex Systems Model with Application to Semiconductors and AI," MPRA Paper 116836, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Cardella, Eric & Depew, Briggs, 2016. "Testing for the Ratchet Effect: Evidence from a Real-Effort Work Task," IZA Discussion Papers 9981, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Joonho Shin & Xavier Mendoza & Changbum Choi, 2022. "Do internationalizing business group affiliates perform better after promarket reforms? Evidence from Korean SMEs," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 805-841, June.
    18. Ledyard, John O., "undated". "Public Goods: A Survey of Experimental Research," Working Papers 861, California Institute of Technology, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
    19. Chaudhuri, Ananish & Maitra, Pushkar & Graziano, Sara, 2003. "A Dynamic Analysis of the Evolution of Conventions in a Public Goods Experiment with Intergenerational Advice," Working Papers 152, Department of Economics, The University of Auckland.
    20. Altınok, Ahmet & Yılmaz, Murat, 2018. "Dynamic voluntary contribution to a public project under time inconsistency," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 114-140.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:lawdev:v:12:y:2019:i:3:p:865-885:n:10. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.