Economic Growth In South Korea Research Articles

Causal dynamics between renewable energy consumption and economic growth in South Korea: Empirical analysis and policy implications

This paper examines the causal relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth in South Korea using a framework of the conventional neo-classical production function of capital, labor, and renewable energy. We use cointegration technique of the autoregressive distributed lag bounds test and vector error correction mechanism causality tests to determine the econometric relationship, using data for the period 1990–2012; the results support the conservation hypothesis for South Korea. The results of the autoregressive distributed lag bounds test show that renewable energy consumption has a negative effect on economic growth, and the results of a vector error correction mechanism causality tests indicate a unidirectional relationship from economic growth to renewable energy consumption. The empirical results imply that economic growth is a direct driver expanding renewable energy use. In terms of policy implications, it is best for policy makers to focus on overall economic growth rather than expanding renewable energy to drive economic growth.

Rural children’s work and school education in the context of rapid economic growth in South Korea

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how children’s work, defined in a broad sense, and the related values and attitudes concerning childhood have evolved in the context of rapid economic growth in South Korea. It discusses how ideas about children’s activities and their status and relationships within the family have changed and how children’s roles and responsibilities are seen by members of different generations. It interrogates the changing ideas of work in contemporary children’s lives and presents data from a relatively under-researched part of the world.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on semi-structured interviews with a mixed age group of people, including children, in a rural community in South Korea.FindingsIn decisions over their work and schooling during their childhoods, most adults did not appear to have shown any apparent agency with this passivity reflecting the cultural norms of the times. Conversely, rural children today often choose not to work but may not be able to exercise similar agency over their schooling. The research suggests a distinct generational change in the schooling experience with this going from being relatively unimportant, and sometimes unaffordable, to becoming universal and essential.Research limitations/implicationsInterviewing adults and children about what they do now or did in the past poses methodological problems. As the researchers found “child- friendly” or “child-centred” methods impractical in the particular research context, relaxed and semi-structured interviews were used with the children. The adult interviews presented different challenges: a lack of other sources of data meant that primary sources of evidence had to be recollections of past events. This means such recollections of childhoods may be mediated by an “adult” perspective and susceptible to bias. Current life circumstances may also determine the interpretive contexts through which they tell their stories and influence how they view the past.Originality/valueInternationally published research on South Korean childhoods is limited, with most focusing on the education system and the associated issues. Research of this type also rarely examines children's own views, their lives outside of school and the choices they make in their family contexts. This paper examines these under-researched areas.

The Impact of Education and R&D Investment on Regional Economic Growth

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of education and R&D investment on regional economic growth in South Korea. We develop a simultaneous model of production, human capital accumulation, migration, population and physical capital investment of two regions: the Seoul Metropolitan Area and the rest of Korea. We decompose the regional growth path into a quality path and a quantity path to identify how regional economies grow and run simulations to evaluate alternative policies in terms of effectiveness and adaptability. The impact of education and R&D investment on regional growth in the rest of Korea is only 22.3% of that in the Seoul Metropolitan Area due to lower elasticity values of young in-migrants with respect to the investment in the rest of Korea. An enhanced efficiency of regional human capital accumulation is effective and adaptable to alleviate regional economic disparity.

Capital in South Korea: 1966–2014

Using a recently released consistent set of data on stocks of wealth, we estimate wealth and its associated variables in South Korea during the period of 1966–2014. We find the following. First, with some fluctuations, the capital-income ratio $$(\beta )$$ has been steadily rising from 1966 to 2014. The level of the capital-income ratio in South Korea is also high relative to other OECD countries. A part of the reasons for it is a high level of government wealth in South Korea; the government in South Korea played an important role in capital accumulation. Another reason is that housing and land prices in South Korea have been high relative to national income levels; the capital-income ratio is likely to fall if housing and land prices fall in the future. Second, the capital income share $$(\alpha )$$ has also been increasing over the last half century, and it moves largely in the same direction as the top decile income share. Third, the rate of return on capital (r) has been lower than the income growth rate (g) until the late-1990s, but inequality is reversed after the late-1990s. That g having been bigger than r in South Korea for a long period of time (30 years) is sharply in contrast with the tendencies observed in other OECD countries, and is due to unusually fast economic growth in South Korea. Fourth, it appears that the capital gains-induced wealth growth is more important than savings-induced wealth growth in South Korea. In particular, the period of 1966–1979 exhibits the most significant capital gains-induced wealth growth; about 79% of the wealth growth is due to capital gains in that period.

Time-varying analysis of CO2 emissions, energy consumption, and economic growth nexus: Statistical experience in next 11 countries

This paper detects the direction of causality among carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, energy consumption, and economic growth in Next 11 countries for the period 1972–2013. Changes in economic, energy, and environmental policies as well as regulatory and technological advancement over time, cause changes in the relationship among the variables. We use a novel approach i.e. time-varying Granger causality and find that economic growth is the cause of CO2 emissions in Bangladesh and Egypt. Economic growth causes energy consumption in the Philippines, Turkey, and Vietnam but the feedback effect exists between energy consumption and economic growth in South Korea. In the cases of Indonesia and Turkey, we find the unidirectional time-varying Granger causality running from economic growth to CO2 emissions thus validates the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis, which indicates that economic growth is achievable at the minimal cost of environment. The paper gives new insights for policy makers to attain sustainable economic growth while maintaining long-run environmental quality.

Green Cities and “IT839”: A New Paradigm for Economic Growth in South Korea

The Korean government, like many in Asia, is actively building green cities from scratch—the most famous being Sejong, Songdo, and Cheongna. All these are considered models of green cities and are characterized by similar networked smart technological systems. This research builds on recent scholarly discourse by Anthony Townsend on smart technologies and urban planning, and Sofia T. Shwayri and Simon Joss on the “ubiquitous-eco-city” phenomena in Korea. In particular, it aims to extend Shwayri's hypothesis that the model is developed for export by uncovering the goals of the green city model actors. By tracing the national government's economic growth ICT strategy—“IT839”—and its key industry stakeholders, KT Telecommunications, this paper illuminates how Korea's green city model is being driven by an agenda of horizontal technology transfer in which the government has aimed to extend its traditional markets, and create a new paradigm for economic growth.

Is corruption bad for economic growth? Evidence from Asia-Pacific countries

This study utilizes the bootstrap panel Granger causality approach, which incorporates both cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity across countries, to investigate whether corruption negatively impacts economic growth in thirteen Asia-Pacific countries over the 1997–2013 period. The empirical results show that there is a significantly positive causality running from corruption to economic growth in South Korea, a significantly positive causality running from economic growth to corruption in China and no significant causality between corruption and economic growth for the remaining countries. According to the empirical results, we do not support the common perception that corruption is bad for economic growth for all thirteen Asia-Pacific. On the contrary, results of this study suggest that the “grease the wheels” hypothesis is supported for South Korea. Additionally, results of this study indicate that for most Asia-Pacific countries, policy makers’ use of anti-corruption policies to promote a country's economic development may not be effective. Finally, results of this study also suggest that for China, increase in economic growth leads to an increase in corruption.

Why is the South Korean growth experience different? An analysis of the differences of per capita GDP between South Korea and South Asian countries

The economic growth of South Korea, particularly from 1962 till now, has been at the least outstanding. There have been many explanations of the causes of this remarkable achievement of South Korea, with most of the explanations attributing the rapid industrialization and growth of South Korea to the adoption of an outward-looking strategy by the country in the early 1960s. The South Asian countries have been trying to adopt trade oriented strategies for many years now. But none of the South Asian countries has been able to reach the ‘developed country’ status as yet. Hence, this paper is an endeavor to find out what explains the differences in growth between South Korea and the developing countries of South Asia, and what we can learn from all this. The results suggest that the main factors that have evidently caused the differences in per capita GDP between South Korea and Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, on average, are labor, per capita human capital and physical capital. Trade openness is also another significant determinant, but their exact effects are not overwhelmingly positive, if the marginal effects estimated in this paper are taken into account. Financial liberalization is seen to be impacting differences in per capita physical capital more than differences in per capita GDP, but it is not statistically significant in all specifications. Hence, the most important lesson to be learnt from the South Korean growth experience is that, no matter how much a country increases trade or liberalizes its economy, if the country does not manage to improve its human capital and production technology through these policies, it will not prosper in the long run.

Editorial: Debating the links between education, training and national growth—An exercise in the design of compelling arguments, or affect versus intellect

The article discusses the social role of higher education in Africa and analyzes debate questions and strategy on the link between education, vocational training, and economic development. Other topics include the economic growth of South Korea, labor skill training in Brazil, and rules and procedures for debates.

The History and Quality of Korean-history Education to the Refugees from North Korea Hanawon

Since the late 1990s, the Refugees from North Korea(RNK) flowing into South Korea has increased. So, in July 1999, established the Hanawon, Republic of Korea Government has implemented social adjustment education for 2-3 months. Since 2004, Korean history education had begun, and its importance had been emphasized, educational materials were made in recent years. Since the beginning of Korean history education, the following features will be appeared at the content of education.<BR> 1) Korean history education for RNK is composed of two axes. One is ‘recovery of National homogeneity’, the other is ‘understanding of the differences between South and North’.<BR> 2) In premodern, history about Korean-culture and struggle against foreign nation is emphasized. Because Korean, regardless of the South and North, can empathize with cultural features and struggle. And it is possible to know that teaching materials are organized around Silla and Chosun, based on the historical understanding of South Korea.<BR> 3) In teaching materials, amount of modern and contemporary history that the difference between the south and north has occurred relatively is larger than the premodern history. This is intended to inform the unfamiliar South-Korea of RNK.<BR> 4) Contemporary history is illuminated from two aspects. One is economic growth of South Korea and the other is the development of liberal democracy. But it has placed a specific gravity in the economic aspect.<BR> Discomfort and confusion that RNK feel in South Korea will not be limited in economic part. It is also need to inform of the South Korean system’s historical features like democratic elections or civil society which are performed on a daily basis.

The Culture Change in Korean Society: Altruism vs. Egoism

The purpose of this study is to test how fast social change with high economic growth impacts Korean culture, especially in terms of altruism or egoism. The literature review shows the definitions which are tested as the main dimensions to categorize the nations' culture among OECD countries. Using data such as the rate of voluntary donation and public social support, it is hypothesized that the high rate of economic growth in South Korea changed Korean's culture to become more egoistic.

Government, Business and Finance in Korean Industrial Development

This paper reassesses the roles of government, business and finance in South Korea's economic growth and development. It argues that these extra-market mechanisms were each important, in their own ways, for solving coordination problems that would have otherwise posed obstacles to industrial growth. But what were solutions in the early stages of modern economic growth proved to be impediments later, as the problems that had to be solved changed but the institutions did not.

Information and Communications Technology, Economic Growth, and Carbon Emission Levels: The Case of South Korea

The paper deals with the impact of information and communications technology on carbon emissions and economic growth in South Korea. The quarterly time series data from the first quarter of 1970 to the third quarter of 2010 (163 observations) are collected and retrieved from the Bank of Korea database. The paper examines long-run equilibrium relationships using cointegration techniques and Granger causality with vector error correction models. In directional causality tests, information and communications technology shows highly significant positive effects on economic growth and marginal effect on carbon emissions. Carbon emissions and economic growth exhibit an inverse relationship with each other; that is, carbon emissions have an inverse relation to economic growth and economic growth does not significantly affect carbon emissions in South Korea. We also note possible implications regarding growth policies and the information communications technology and “green” technology sectors for economies in the range represented by Korea’s 1970- 2010 data.

Exports, imports and economic growth in South Korea and Japan: a tale of two economies

This article investigates the relationship between exports, imports and economic growth for South Korea and Japan by constructing a Vector Autoregression (VAR) model. Causality is examined between real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), real exports and real imports. Several principal results emerge from the empirical work. First, the three variables are cointegrated for both countries, implying that a long run steady state exists. Second, there is evidence of bidirectional causality between imports and economic growth for both countries. Finally, Japan seems to experience export-led growth, while GDP growth in South Korea has a negative effect on export growth. These contrasting findings could result from export goods in Japan exhibiting greater nonprice competitive aspects, although their success fails to trigger a virtuous circle since growth fails to lead to increased exports, while for South Korea, output growth leads to a decrease in export growth suggesting a strong domestic market.

Mapping urban growth probability in South Korea: comparison of frequency ratio, analytic hierarchy process, and logistic regression models and use of the environmental conservation value assessment

Rapid industrialization and economic growth in South Korea since the 1970s have resulted in severe environmental disturbance and pollution, problems aggravated by the imprudent expansion of urban areas. This paper analyzes and predicts urban growth patterns with the aim of contributing to more efficient urban planning. Urban growth probability index (UGPI) maps were prepared using the frequency ratio (FR), analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and logistic regression (LR) methods, with and without considering development restrictions based on the national environmental conservation value assessment map (ECVAM). Environmental and legal restrictions were associated with an average difference of 41.70% in conservation areas and an 81.32% average difference in agriculture and forest land use–land cover (LULC). Accuracy of the models was examined by area under the curve (AUC) analysis. Accuracies of UGPI maps produced with the ECVAM were higher than UGPI maps produced without the ECVAM. In addition, effectiveness and accuracy tests based on LULC showed that the UGPI maps produced with the ECVAM had a higher rate of accuracy that UGPI maps produces without the ECVAM. Using the ECVAM and assuming that urban and built-up areas will be 1.5 times greater than in 2005 and that environmental restrictions are removed, urban development can be expected to more than double in conservation areas and borderlands, increase by more than 1.5 times in developable areas, and decrease by half in old downtown areas. If legal restrictions are removed, urban development is expected to occur mostly in former conservation areas, followed by borderlands, old downtowns, and developable areas.

Rent-sharing: Organizational and technological innovations under military regimes in South Korea and Turkey

The concept of the developmental state suffers from its weak provision of an economic explanation as to why bureaucratic efficiency was the reason for the phenomenal economic growth in South Korea (19601990s) and Turkey (1990s2000s), especially during military regimes. Although neoclassical economics emphasizes the superiority of the free market to efficient bureaucracy, it also fails to unveil the black box of innovation among developing countries, especially when they are experiencing strong control by the military governments. Instead of the bureaucratic efficiency or the free market, we analyse conglomerate innovation structures under the institution of rent-sharing in South Korea and Turkey during the developmental phase. In doing so, we also try to find the reason for the delayed economic growth in Turkey despite its successful political independence and reforms in the 1920s, much earlier than those of South Korea in the 1960s, in the statebusiness relations. In South Korea the institution of rent-sharing cleared the uncertainties of technological innovation by first mandating organizational innovation, whereas the Turkish institution of rent-sharing did not mandate organizational innovation as an initial prerequisite to technological innovation.

Financial development and economic growth in South Korea: an application of smooth transition error correction analysis

This article investigates the influences of financial development on economic growth for South Korea. The analysis is performed using an error correction model and a nonlinear smooth transition error correction technique. Empirical results from the cointegration test reveal that there is a long-run equilibrium relationship among financial development and economic growth. We also demonstrate that the nonlinear specification is more appropriate than the linear model and confirm the presence of nonlinearity in the aggregate output. Furthermore, we find that the short-run effect of financial development on economic growth is unstable despite the positive long-term effect.

Memories of Migrant Labor: Stories of Two Korean Nurses Dispatched to West Germany

Making use of the oral life-history testimonies of two Korean nurses dispatched to West Germany (padok), this article analyzes what these women remember and how they give meaning to their migration experience. The memories and narratives of padok nurses were quite different from the dominant narrative on padok produced by the South Korean government, which emphasized the dispatched workers’ contributions to rapid economic growth and development of the nation. The memories of two Korean nurses that this article is based on, of course, do not represent all the memories of padok nurses. Nevertheless, their memories show us that their labor migration to West Germany was not forced upon them by government, but was, in large part, an individual choice made by the nurses themselves. The padok was important for the rapid economic growth of South Korea during the Park Chung Hee period. At the same time, West Germany, due to a shortage of labor in social service sectors, such as nursing, needed nurses from Korea. That is to say, padok nurses were indispensable to the social market economy of West Germany. The migration to Germany provided important opportunities for nurses seeking to escape from poverty and the fetters of patriarchy. The memories of these two Korean nurses reveal to us that the official narrative on the reasons and effects of padok in macro-historical terms do not fully capture the actual experiences of Korean workers. Therein lies the significance of padok women’s testimony about what they themselves remember and how today they evaluate their migration experiences and contributions. They deepen our understanding of the padok history of South Korea.

The impact of rapid economic growth and globalization on zinc nutrition in South Korea

Zn deficiency may be widespread in Asian countries such as South Korea. However, dietary habits have changed in response to rapid economic growth and globalization. Zn nutrition in South Koreans has therefore been assessed during a period (1969-1998) of unprecedented economic growth. Cross-sectional food consumption data from the Korean National Nutrition Survey Reports (KNNSR) of South Korea at four separate time points (1969, 1978, 1988 and 1998) were used to calculate Zn, Ca and phytate intakes using various food composition tables, databases and literature values. Nutrient values in local foods were cited from their analysed values. Average Zn intake was 5.8, 4.8 and 5.3 mg/d for 1969, 1978 and 1988 respectively, increasing to 7.3 mg/d in 1998 (73 % of the Korean Dietary Reference Intake). The phytate:Zn molar ratio decreased from 21 to 8 during the study period. Dietary Zn depletion due to marked decreases in cereal consumption, particularly barley which has a low Zn bioavailability, was counterbalanced by marked increases in the consumption of meat and fish, which are also Zn-rich foods. Reduced phytate consumption coincident with increased Zn intake suggests that Zn bioavailability also improved, particularly by 1998. Although total Zn intake was not greatly affected over the initial period of economic growth in South Korea (1969-1988), Zn contributions from different food sources changed markedly and both Zn intake and potential bioavailability were improved by 1998. The study may have implications for Zn nutrition in other Asian countries currently experiencing rapid economic growth.

Politics, Economics, and Defense Spending in South Korea

With the recent North Korean nuclear crisis, along with President Roh Moo Hyun’s emphasis on a self-reliance defense policy, the level of defense spending in South Korea has increased in recent years. Due to the sluggish economy, these increases in defense spending have been a cause for public concern. By developing a multilink defense-growth model based on macroeconomic theories while still accounting for political factors (such as transition from authoritarian rule to democratic government), the authors test the direct and indirect effects of defense spending on economic growth in South Korea via investment and unemployment from 1963 to 2001. The authors find that the overall impact of defense spending on economic performance is not harmful. One reason for this finding might be that high interest rates help maintain high rates of domestic savings, which prevents private investment decline. This experience may provide an important lesson to other countries