The Transition to Export-led Growth in South Korea: 1954–1966

Abstract

Two basic positions have framed recent debates about South Korea's remarkable economic growth. The neoclassical position traces South Korea's take-off to a set of policy reforms in 1964 and 1965 that launched the country on the path toward export-led growth (Frank, Kim, and Westphal 1975; Kuznets 1977; Krueger 1979). Policy was far from laissez-faire, but on the whole, the reforms moved Korea in a more market-oriented direction that sought to exploit Korea's comparative advantage. The “statists,” by contrast, detail the pervasive intervention of the Korean government in the economy, even after the shift toward an outward-oriented strategy. Moreover, they argue that such intervention promoted rapid economic growth (Leudde-Neurath 1985; Jones and Sakong 1980; Amsden 1989).

Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries

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Neo‐mercantilist Policies and Sectoral Politics: Taiwan's Acquiescent Working Class

“…Later, responding to American pressure and a series of domestic economic and political problems, the development strategy shifted to export orientation in the early 1960s (Haggard and Pang 1994;Haggard, Moon and Kim 1991;Wade 1990: Appendix B). In the early 1950s, as the government aimed to stabilize the post-war economy, the primary industrial policy was import substitution.…”

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