Economic Restructuring Policies in Korea

초록

Economic restructuring in Korea has been an attempt to seek new paradigm for Korean economic development. Recognizing and acknowledging the limitation of previous government-initiated, growth-oriented, and chaebol-centered pattern of economic development, the new paradigm tries to change the way economic development is carried out, whereby market principles and disciplines prevail as a norm and the performance is judged by profitability. With this purpose in mind, the Korean government has pursued structural reform measures forcefully in every sectors of the economy, among which I investigated the four sectors -corporate, financial, public, and labor. Indeed, what began as a short-term recovery measure for financial crisis, the economic restructuring in Korea is now pressing ahead with a more thoroughgoing, longer-term structural reform. The restructuring efforts look quite successful, for the economy is now out of the short-term liquidity crisis and is recovering fast. But, the recovery hasn't come without costs. Moreover, these attempts have been successful only to a limited extent, because many problems still remain to be resolved. For instance, an increasing budget deficit and a widening income disparity are particularly worrisome. Achieving long-term efficiency needs more time and energy. Most importantly, the reform measures taken so far have been limited largely to the institutional level, which are driven by the government. Korea's next task, therefore, is to extend the government-driven reforms to self-generating reforms by the private sector, thereby transforming Korea's economic system and business culture at its most fundamental and operative level. Put differently, the "hardware" aspects of reform should be extended to their "software" enhancement.