Confronting South Korea's Next Crisis

Rigidities, Polarization, and Fear of Japanification
Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-0-19-886442-4
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 648 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 239 mm, Gewicht: 1075 g

South Korea's economic miracle is a well-known story. However, today Korea is confronting a new set of internal and external risks, which may foreshadow the next crisis. The Korean economy has been struggling with the faltering growth momentum and the rise of unprecedented socio-economic problems over recent years well before the pandemic crisis. After abrupt downshifts to markedly slower growth in the early 2000s, economic growth has continued to decelerate. Koreans are grappling with slow income growth, all time-high household debt, high youth unemployment, inequality, and social polarization. Politics is in disarray and is incapable of directing social discourse for the common good. Rapid population aging along with the world's lowest fertility rates stokes fears of Japanification. Simultaneously, disruptive technologies and fast-changing business environment such as the rise of China clash with a range of long-standing structural problems. The contemporary challenges are radically different from those seen in the early stages of industrialization. There are multiple risks that threaten to self-perpetuate low or stagnant growth over the next decade or so, if not an outright financial crisis.

Motivated by these latest developments, this book seeks to provide a timely and in-depth analysis of key current issues and foreseeable challenges of the economy, with a provocative reassessment of its future. Based on extensive new empirical works, it examines the underlying causes of the socio-economic problems. In a constructive spirit, it puts in perspective what would constitute critical elements of ideal policy solutions and the direction of the future government's role.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Woo, Jaejoon

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Bereichsspezifisches Management Außenhandel
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Wirtschaftswachstum
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gewalt und Diskriminierung: Soziale Aspekte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftspolitik, politische Ökonomie
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Internationale Wirtschaft Internationaler Handel
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Wirtschaftsprognose

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Part 1: Longer-term Outlook, Challenges, and Issues

- 1: Introduction: Overview of Contemporary Issues and Challenges

- 2: (Why) Is the Current Recovery So Different from the Past?

- 3: Taking the Long View of Economic Growth, Part 1: Recent Growth Deceleration, Convergence Debate, and Structural Issues

- 4: Taking the Long View of Economic Growth, Part 2: Population Aging, Private Debt, and Japanification Risk

- 5: Social Polarization and Inequality of Income and Wealth

- 6: Jobs and Wages: Sectoral Shifts, Technological Change, and Structural Rigidities

- Part 2: Political Economy of Economic Policy

- 7: Are There Political Business Cycles in Korea?

- 8: Korean Presidents and Major Policy Agenda over the Last Three Decades

- 9: Korea's Monetary policy and Challenges for the Bank of Korea

- 10: Looming Fiscal Challenges: Polarization, Populism, Population Aging, and Debt

- Part 3: Trade, Capital Markets, and Currency

- 11: A Case for Korea as a Developed Market?

- 12: Korea Joins the League of Wealthy Nations

- Part 4: North Korea

- 13: North Korea: Known Unknowns and Unknown Unknowns

- Part 5: Epilogue

- 14: Final Thoughts

Über Autor(innen)

Jaejoon Woo is an Associate Professor of Economics at DePaul University. Previously, he served as Chief Korea Economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and as Senior Economist at the IMF. Also, he held an economist position at the OECD. He served as Member of the International Finance Development Council for Ministry of Strategy and Finance. He taught at Harvard University, Helsinki School of Economics (now Aalto University), and Sciences Po. He received his PhD in economics from Harvard University, and his research areas include macroeconomics, political economy, fiscal policy, inequality, and Korea. He wrote over 145 market-oriented research notes on Korea at BAML, and published 3 books and 32 articles, including in the leading economics journals such as Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Public Economics, European Economic Review, Journal of Development Economics, and Economica. His works are featured in The Economist and Financial Times.