IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/glecrv/v34y2005i2p213-231.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Cultural Analysis of South Korea's Economic Prospects

Author

Listed:
  • O. Yul Kwon

Abstract

This study analyses cultural effects on economic development in South Korea. It introduces the concept of transaction costs as an operational intermediary between culture and economic development. Using this approach, it is found that culture affects economic development through its impacts on transaction costs in the static case. In the dynamic case, culture affects the economy through its impacts on the creative capacity of citizens. To assess the role of culture in future economic development, recent changes in Korean culture are examined. These include rising individualism and declining sense of community and trust; weaker appreciation of cooperation, compromise, and acceptance of dissent, and rising inclination towards confrontation; and the failing rule of law and rising perception of injustice. These all raise transaction costs. In addition, the future orientation is fading, as suggested by decreasing savings and investment rates, and by decline in the fertility rate. In view of these recent changes, Korean culture will have a negative effect on the future economy, compared to its positive influence in earlier decades from the 1960s. Culture is therefore not ceteris paribus. Even if all else remains the same, the prospects of the Korean economy will be tainted by the influence of culture.

Suggested Citation

  • O. Yul Kwon, 2005. "A Cultural Analysis of South Korea's Economic Prospects," Global Economic Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(2), pages 213-231.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:glecrv:v:34:y:2005:i:2:p:213-231
    DOI: 10.1080/12265080500117541
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/12265080500117541
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/12265080500117541?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. Doh Shin & Conrad Rutkowski & Chong-Min Park, 2003. "The Quality of Life in Korea: Comparative and Dynamic Perspectives," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 3-16, April.
    2. Steve Pejovich, 2003. "Understanding the transaction costs of transition: it's the culture, stupid," ICER Working Papers 24-2003, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    3. Ho-Chul LEE & Mary P. MCNULTY, 2003. "Korea's Economic Crisis and Cultural Transition toward Individualism," ESRI Discussion paper series 071, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    4. North, Douglass C, 1994. "Economic Performance through Time," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 359-368, June.
    5. Svetozar Pejovich, 2003. "Understanding the Transaction Costs of Transition: it's the Culture, Stupid," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 16(4), pages 347-361, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Simon Feeny & Heather Mitchell & Christine Tran & Matthew Clarke, 2013. "The Determinants of Economic Growth Versus Genuine Progress in South Korea," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(3), pages 1055-1074, September.

    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. Stephan F. Gohmann, 2012. "Institutions, Latent Entrepreneurship, and Self–Employment: An International Comparison," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(2), pages 295-321, March.
    2. Zweynert, Joachim & Goldschmidt, Nils, 2005. "The Two Transitions in Central and Eastern Europe and the Relation between Path Dependent and Politically Implemented Institutional Change," HWWA Discussion Papers 314, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWA).
    3. Judit Kozenkow, 2013. "New institutional economics: Foundations and latest trends," Society and Economy, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 35(1), pages 87-101, April.
    4. Nikolay Wenzel, 2007. "Ideology, constitutional culture and institutional change: the EU constitution as reflection of Europe’s emergent postmodernism," Romanian Economic Business Review, Romanian-American University, vol. 2(3), pages 25-47, September.
    5. Zweynert, Joachim & Goldschmidt, Nils, 2005. "The Two Transitions in Central and Eastern Europe and the Relation between Path Dependent and Politically Implemented Institutional Change," Discussion Paper Series 26391, Hamburg Institute of International Economics.
    6. Zweynert, Joachim & Goldschmidt, Nils, 2005. "The Two Transitions in Central and Eastern Europe and the Relation between Path Dependent and Politically Implemented Institutional Change," Freiburg Discussion Papers on Constitutional Economics 05/3, Walter Eucken Institut e.V..
    7. Anna E. Grabska, 2012. "Uwarunkowania ładu spontanicznego i stanowionego w gospodarce Polski okresu transformacji," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 5-6, pages 119-140.
    8. Michel Zouboulakis, 2010. "Trustworthiness as a Moral Determinant of Economic Activity: Lessons from the Classics," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(3), pages 209-221, January.
    9. Dimiter IALNAZOV & Nikolay NENOVSKY, 2010. "The Evolution of Post-Communist Countries: An Interpretation from the Perspective of Cooperation," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 1600, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.
    10. Andreea-Oana IACOBUTA, 2015. "Cultural Values And Regional Development In Romania," Journal of Public Administration, Finance and Law, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, vol. 7(7), pages 182-188, June.
    11. Joachim Zweynert, 2006. "Shared Mental Models, Catch-up Development and Economic Policy-Making: The Case of Germany after World War II and its Significance for Contemporary Russia," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 457-478, Summer.
    12. Peter J. Boettke & Christopher J. Coyne & Peter T. Leeson, 2015. "Institutional stickiness and the New Development Economics," Chapters, in: Laura E. Grube & Virgil Henry Storr (ed.), Culture and Economic Action, chapter 6, pages 123-146, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Graafland, Johan & de Jong, Eelke, 2022. "The moderating role of culture on the benefits of economic freedom: Cross-country analysis," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 280-292.
    14. Tarabar, Danko, 2017. "Culture, democracy, and market reforms: Evidence from transition countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 456-480.
    15. Peter J. Boettke & Rosolino A. Candela, 2020. "Productive specialization, peaceful cooperation and the problem of the predatory state: lessons from comparative historical political economy," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 331-352, March.
    16. Nikolai Wenzel, 2010. "From contract to mental model: Constitutional culture as a fact of the social sciences," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 23(1), pages 55-78, March.
    17. Kapás, Judit & Czeglédi, Pál, 2008. "Technológiai és intézményi változások a munkapiacon és a vállalati szervezetben. Nyugat- és kelet-közép-európai összehasonlítás [Technological and institutional changes on the labour market and in ," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(4), pages 308-332.
    18. Judit KAPà S & Pál CZEGLÉDI, 2007. "What Does Transition Mean?: Post-socialist and Western European Countries Paralleled," The Journal of Comparative Economic Studies (JCES), The Japanese Society for Comparative Economic Studies (JSCES), vol. 3, pages 3-28, December.
    19. Pavol Minárik, 2013. "Ekonomie náboženství a její relevance pro ekonomy ve střední Evropě [Economics of Religion and its Relevance for Economists in Central Europe]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2013(5), pages 691-704.
    20. Jessica Howell & Flagler College & Nikolai G. Wenzel, 2019. "Rationality in a fatalistic world: explaining revolutionary apathy in pre-Soviet peasants," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 18(1), pages 125-137, June.

    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:taf:glecrv:v:34:y:2005:i:2:p:213-231. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RGER20 .

    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.