Economic development population policy and demographic transition in the Republic of Korea

Korea is an interesting case study for the student of development. Since the early 1960s the Korean experience represents a fairly extreme example of 1 development strategy--the open export led labor intensive model. Since the onset of rapid economic growth in the early 1960s which was triggered by a set of liberalizing economic policy reforms manufactured exports have expanded at an average annual rate of over 25% and have provided much of the impetus for the growth of industry and industrial employment. Expanded domestic markets for intermediates and capital equipment have brought substantial import-substituting industrial growth and a relative abundance of domestic and international finance. Another aspect of Koreas experience which makes it valuable as a case study is the fact that the country entered this period of development with an exceptionally equally distributed stock of human and physical wealth. The Korean case represents close to an extreme in 2 dimensions: rapid open export led labor intensive growth combined with markedly egalitarian initial social and economic structures. For the student of demographic transition Koreas experience is noteworthy because of the rapidity of change. The crude birthrate declined 40% between 1960-75. The mechanisms and socioeconomic determinants of this transition are questions of substantial interest to those concerned with population problems. Professor Tai Hwan Kwon illuminates the historical antecedents to this period of rapid demographic change. His contribution to this volume demonstrates how critical a historical perspective is to a complete understanding of the transition. It was the drastic upheaval of Korean society during the wartime period from 1939-53 that set the stage for fertility transition. The dislocations and destruction of the Korean War completed the process. The war greatly weakened the family structure of Korean society and put and end to early marriage. In addition to affecting family values and birth control practice in Korea it directly interfered with family formation and fertility. Robert Repetto explores the channels of influence through which the economic development of Korea affected the demographic transition. Kim demonstrates that the policies with the most pronounced effect of population growth and distribution have been implicit and indirect. The chapter by Kim and Sloboda sheds some light on the economic forces behind migration through the analysis of new data on the economic characteristics of migrants.