Missing Links in Understanding Korean Development

The 1990s and 2000s exhibited an explosion of work on the fastgrowing economies of East Asia, by individual scholars as well as international development institutions. Several influential books such as Johnson (1982), Amsden (1989), and Wade (1990) have explored the distinctive nature of the East Asian developmental state, especially the role of government in determining the allocation of resources to particular industries, in building industrial infrastructures through public firms, and in developing the educational system. A widely discussed report published by the World Bank (1993) on the East Asian “miracle” endeavored to draw lessons, not just from the experience of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan but also from four fast-growing economies in Southeast Asia—Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. They all pointed out that high-performing Asian economies are the only economies that achieve high growth and diminish inequality at the same time.