Growth Policy and Inequality in Developing Asia: Lesson from Korea

Hyun-Hoon Lee, Minsoo Lee and Donghyun Park

No DP-2012-12, Working Papers from Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)

Abstract: While developing Asia has traditionally prioritized growth over equality, recent years have witnessed a growing popular demand for more inclusive growth in the region. In this connection, Korea, which has managed to combine rapid economic growth and moderate inequality levels, offers potentially valuable lessons for developing Asia. The central objective of our paper is to analyze the relationship between growth policy and inequality in Korea in order to identify relevant policy implications for developing Asia. According to our analysis, the one policy that stands out as a driver of both rapid economic growth and more equal income distribution is large and systematic investments in public education. The broader positive lesson from the Korean experience is that growth and inequality do not necessarily go hand in hand, and government policy can make a difference.

Keywords: Growth; growth policy; inequality; Asia; Korea (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D30 O40 O43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages.
Date: 2012-07-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa and nep-fdg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.eria.org/ERIA-DP-2012-12.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:era:wpaper:dp-2012-12

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ranti Amelia ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).