ABSTRACT
Korea is a prototype of the newly industrialized economy, yet in a number of important respects its development path does not conform to the myths that have grown up around the policies and practices that allegedly led to the emergence of the newly industrializing countries (NICs) and which today continue to inform debates about the role of the market and of the state, the kind of macroeconomic environment needed for growth, and the importance of specialization in production and trade. Nor has Korean industrial development consisted mainly of “rapid movement along prevailing production functions” with few gains in efficiency, as some accumulation theorists have argued (see, for example, Krugman 1994; Young 1993; Kim and Lau 1994). To understand better the factors that have contributed to the process of industrial catch-up in Korea, and more importantly to its sustainability, one must look elsewhere than to these conventional approaches.
