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Seoul Journal of Economics
[ Article ]
Seoul Journal of Economics - Vol. 14, No. 1, pp.59-125
ISSN: 1225-0279 (Print)
Print publication date 28 Feb 2001
Received 15 Oct 2001 Revised 27 Nov 2001

Economic Growth in Korea (1911-1999): A Long-Term Trend and Perspective

Hak K. Pyo
Professor, School of Economics, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea, Tel: +82-2-880-6395 Pyohk@plaza.snu.ac.kr

JEL Classification : C22, O42, O53

Abstract

This paper provides a consistent and synthetic time-series data for the Korean economy during the twentieth century. The data being covered are value-added, employment, and capital stocks by industries during the period of 1911-99. The main sources of data are Mizoguchi and Umemura (1988) for the colonial period (1911-38) and Pyo (1998) and Pyo and Kwon (1999) for post-war period (1953-99). The data for the interim period (1939-52) are either compiled from alternative sources of data or imputed by econometric method of estimating missing observations. In order to link pre-war data with post-war data of the Republic of Korea, the pre-war data are divided between South and North Korea. The examination of long-run data provides the evidence that the continuous capital accumulation and the increase in labor productivity through industrial structural adjustment were the main sources of its late industrialization. We find the growth of the Korea economy during the twentieth century has been basically of input-driven nature with very little contribution of total factor productivity reaffirming Krugman (1994) and Pyo and Kwon (1999). But the relative contribution of total factor productivity in Mining and Manufacturing sector has not been insignificant implying that the input-driven growth was made possible through both inter-industry and intra-industry capital transformation in mainly Manufacturing sector.

Keywords:

Long-term growth, Capital accumulation, Total factor productivity

Acknowledgments

The earlier version of this paper was written while the author was visiting professor at the Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo. It was presented at International Research Workshop on Asian Historical Statistics Database, organized by Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, 7-8 January 2000. I am grateful to University of Tokyo, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University, and Sooam Foundation which provided financial support for the research. I acknowledge the research assistance by Kyu-Il Kim of Seoul National University.

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