Deciphering the Miracle on the Han: Lessons for the World on How South Korea Escaped Poverty and Transformed its Economy

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Starting in the 18th century a wave of technological innovations transformed the British economy. This marked the turning point in Britain becoming the rich country as we know it today. Much like Britain, South Korea witnessed a dramatic change in circumstances in the 20th century. South Korea began as a poor country before joining the ranks of the rich several decades later. The speed at which South Korea transformed is unprecedented, with the term 'the miracle on the Han River' being coined to describe this moment in history. Our goal is to decipher how this miracle took place. Despite South Korea's success, this period remains remarkably understudied in the mainstream English-language economics literature. Likely reasons include challenges in accessing data, language barriers, and a lack of understanding of the historical context. Our hope is that through the ESRC AHRC connections grant we can overcome these barriers to gain new insights on this fascinating period. Deciphering the miracle on the Han will help answer a fundamental question facing economics: why do some areas become rich, but not others? And, more importantly, is there anything governments can do to help this process?Our main objectives are to:1. Link renowned economists in economic growth and poverty alleviation from the London School of Economics (LSE) with leading economic historians of South Korea's economic transformation.2. Bring together scholars from Europe, North America, and South Korea to present the latest research on South Korea's historical economic development to determine what, so far, we know and do not know about South Korea's growth story. Workshops in both South Korea, hosted by Sogang University, and the UK, hosted by LSE, are planned.3. Fund early-career researcher exchanges to harness recently digitised and previously unavailable historical survey and administrative data to create an unprecedented dataset capturing all aspects of South Korea's economic transformation. This opens opportunities to develop collaborative projects within economics and across other fields.4. Develop new relationships with other important local agencies such as the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS), the Korea Development Institute (KDI), and the Korean Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). 5. Feed results from research generated through these connections into global thinking on what effective development policy should look like, of which the UK and increasingly South Korea are key players. Extra emphasis will be on using existing links with FCDO to impact the UK's Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy.