50 Years on From the Saemaul Undong Movement: A Long-term Economic & Environmental Analysis

韩国(KR)号称是朝鲜战争(1953)以来经济增长最快的时期之一。在不到50年的时间里，它已经从一个贫穷的国家发展成为一个大规模的技术输出国。在这半个世纪里，KR利用了政府使用的七个五年计划来增加财富并提供明确的结构性目标。第一个五年计划于1962年实施，旨在扩大能源行业，投资于基于增长的基础设施。最初的五年计划的一个基本方面是Saemaul Undon(发音为‘say-mowl un-don’)运动，这是朴正熙总统提出的一项政府倡议，有助于缩小城乡之间的发展差距。这是更有效率的农业基础设施的基础。它于1970年推出，被称为新社区运动。该方案选择了33,267个村庄，向它们提供了335袋水泥(浦项市政府，2017年)。然后，这些村庄被告知要以合作和高效的方式发展他们的地区。那些表现出最大希望(合作并展示了领导力)的村庄又得到了500袋水泥和一吨铁棒，总共有16,600个村庄进入下一波浪潮。这项运动的目标是改善基础设施，促进组织和以社区为基础的领导，并灌输自助和合作的价值观作为发展的驱动力(Wang，1981)。现代发展政策制定者现在赞扬和利用SMU的成就，这使得在现代背景下(因此，2018年)研究和评估其可信度是一个合适的计划。本文旨在强调这一发展计划对这些地区的长期影响，找出在SMU初期成功的村庄和那些在该计划中没有得到更多支持的村庄最终的发展差异。这是为了确定这种成功如何被KR正在应用于发展中的亚洲和非洲国家的当前新社区运动计划所效仿。本研究利用回归不连续性方法来检查SMU的两个要素的长期经济和环境影响：第一，与接受治疗的地区相比，未接受治疗的地区(由于处于发达状态)的长期发展影响；第二，在第一波治疗后接受进一步治疗的地区与没有进展的地区之间的比较。研究旨在确定由于该计划目前在非洲和亚洲发展中地区的实施，该计划的长期可转移性，同时考虑到现代化的背景。这项研究扩展到审查发展执行滞后如何影响不同地区与环境退化的关系。这将通过提供一个相互作用的术语来实现，确定发展的时机如何影响环境库兹涅茨曲线上的起点，在该曲线上，经济增长不再导致环境退化的速度加快。

South Korea (KR) boasts one of the fastest periods of economic growth ever recorded afterthe Korean War (1953). It has progressed from a poverty-stricken nation to a mass exporterof technology in under 50 years. During this half-century, KR has utilised seven 'Five-YearPlans' used by the government to increase wealth and provide clear structural goals. Thefirst of the five-year plans was implemented in 1962 and sought to expand the energyindustry, with investment in growth-based infrastructure.A fundamental aspect of the initial Five-Year Plan was the Saemaul Undong (pronounced'say-mowl un-dong') movement (SMU) - a government initiative introduced by President ParkChung-hee which contributed to the reduction in the developmental gap between rural andurban areas. This was the basis for infrastructure for a more efficient agricultural industry. Itwas introduced in 1970 and is known as the New Community Movement. The programmeinvolved the selection of 33,267 villages and provided them with 335 sacks of cement(Pohang Municipal Government, 2017). The villages were then told todevelop their area in a collaborative and efficient way. Those villages thatshowed the most promise (cooperated and demonstrated leadership) were givena further 500 sacks of cement and a tonne of iron bars, a total of 16,600 villagesprogressed to the next wave. The objective of this movement aimed to improverural infrastructure, promote organisation and community-based leadership, inaddition to instilling values of self-help and cooperation as driving forces fordevelopment (Whang, 1981). The achievements seen in the SMU are nowpraised and utilised by modern development policy-makers, making it anappropriate scheme to study and assess its credibility in a modern context (So,2018).This thesis aims to highlight the long-term impact this development scheme has had onthese areas, identifying the eventual development differences between those villages whowere successful in the initial stage of the SMU and those who received no more support inthe scheme. This is with the aim to identify how this success could be emulated with currentNew Community Movement schemes that KR is applying, to developing Asian and Africancountries.This study utilises regression discontinuity methods to examine the long-term economic andenvironmental impacts comparing two elements of the SMU: First, comparing the long-termdevelopment impact on those areas who did not receive the treatment (due to being too4 / 19developed) compared with those who received it; the second comparison is between thosewho received further treatment after the initial wave with those who did not progress.The study aims to identify the long-term transferability of this scheme due to its currentimplementation in African and Asian developing areas, whilst considering the moderncontext. The study extends to the examination of how lags in development implementationimpact different areas relationship with environmental degradation. This will be conductedby providing an interaction term, identifying how the timing of development impacts theturning point on the Environmental Kuznets Curve, where economic growth no longer leadsto an increasing rate of environmental degradation.