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

韩国（KR）自朝鲜战争（1953年）以来一直是经济增长最快的时期之一。在不到50年的时间里，它从一个贫穷的国家发展成为一个大规模的技术出口国。在这半个世纪中，KR利用政府使用的七个“五年计划”来增加财富并提供明确的结构目标。第一个五年计划于1962年实施，旨在扩大能源工业，投资于增长型基础设施。第一个五年计划的一个基本方面是新村运动（SMU）--由朴正熙总统提出的政府倡议，有助于缩小农村和城市地区之间的发展差距。这是基础设施的基础，以提高农业的效率。它于1970年推出，被称为新社区运动。该项目选择了33，267个村庄，向他们提供了335袋水泥（浦项市政府，2017年）。然后，那些村庄被告知要以合作和有效的方式发展他们的地区。那些表现出最大希望（合作和表现出领导力）的村庄又得到了500袋水泥和一吨铁条，总共有16，600个村庄进入了下一波。这场运动的目标旨在改善农村基础设施，促进组织和社区领导，除了灌输自助和合作的价值观作为发展的驱动力（旺，1981年）。SMU所取得的成就现在受到现代发展政策制定者的赞扬和利用，使其成为在现代背景下研究和评估其可信度的适当方案（So，2018）。本文旨在突出这一发展方案对这些领域的长期影响，确定那些在SMU初始阶段取得成功的村庄和那些没有获得成功的村庄之间的最终发展差异。更多支持方案。这是为了确定这种成功如何可以与KR目前正在应用的新社区运动计划相媲美，以发展中的亚洲和非洲国家。这项研究利用回归不连续方法来研究长期的经济和精神影响，比较SMU的两个要素：首先，比较未接受治疗地区的长期发展影响（由于过于发达）与接受它的人相比;第二个比较是在第一波后接受进一步治疗的人与那些没有进展的人之间。这项研究的目的是确定长期的，鉴于该计划目前在非洲和亚洲发展中地区实施，同时考虑到现代背景，这项研究延伸到审查发展执行的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项来进行，确定发展的时机如何影响环境库兹涅茨曲线的转折点，即经济增长不再导致环境退化的速度增加。

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.