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

从18世纪开始，一波技术创新浪潮改变了英国经济。这标志着英国成为我们今天所知的富裕国家的转折点。与英国非常相似的是，韩国在20世纪见证了环境的戏剧性变化。韩国最初是一个贫穷的国家，几十年后进入了富裕国家的行列。韩国的转型速度是史无前例的，“汉江上的奇迹”这个词被用来描述这一历史时刻。我们的目标是破译这一奇迹是如何发生的。尽管韩国取得了成功，但在主流英语经济学文献中，对这一时期的研究仍然明显不足。可能的原因包括获取数据方面的挑战、语言障碍以及对历史背景的缺乏理解。我们希望通过ESRC AHRC Connections赠款，我们可以克服这些障碍，对这一迷人的时期获得新的见解。破译汉代的奇迹将有助于回答经济学面临的一个基本问题：为什么一些地区变得富裕，而另一些地区却没有？而且，更重要的是，政府可以做些什么来帮助这一进程？我们的主要目标是：1.将伦敦政治经济学院(LSE)著名的经济增长和扶贫经济学家与研究韩国经济转型的著名经济史学家联系起来。将来自欧洲、北美和韩国的学者聚集在一起，介绍关于韩国历史经济发展的最新研究，以确定到目前为止，我们对韩国的增长故事知道和不知道的地方。计划在韩国举办由Sogang大学主办的研讨会，以及在英国由伦敦政治经济学院主办的研讨会。投资早期研究人员交易所，利用最近数字化和以前无法获得的历史调查和管理数据，创建一个史无前例的数据集，捕捉韩国经济转型的方方面面。这为在经济学和其他领域开发合作项目提供了机会。与其他重要的地方机构发展新的关系，如韩国统计信息服务机构(KOIS)、韩国开发研究所(KDI)和韩国电力公司(KEPCO)。5.将通过这些联系产生的研究结果纳入关于有效发展政策应该是什么样子的全球思考中，英国和越来越多的韩国是这方面的关键参与者。额外的重点将是利用与FCDO的现有联系来影响英国的安全、国防、发展和外交政策综合审查。

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.