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

6•25战争（1953年）之后，韩国迎来了有史以来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。在这半个世纪里，韩国政府利用了七个“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。最初的五年计划的一个基本方面是新村发展运动（SMU），这是朴正熙总统提出的政府倡议，有助于缩小农村和城市之间的发展差距。这是一个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。该计划涉及选择33,267个村庄，并向他们提供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有效的方式开发他们的地区。那些表现出最大希望（合作和表现出领导能力）的村庄被进一步给予500袋水泥和一吨铁棒，总共有16600个村庄进入下一波。这场运动的目标是改善农村基础设施，促进组织和社区领导，以及灌输自助和合作作为发展驱动力的价值观（Whang, 1981）。新大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合适方案（So,2018）。本文旨在强调该发展计划对这些地区的长期影响，确定在新大初期阶段取得成功的村庄与在该计划中没有得到更多支持的村庄之间最终的发展差异。这样做的目的是确定如何将这种成功与KR目前正在应用于亚洲和非洲发展中国家的新社区运动计划相模仿。本研究利用回归不连续方法对SMU的两个要素进行了比较，考察了长期经济和环境影响：首先，比较了未接受治疗的地区（由于太发达）与接受治疗的地区的长期发展影响；第二次比较是在最初一波治疗后接受进一步治疗的人与没有进展的人之间进行比较。该研究旨在确定该计划的长期可转移性，因为它目前在非洲和亚洲发展中地区实施，同时考虑到现代背景。该研究扩展到研究发展实施的滞后如何影响不同领域与环境退化的关系。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，在那里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.