Should-Read: Jong-Wha Lee: South Korea’s Looming Crisis

Should-Read: According to the IMF, South Korea is 30th in the world in GDP per capita—above New Zealand, Italy, Spain, and Israel. Shouldn’t the focus be on some of the things Korea does right, as well as “73rd… for labor-market efficiency… 58th for institutional quality… productivity in the services sector amounts to just 45% that of the manufacturing sector… compared with an OECD average of 90%”? In fact, why not say “productivity in manufacturing amounts to a massive 220% of that of the services sector, compared with an OECD average of 110%”? And do note that the U.S.’s vaunted “labor market efficiency” has plausibly been a net minus from any comprehensive societal well-being perspective over the past two decades…

Jong-Wha Lee: South Korea’s Looming Crisis: “More problematic, however, are South Korea’s low labor-market efficiency and weak institutions… https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/south-korea-nuclear-threat-economic-crisis-by-lee-jong-wha-2017-10

…According to the World Economic Forum’s latest global competitiveness report, South Korea ranks 73rd worldwide for labor-market efficiency, as a result of tight restrictions on employee-employer relations. And it ranks 58th for institutional quality, owing to excessive government regulations, opaque corporate governance, and policy instability. Finally, productivity in the services sector amounts to just 45% that of the manufacturing sector, on average, compared with an OECD average of 90%. The problem is most acute in finance, real estate, business services, and community and government services…