Social Overhead Capital and Public Enterprise in Korea

Abstract

The Korean economy has grown very fast for the last two decades since 1962 when the First five Year Economic Development Plan was implemented. There is no denying that the steady growth has been made possible by the thrust and entrepreneurship of the private sector. This aspect needs no further elaboration. In so interpreting, one tends to neglect the role which the public sector has played in general, and the public enterprise in particular in the development and the structural transformation of Korean economy. It is indeed usually believed that the Korean economy, although it entails mixed-economy characteristics, is much more geared towards making use of the capitalistic principle of economic management than in some of developing economies.