Has Korea Liberalized its Economy in the Wake of the 1997 Financial Crisis?

In the wake of the 1997 financial crisis, Korea was pressed to liberalize its economy by the IMF. Has this liberalized Korea’s economy?; or state capitalism and crony Western capitalism have been wedded under the pretense of liberalizing its economy?...

It Korea had truly intended to liberalize its economy, they shouldn’t have employed excessive government interventions. As pointed out, a considerable portion of Korea’s policy actions has fuelled the misallocation of capital and induced pain for the middle class in the long haul…

Of course, liberalizing an economy involves proper regulation…

The very economic strategy Korea has pursued to achieve its rapid economic growth has the fundamental flaws and is bound to hit the wall. This holds true for Japan and China. Its growth model has been at the mercy of consumers. That’s why Japan, whose economy inspired Korea, had to agree on the Plaza Accord and has never recovered since then. In a way, the U.S. has indirectly controlled the monetary policy of Japan, Korea, and China since they have maintained the dollar peg…

We understand Korea’s needs to balance its economic concern with international politics concern. Even so, its excessive policy apparatus has done more harm than good for the overall well-being of a country…

Liberalizing Korea’s economy in a genuine sense would lead to a fairer economic system and more democratic society with more opportunity and liberty.

Toward this, its political system may have to agree on fair burden-sharing. Politics has overridden economics, regardless of which party is in power. The power elite’s values, virtues and moral fiber don’t seem to have changed much since the 1997 financial crisis.

(A detailed analysis on this topic won’t be shared due to the proprietary nature of the content.)