12th B G Kumar Lecture

Abstract

The publication of ‘The East Asian Miracle’ report by the World Bank in 1993, which identified 8 HPAEs(High Performing Asian Economies) that experienced sustained rapid growth along with low and declining inequality since the 1960s, was a high mark in the debate on development policy centered on the lessons from the East Asian success. This lecture revisits the East Asian miracle 30 years after the World Bank research, and finds that growth in HPAEs decelerated substantially and inequality increased significantly, i.e. the ‘miracle’ disappeared, after the report. The deceleration of growth was inevitable not only due to the forces of diminishing returns as Krugman’s “The Myth of the Asian Miracle” argued but also because of the successful narrowing of their technological gap with the advanced Western economies that Krugman denied. The rise in inequality was a natural outcome of the unevenness of capitalist growth with inadequate social policy interventions, which had been hidden due to the exceptionally egalitarian initial distribution of assets and the subsequent rapid expansion of industrial employment during the miracle years. The concluding part of the lecture discusses the implications of theses findings and analyses on the future of the East Asian economies and the Asian century.

Dr. Jong-Il You graduated from Seoul National University and received his Ph. D in Economics from Harvard University. He taught at University of Cambridge, UK, University of Notre Dame, USA and Ritsumeikan University, Japan before taking Professorship at the KDI School of Public Policy and Management. He also held Visiting Professor positions at University of California, San Diego, USA and University of Beijing, China. He has published numerous articles in such areas as economic growth, income distribution, macroeconomic policies, development and labor issues. He has also authored and edited fifteen volumes, including his most recent brainchild and an influential policy proposal, ‘A Transformative New Deal’. As an active policy advisor, Dr. You served as a member of the Presidential Committee on Northeast Asia Economic Hub and chaired the Special Committee on Economic Democracy of the Democratic Party. He also served as a member of the Public Funds Management Committee, the Advisory Committee for the Constitution Revision Committee of the National Assembly, and the Commission on Financial Administration Reform. In addition, Dr. You has been an influential advocate of economic and political reforms as a broadcaster, columnist, and a leader in civic movement. He founded and led Knowledge Cooperative for Good Governance, a network of reform-minded researchers, and Jubilee Bank, an NGO working to help the debt-stricken. Since April 2020, he has been advising the government on its COVID-19 responses as a member of the Everyday Quarantine Committee and the Daily Recovery Support Committee.