Question

1. Korea in the 1980s and early 1990s became heavily dependent on technology transfers until Japanese firms began withholding technology from Korea. Why did the Japanese do this? How did this affect Korea’s markets?

2. Because of its tremendous and early success in building of export industries, many economists have pointed to South Korea as an example of successful export-led growth. However, economist Alice Amsden and others argue that Korea was anything but a model of free markets and free trade. Discuss this.

Answer 1

The Japanese firms decided to withhold technology from Korea in order to emerge as the technology world leader and increase its own productivity and efficiency and not allowing other countries like Korea to copy the technology and benefit from it. Japan wanted itself to be the main superpower in the world economy. This affects Korean markets adversely, as these markets were heavily dependent on Japan for technological innovations, and now with Japan withdrawing this support, Korea initially crippled and failed miserably in the initial days to meet consumer demands. Its growth rate and productivity also fell drastically. Both the arguments are correct. While it is widely known that S.Korea resorted to free trade and adopted a policy of export led growth in order to increase its trade and GDP, it was possible only because it adopted a policy of free trade and markets, removing all types of government n. This led to S.Korean pr the world and increase their export income and GDP