본문 바로가기
  • Home

Income led growth in Korea: issues, implications and roles

Kim, Tae Il 1

1고려대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to evaluate Korea's income-led growth policy that is still in dispute. To do this, I discussed the content, background and implications of the income-led growth theory. Next, I discussed the role of income-led growth as a growth strategy in the Korean economy. The income-led growth theory comes from the Keynesian tradition which emphasizes the role of demand in the economic growth. The basic idea emerged nearly 80 years ago, and the current model emerged about 30 years ago. Some of the Korean researchers began to pay attention to this issue when ILO researchers discussed it in 2010. The recent emphasis on in come-led growth theory was due to the tendency of declining labor income, thus forming a consensus that increasing inequality can hamper growth. The effectiveness of the income-led growth strategy, which can lead to economic growth by increasing the share of labor income, is theoretically and empirically controversial. However, it is understandable why income-led growth strategies have emerged. Income-led growth is not a short-term strategy nor a key of growth strategy. However, in current socio economic structures, the prescriptions of income-led growth theory is meaningful in that it enables sustainable growth by making the economic system healthy. In addition, unlike the West, the government's welfare expenditure can play a significant role as part of the income-led growth prescriptions in Korea.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.