Policies·korea_export_subsidy_regime_1965_1979

Korea Export Subsidy Regime 1965 1979

KOR·1961 – 1979candidate

movessectoral licensing↑sectoral subsidy↑trade openness~rule of law↓

What the policy did

South Korea's export subsidy regime under Park Chung-hee combined preferential export credits at below-market rates, tariff exemptions on imported inputs, accelerated depreciation, sectoral tax reductions, and target-based allocation of foreign exchange and quota access. Co-ordinated through monthly export-promotion meetings chaired by the President, the regime tied firm-level rewards to performance against export targets and underpinned Korea's outward-oriented growth strategy.

Policy-content fingerprint — what this policy moved, on which axes

Per invariant 3, reforms are scored by what they did on each channel-separated axis, not by the party that enacted them. This fingerprint is how the policy-match engine finds historical analogues.

intended

↑

sectoral licensing

regulatory.sectoral_licensing

Sector-specific licensing regimes, concentration / quota allocation, state-controlled entry (energy, telecoms, healthcare, banking).

increased · weak

tighter sectoral licensing / more state gating

Performance-based licences and quota allocations conditioned firm participation in export sectors.

↑

sectoral subsidy

fiscal.sectoral_subsidy

Targeted industrial and sectoral subsidies (renewable energy, chip manufacturing, agriculture, green hydrogen, etc).

increased · weak

expanded sectoral subsidies

Tax breaks and credit subsidies reduced exporters' effective costs versus domestic-only peers.

trade openness

regulatory.trade_openness

Trade policy openness — tariffs, non-tariff barriers, FTAs, industrial protection.

mixed · weak

Outward-oriented incentives coexisted with high import protection on domestic-substitution goods.

↓

rule of law

institutional.rule_of_law

Rule of law as institutional substrate — contract enforcement, judicial independence, equal treatment before the law. Upstream of most other axes.

decreased · weak

weaker rule of law

Discretionary target-based allocation entrenched personalistic state-business relations.

Enacted by

park_chung_hee_industrial_policy_1961_1979

Empirical evidence — linked hypotheses

Explicit links are curated by the author. Inferred links are hypotheses in the library that test the same axes this policy moved — the framework's answer to "what does the data say about a policy like this?".

Estonia adopted among the most radical market-liberalisation packages of any post-Soviet state — flat tax (26% universal rate, 1994), currency board (EEK pegged to DM/EUR, 1992), rapid privatisation, unilateral free trade, and minimal capital controls — and by 2007 had recovered to Soviet-era GDP per capita levels and substantially exceeded them, while Belarusian and Ukrainian peers had not recovered comparably.

estonia_market_reform_post_soviet_growth_1991_2007inferred

viaregulatory.trade_opennessinstitutional.rule_of_law

PARTIAL — recovery threshold pass=True (year_recovered=1998, 2007 vs 1991 = 70.53282727739165); Baltic−CIS gap pass=False (gap=5.1509956229348575)

partial

Singapore's long-run prosperity and frontier convergence are better predicted by extreme trade openness, strong rule of law, competitive product and services markets, and high economic freedom than by state ownership or industrial targeting alone.

singapore_state_capacity_market_openness_comboinferred

viaregulatory.trade_opennessinstitutional.rule_of_law

PARTIAL — coef=-0.0001143, p=0.713 (above α=0.1); direction inconclusive

partial

Under Financial Secretary John Cowperthwaite (1961–1971) and successors, Hong Kong pursued near-laissez-faire economic policy — no capital controls, no industrial policy, minimal tariffs, low flat taxes, and light labour regulation; between 1960 and 1997 Hong Kong's GDP per capita rose from approximately $4,000 to $26,000 (2011 PPP), converging almost fully to UK levels and surpassing most continental European economies.

hong_kong_minimal_state_growth_miracle_1960_1997inferred

viaregulatory.trade_opennessinstitutional.rule_of_lawfiscal.sectoral_subsidy

SUPPORTED — HKG/USA per-capita ratio 1997 = 0.80 (>=0.80); HKG annualised growth 1960-1997 = +5.22%/yr (>=5.0).

supported

Across a broad panel of countries 1960-2019, higher trade openness predicts faster long-run convergence of real GDP per capita toward the global frontier (the United States) than industrial-policy intensity does.

trade_openness_long_run_income_convergenceinferred

viaregulatory.trade_opennessfiscal.sectoral_subsidyinstitutional.rule_of_law

PARTIAL — coef=+6.729e-18, p=0.00881; effect magnitude effectively zero

partial

Across emerging-market and developing economies 1990-2020, stronger contract enforcement — measured by years to resolve a commercial dispute, contract-enforcement index, and legal-origin dummies — predicts whether foreign-direct-investment inflows produce productivity spillovers to domestic firms rather than enclave effects.

contract_enforcement_fdi_productivity_spilloversinferred

viainstitutional.rule_of_lawregulatory.trade_opennessregulatory.sectoral_licensing

SUPPORTED — coef=+0.1145 (sign matches claim +), p=0.0196

supported

Hong Kong's long-run income convergence to the productivity frontier without classic industrial policy (sectoral targeting, directed credit, national champions, or SOE promotion) matches or exceeds that of developmentalist East Asian comparators after controlling for initial income, human capital, and trade openness.

hong_kong_no_industrial_policy_frontier_comparisoninferred

viaregulatory.trade_opennessfiscal.sectoral_subsidyinstitutional.rule_of_law

REFUTED — coef=-0.06133 (sign opposite claim +), p=7.33e-15

refuted

Across a broad panel of economies 1980-2020, market reforms (privatisation, trade liberalisation, and price decontrol) produce durable gains in real GDP per capita growth only when rule-of-law scores exceed a minimum threshold (WGI Rule of Law > -0.5, approximately the 40th percentile of the global distribution).

rule_of_law_market_reform_complementarityinferred

viaregulatory.trade_opennessinstitutional.rule_of_law

REFUTED — coef=-0.1483 (sign opposite claim +), p=0.00481

refuted

Canada’s long-run prosperity after the Canada–US Free Trade Agreement (1988) and NAFTA (1994) is more associated with market openness than with national industrial-policy initiatives.

canada_market_liberalisation_vs_state_industry_1988_2024inferred

viaregulatory.trade_opennessfiscal.sectoral_subsidy

INCONCLUSIVE_DATA_PENDING — treatment 'canada_post_1988' has no within-country variation under country fixed effects

run pending

Similar historical policies

Ranked by axis-fingerprint overlap with this policy. Direction match bolded — those are the closest historical analogues. Shape of the match is what drives policy-outcome comparison, not the country or party label.

Heavy and Chemical Industrialisation (HCI) drive — South Korea 1973-1979

KOR·1973

match

1.7

sectoral subsidytrade opennesssectoral licensing

Korea Directed Credit 1962 1979

KOR·1961

match

1.6

sectoral licensingsectoral subsidytrade opennessrule of law

Korea Hcidrive 1973

KOR·1961