South Korea has attained spectacular economic success in recent decades. It has reached the status of a Newly Advanced Economy, with challenges increasingly mirroring those faced by other advanced economies. These include the necessary upgrading of the labor force, the frictions of switching to a national system of innovation adapted to leadership in R&D, market-based economic policies that reflect the government’s difficulties in foreseeing future technological developments, and the consequences of social change for the innovation system and policy-making. In the forthcoming book the parallel challenges for innovation and technology for the Republic of Korea and other advanced economies will be analyzed more thoroughly with an international perspective in mind. This comparison and international benchmarking will allow policy makers and scholars to better appreciate how much the country has already moved into the circle of globally leading economies and what can be done to consolidate and strengthen its position.

South Korea has attained spectacular economic success in recent decades. It has reached the status of a Newly Advanced Economy, with challenges increasingly mirroring those faced by other advanced economies. These include the necessary upgrading of the labor force, the frictions of switching to a national system of innovation adapted to leadership in R&D, market-based economic policies that reflect the government’s difficulties in foreseeing future technological developments, and the consequences of social change for the innovation system and policy-making. In the forthcoming book the parallel challenges for innovation and technology for the Republic of Korea and other advanced economies will be analyzed more thoroughly with an international perspective in mind. This comparison and international benchmarking will allow policy makers and scholars to better appreciate how much the country has already moved into the circle of globally leading economies and what can be done to consolidate and strengthen its position.

The Korean government believes it can turn the country into one of the top 10 competitive economies by 2010. This volume offers an in-depth analysis of the Korean innovation system and shows how its science and technology policies actually work. As Korea’s economy is now reaching the status of a newly advanced economy, the book also takes a close look at ongoing structural changes in the course of economic globalization.

This book seeks to understand what a successful country like South Korea does after it has attained 'development' and economic maturity. It looks at Korea and Asian regionalism; Korean business and innovation strategies in Asia; and Asian migration and immigrants in Korea.

The Republic of Korea today is a highly industrialized, global leader in innovation and technology. It is the 10th largest economy in the world and has a per capita income approaching the average of OECD countries. In the 1950s, however, it was one of the world’s poorest countries, with decidedly bleak prospects. Its transformation has made Korea a well-known case study of successful development. Innovative Korea: Leveraging Innovation and Technology for Development summarizes the sources of Korea’s remarkable growth and the policies and institutional reforms that made it possible. The report focuses on Korea’s successful transition from a middle-income to a high-income economy. Korea escaped from the “middle-income trap†? by fundamentally transforming its growth paradigm to a more private-sector-led model emphasizing market competition, innovation, and technology. Compared to the previous emphasis on large fi rms and industries, the government became more focused on promoting small and medium enterprises and technology entrepreneurs. Exports expanded significantly through greater integration in global value chains. Already-high levels of human capital development were complemented by an expanded social safety net and a more integrated approach to education and training. Korea succeeded by focusing on the foundations of long-run growth, building global capabilities in innovation and technology, and adapting and evolving its growth paradigm to promote new sources of growth. Innovative Korea, jointly prepared by the World Bank and the Korea Development Institute, provides useful insights on Korea’s development story and practical lessons for public policy making.

The common roots of success and failure in economic growth and development lie in the systemic governance and fragmentation of institutional complementarities, respectively, but not in the unilateral adaptation of market-led or state-led models. To substantiate this argument, Akan utilizes case countries from the United States, South Korea, and Turkey—an advanced developed, a recently developed, and a developing country. Akan provides a simple framework for understanding two points that go beyond ideological obsession. The first is how a model of G&D works and evolves; with its economic, financial, industrial, and political dynamics intertwining. The second is why a market-led or state-led model succeeds and fails in both developed and developing countries.

The solar photovoltaic sector is moving forward very fast, both in terms of its own technological advancement and its standing among global renewable energy technologies. Rapid increases in solar cell efficiencies, fast technical change in solar batteries and solar glass, and economies of scale in production fuel its rapid adoption, and it is becoming clear that existing forecasts about its adoption need to be updated extensively. This timely and distinctive examination of the economic side of the field takes into account solar PV’s recent and growing lead among renewable energies competing to replace fossil fuels.