Abstract
Korea achieved a remarkable economic growth in the 1960–1970s after its economic foundation was ruined by Korean War (1950–53). This rapid growth is generally called as the ‘Miracle on the Han River’. During the miraculous period, Korea achieved not only economic growth, but also a remarkable improvement in the standards of living including control of diseases, expansion of educational opportunities, increase in consumption, reduction of inequalities and so on. The improvement in living standards in the 1960–1970s has been a significant foundation that has led to a successful economic development today.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
As the germ theory was introduced in the later 19th century, various campaigns for improving personal hygiene were conducted. They were very effective in decreasing morbidity rates from infectious diseases (Centers for Disease Control 1999). Typhoid fever is one of the infectious diseases that were more fatal in the United States until the early 20th century. It is well studied that typhoid fever began to be controlled as water and sewer system had been built in large cities since the late 19th century (Ferrie and Werner 2008). Moreover, the United States succeeded in eradicating hookworm in the 1910s and malaria in the 1920, which were prevalent in Southern states with hot and wet climatic conditions. The eradication contributed to not only improving disease environment but also enhancing human capital accumulation among populations (Bleakley 2007; Hong 2013a, b). In summary, campaign for better hygiene, construction of public health infrastructure and control of diseases were the key factors that substantially reduced mortality rates from infectious diseases and considerably improved life expectancy.
- 3.
From the 1980s, Korea had more concerns on public-health issues of chronic diseases rather than infectious diseases. Korea government responded the change by introducing new policies and programs such as national insurance program, campaign for improving life style like quitting smoking.
- 4.
As discussed in the previous section, an individual’s height depends on net nutritional status, i.e., nutritional supply minus demand. Thus, the increase of average height at age 17 would imply not only the increase of caloric intake, but also the reduced risk of exposure to infectious diseases.
- 5.
In the 1960s, the national tuberculosis eradication project established regional TB examination offices, provided facilities for decoding X-ray results, and supported national survey of tuberculosis and BCD production. The project conducted in the 1970s includes establishing Korean Institute of Tuberculosis, improving X-ray test equipment, building up the international-level training program for tuberculosis management (Korean National Tuberculosis Association). On the other hand, the maternal and child health care project was conducted as a family-planning project at the beginning years. It was the mid-1980s that the project began to provide health-promoting programs for expecting mothers and infants (National Archives of Korea Online DB).
- 6.
Almond and Currie (2011) well summarize existing studies that have examined the significance of early-life conditions and the long-term impact of investment in early life on later outcomes.
- 7.
On the contrary, the decline of fertility rate can be caused by increased labor force participation among females.
- 8.
The birth-control project in the 1960–1970s has been considered as one of the most successful national projects. Most of all, the project has been thought to induce nation-wide voluntary participations. Various organizations such as community health-care centers, Korean Association of Family Plan, women’s societies of the new village movement play leading roles to induce national participation.
- 9.
The category of food, clothing and shelter in Table 1.1 contains the expenditure for food, non-food beverages, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, clothing, shoes, rent, and various utilities.
- 10.
When we use infant mortality rate, we use ‘x – min(x)’ as the value of numerator in the index formula above rather than ‘max(x) – x’ because living standards increase as infant mortality rate decreases. On the other hand, we use the values of maximum and minimum within sample data, respectively, for max(x) and min(x).
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Hong, S.C. (2019). Improvement in Living Standards in the 1960–1970s and Economic Development in Korea. In: Hosoe, M., Ju, BG., Yakita, A., Hong, K. (eds) Contemporary Issues in Applied Economics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7036-6_1
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