South Korea’s Poverty Reduction Strategy During its Middle-Income Stage of Development

Abstract

This paper is one of three country studies of successful anti-poverty measures during upper-middle-income levels, the other two being Japan and the United States. South Korea may well be the most successful case of economic development in recorded history. Within two generations, it was transformed from a post-conflict country to a post-industrial society that has low poverty rates, high per capita income levels, and close to the highest educational attainment, health outcomes and living standards in the world. The paper attributes South Korea’s success in reducing poverty to a sequenced combination of measures aimed at agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods, export-oriented industrialization and urbanization, and early and sustained investments in human capital. It provides details that may be useful for formulating anti-poverty strategies middle-income countries that are on the cusp of high-income.