This report is an assessment of Korea's compliance with International Association of Insurance Supervisors' Insurance Core Principles (ICPs), as adopted in October 2011.
... See More + The review was carried out as part of the 2013 Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) assessment of Korea, and was based on the regulatory framework in place, the supervisory practices employed, and other conditions as they existed in April 2013. The assessment was carried out by Craig Thorburn, Lead Insurance Specialist, Non-Bank Financial Institutions Group, Capital Markets Practice, World Bank. The assessment is based solely on the laws, regulations, and other supervisory requirements and practices that were in place at the time of assessment.
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Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) 89501 MAY 01, 2014
This study intends to increase understanding of how different types of mobile money services have developed in different environments. For this purpose, two countries were selected, the Republic of Korea and Uganda.
... See More + From these study cases, some conclusions emerge. The development of mobile banking services can appear at different stages of financial sector development, but it requires a vibrant and competitive telecommunications sector. The regulatory environment does not need to be very sophisticated for the mobile industry to emerge. However, some elements appear to be important. The legal framework should allow (or at least not explicitly forbid) nonbank financial institutions to issue money and use banking agents or correspondents. To ensure wider use of the service by the population, it is important to educate the population on the benefits of mobile money services.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6786 FEB 01, 2014
In 2003, the Korean government introduced a broad package of public financial management reforms, which succeeded in integrating performance management into the budget process.
... See More + The experience of performance budgeting reforms in Korea underscores the importance of: 1) strong support from top decision makers; 2) customization of performance budgeting system to accommodate the country's cultural and socioeconomic characteristics; and 3) organizational restructuring and capacity building to support the new systems and processes. This brief explores performance budgeting in Korea, its features, and the success factors and policy implications.
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This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Korea. In a series of annual reports, Doing Business assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 189 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders.
... See More + This year's report data cover regulations measured from June 2012 through May 2013. The report is the 11th edition of the Doing Business series.
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This regional profile presents the Doing Business indicators for economies in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). It also shows the regional average, the best performance globally for each indicator and data for the following comparator regions: East Asia and the Pacific, European Union, Latin America, OECD High Income and South Asia.
... See More + The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2013, except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January to December 2012. Regional Doing Business reports capture differences in business regulations and their enforcement across countries in a single region. They provide data on the ease of doing business, rank each location, and recommend reforms to improve performance in each of the indicator areas. The report sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and employing workers. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 189 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. The data set covers 47 economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, 33 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 25 in East Asia and the Pacific, 25 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 20 in the Middle East and North Africa and 8 in South Asia, as well as 31 OECD high-income economies. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.
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This regional profile presents the Doing Business indicators for economies in OECD High Income. It also shows the regional average, the best performance globally for each indicator and data for the following comparator regions: European Union, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, South Asia, and Latin America.
... See More + The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2013, except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January to December 2012. Regional Doing Business reports capture differences in business regulations and their enforcement across countries in a single region. They provide data on the ease of doing business, rank each location, and recommend reforms to improve performance in each of the indicator areas. The report sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and employing workers. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 189 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. The data set covers 47 economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, 33 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 25 in East Asia and the Pacific, 25 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 20 in the Middle East and North Africa and 8 in South Asia, as well as 31 OECD high-income economies. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.
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The most important driver of this vision was public recognition that high levels of carbon dependent economic growth were not sustainable. This vision aimed to shift the existing development paradigm of quantity-oriented, fossil fuel-dependent growth to one of quality oriented growth, with more emphasis placed on energy independence and sustainability through such means as increasing the use of new and renewable energy resources.
... See More + From this standpoint, the green growth movement in the Republic of Korea appeared to be less an option than an essential path to achieving its vision of sustainable economic growth and the well-being of its people. The government established a legal framework on low carbon and green growth, set up a governance structure to implement green growth initiatives systematically, and established fiscal policies and budget resources to support the initiatives firmly. The purpose of this note is primarily to explain why Korea adopted a green growth strategy as a new national development paradigm and how it was implemented by the government. Section two illustrates why green growth was a necessity in Korea; section three describes how green growth was implemented by the Korean government, particularly with respect to institutional arrangements and fiscal adjustments for green growth; section four presents the key outcomes thus far; and lastly, section five identifies lessons that could be applied in other countries.
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Performance budgeting is considered one of the essential elements of public financial management reform and has been adopted in many countries.
... See More + However, it continues to present a significant challenge within the budget process. This case study draws from change management theories to tell the inside story of performance budgeting reform in the Republic of Korea, including the background of the reform, the formation of the reform team, and how the team overcame resistance among stakeholders to implement and institutionalize the performance budgeting system. Policy implications include the importance of (1) strong support from top decision makers and (2) customization of the performance budgeting system to accommodate a country's cultural and socio-economic characteristics. The Korean case also demonstrates that stable, sustainable performance budgeting reform requires capacity building of relevant stakeholders and, sometimes, significant restructuring of organizations to accommodate the new systems.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6353 FEB 01, 2013
A medium-term expenditure framework is considered an essential element of public financial management reform, and this framework has been adopted in many countries.
... See More + However, in terms of implementation in those countries, the medium-term expenditure framework continues to present a significant challenge within the budget process. This case study provides an inside story of medium-term expenditure framework reform in the Republic of Korea and offers some suggestive evidence about the impact of the reform. Drawing on theories of change management, the study explores how actors within the Korean government created acceptance of reform needs among relevant stakeholders, how they handled various challenges throughout the reform, how they built capacity among stakeholders, and how they institutionalized the reform measures that were consistent with stakeholder incentives. The case highlights the following implications: (1) having strong support from top decision makers is essential to successful medium-term expenditure framework reform; (2) finding ways of integrating a medium-term expenditure framework into the budget process is critical; and (3) making the framework stable and sustainable requires both capacity building of relevant stakeholders and significant organizational restructuring.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6342 JAN 01, 2013
The Republic of Korea vaulted in less than three generations from being one of the poorest countries in the world to becoming a member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
... See More + This economic transformation has attracted considerable admiration and inquiry. One of the key factors for Korea's success was the provision of skills to support industrialization and economic diversification. This report takes advantage of a new World Bank diagnostic tool to examine the development of the Korean system for Workforce Development (WfD) from 1970 to 2010. The findings are intended to document good practices, lapses and key breakthroughs and generate insights that can be used to enrich dialogue on WfD policy in the World Bank's partner countries. The tool is based on an analytical framework that identifies three functional dimensions of WfD policies and institutions: strategic framework, which refers to the praxis of advocacy, partnership, and coordination in relation to the objective of aligning WfD in critical areas to priorities for national development; system oversight, which refers to the arrangements governing funding, quality assurance and learning pathways that shape the incentives and information signals affecting the choices of individuals, employers, training providers and other stakeholders; and service delivery, which refers to the diversity, organization and management of training provision, both state and non-state, that deliver results on the ground by enabling individuals to acquire market-and job-relevant skills. These three dimensions constitute a closed policy-making loop and, when taken together, allow for analysis of the functioning of a WfD system as a whole. This report focuses specifically on policies in the area of WfD.
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The 14 indicators describe a country's macro-fiscal environment to identify constraints or opportunities for health systems financing.
... See More + For each indicator two aspects are important: level and trend. A country with a 10 percent unemployment rate that has fallen from 15 percent may be in better shape than one with an 8 percent unemployment rate that has risen from 4 percent. It is also important to benchmark to group averages of countries in the same Word Bank (WB) region (EAS, ECS, LCN, MEA, NAC, SAS, or SSF) and income group (HIC, upper MIC, lower MIC, or LIC).
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This tenth edition of Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations.
... See More + It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting eleven areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and employing workers. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 185 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why. This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Korea, Republic of. To allow useful comparison, it also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2012 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January - December 2011).
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This paper outlines and evaluates several intellectual property monetization strategies available to patent holders in developing countries that help generate domestic innovation and knowledge-driven growth by promoting more active technology markets.
... See More + Based on a review of World Intellectual Property Report indicators, the patent ownership gap between a sample of developed and developing countries has narrowed gradually for more technologically-sophisticated developing countries. However, based on complementary International Monetary Fund Balance of Payments data, the patent commercialization divide (as indicated by licensing income) has been widening. The paper argues that patents, and all forms of intellectual property, are an enabling mechanism rather than a defensive right: an intangible asset class that can be proactively nurtured and managed for greater value extraction to stimulate knowledge-based entrepreneurship and growth in developing countries. The paper presents multiple case studies of alternative monetization strategies to address the commercialization divide. These strategies range from private, market-driven options to those requiring a greater amount of public policy support: from patent securitization and patent exchanges (focusing on the United States-initiated Intellectual Property Exchange International and the Shanghai Silicon Intellectual Property Exchange), to the strengthening of technology transfer and commercialization infrastructure (focusing on the experience of the Association of University Technology Managers and Taiwan, China's Intellectual Property Rights Institute), to patent litigation support (including South Korea's support of patent infringement lawsuit costs for small and medium enterprises). The paper also highlights areas where further policy research would be helpful.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6143 JUL 01, 2012
Doing business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations.
... See More + It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 10 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. In a series of annual reports doing business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 183 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. This economy profile presents the doing business indicators for Korea, Republic of. To allow useful comparison, it also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2011 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January December 2010).
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The study examines three programs: (1) Korea Development Institute (KDI's) Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP) for advancing export development in the Dominican Republic; (2) KDI's KSP for promoting public-private partnerships and prefeasibility studies in Mongolia, along with providing support for deposit insurance reform; and (3) the World Bank's South-South Experience Exchange Facility for the New Economy Skills for Africa Program (NESAP) in India for sharing knowledge on information and communications technology with African countries, including Ghana and Nigeria.
... See More + This study reveals important lessons for effectively conducting knowledge exchange programs that are applicable across sectors and countries. Its findings indicate support for innovative, results-focused capacity development approaches that emphasize the roles of state and non-state actors and promote collective action. The programs in this study used a variety of traditional and innovative instruments to foster collaborative behavior between diverse stakeholders that facilitated institutional change.
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From 1990-2010, project sponsors from the Republic of Korea implemented nineteen infrastructure projects in low and middle income countries with investment commitments totaling US$4.9 billion.
... See More + Investment during all periods except 2001-2005 was dominated by the energy sector (US$4 billion), followed by the telecom sector (US$0.9 billion). Korean investment was spread across five regions; it was heavily concentrated in East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) region with 78 percent or total investment. This investment lacked a single country focus.
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This book chronicles how Korea dealt with and overcame the crisis over time. The book is organized into eleven chapters. Chapter one outlines the troubling financial market conditions at home and abroad before the crisis.
... See More + Chapter two then delves into the origin of the crisis and offers analyses on the shortcomings of the Korean economy and the instability of the international financial system. In chapter three, policy measures the government executed in the wake of the onset of the crisis are described and analyzed. Chapter four probes the steps taken to reduce the risk of sovereign insolvency in the face of the cool market reaction to the initial package of crisis response measures announced by the International Monetary Fund in December 1997. Chapter five describes the background within which the government established the institutional framework necessary for corporate, financial, and labor market restructuring between December 1997 and April 1998. The government efforts to secure additional foreign currency liquidity through the markets and to devise initiatives to counter the massive unemployment are discussed in detail. In chapter six, the situation during May and June 1998 is explored with a focus on the closure of nonviable corporate and financial companies and the efforts to drive down interest rates and revive credit flows. This is followed, in chapter seven, by an analysis of the first phase of financial sector restructuring, which started in the third quarter of 1998, and the measures adopted to shore up potential growth and cope with the pressing problem of unemployment. Chapters eight and nine deal separately with the restructuring of the top five chaebols (the large family-controlled and family-run groups that dominate business in Korea), the economic stimulus packages applied during the fourth quarter of 1998, the efforts to restore financial market stability and economic growth, and the initial phase of foreign exchange liberalization measures, which were implemented during the first half of 1999. Chapter ten then discusses the situation during the second half of 1999, with a particular focus on the collapse of the Daewoo business group, including the steps taken to contain the resulting fallout, as well as measures aimed at expanding the economic recovery. Chapter eleven, the final chapter, offers a diagnosis of the Korean economy, along with an analysis of the policy implications and the responses for the future.
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Regulatory regimes are actively discussing macroprudential policy. Korea pursued a countercyclical macroprudential approach to prevent the overheating of mortgage lending and to minimize the risk of loan default.
... See More + The Korean financial supervisory authority made adjustments in response to both the condition of the housing market and trends in mortgage loans. The lessons learned from the Korean experience are applicable to other situations. First, regulations regarding loan-to-value and debt-to-income ratios and other restrictions on mortgage lending can be employed as an important part of a countercyclical framework. Next, measures need to be applied in a timely manner and according to the specific conditions of each country. Finally, authorities should preemptively prepare macroprudential instruments before banks enter a period of rapid mortgage lending to avoid reckless mortgage lending operations and weaken any speculative motive in the housing market.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS5505 DEC 01, 2010
The 2003 PISA Korea sample is used to examine the association between within-school ability tracking and mathematics achievement. Estimates of a variety of econometric models reveal that tracking is positively associated with mathematics achievement among females and that this association declines for higher achieving females.
... See More + No evidence of an association between males and tracking is detected. While this association for females cannot be interpreted as a causal effect, the presence of a measurable association indicates the need for further research on tracking in Korea with a particular focus on gender differences.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS5266 APR 01, 2010
Doing Business 2011: making a difference for entrepreneurs is the eighth in a series of annual reports investigating regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.
... See More + Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 183 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. A set of regulations affecting 9 stages of a business's life are measured: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business. Data in Doing Business 2011 are current as of June 1, 2010. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where, and why. The paper includes the following headings: five year measure of cumulative change, starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and closing a business.
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