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Economic And Social Networks;Impacts On Regional Economic Outcomes And Concentrations, Gil-Hwan Park

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The Republic of Korea's efforts to accelerate the development of its economy in the aftermath of an extremely destructive civil war led to the concentration of capital and activity in areas that resemble the growth poles described by Perroux (1950) and Hirschman (1958). These poles led to an extreme centralization of economic activity and people in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA). More than 48 percent of the GDP, 90 percent of the headquarters of major firms, and 48 percent of the population is concentrated in 11.8 percent of the Republic's land (2006 figures). Despite the agglomeration economies, the national government …