| Summary: | The Republic of Korea today is a highly industrialized, global innovation and technology leader. It is the twelfth largest economy in the world with a per capita income at the average of OECD countries. However, in the 1950s it was one of the poorest countries in the world with decidedly bleak prospects, making Korea a well-known case study of successful development. Innovative Korea summarizes the sources of Korea's remarkable growth performance and the policies and institutional reforms that made this possible. In particular, the report focuses on Korea's successful transition from a middle-income to a high-income economy and how it escaped the "middle income trap" by fundamentally transforming its growth model in response to the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98, moving toward a more private-sector-led model with greater emphasis on market competition, innovation, and technology. Instead of targeting large firms and industries, industrial policies prioritized 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--
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