When and how did Japan catch up with Korea?: A comparative study of the pre-industrial economies of Korea and Japan

This paper compares the economic development of Korea and Japan during the past three millennia. In particular, it examines why, although the Korean economy was more advanced from around the six century B.C. to around the sixth century A.D., Japan subsequently surpassed Korea in terms of economic development and the gap continued to widen during the Tokugawa period (1603-1867). It is argued that until the eleventh century, the economic gap between Korea and Japan can be largely explained by geography, while from the twelfth to the seventeenth century, differences in institutions, systems of economic integration, and human capabilities - all shaped by a divergence in political systems - played a key role in Japan's catch-up with Korea.pre-modern Korea, pre-modern Japan, per capita GDP, catch-up, geography, institutions, human capabilities, system of economic integration, "small world economy"

The Political Economy of Pre-industrial Trade in Northeast Asia

This paper examines why the countries of Northeast Asia (China, Korea, and Japan) in the early nineteenth century traded much less (as measured by the proportion of trade to GDP) than most countries in other parts of the world. It is argued that the most important reason for this are government policies that suppressed private trade. It is shown that these restrictive trade policies were designed to maximize the total net benefit from trade, covering not only economic net benefits but also non-economic benefits in the fields of diplomacy, defense, culture, and internal politics.trade policy, Northeast Asia, tribute system, private trade, maritime ban, geography, culture