The strains of economic growth

the long version

This study of labor unrest and social dissatisfaction in Korea is a collaborative venture between the Korea Development Institute and the Harvard Institute for International Development. It was designed to update the previous joint study of Korea's modernization. This volume provides an analytic history of how the strains of Korea's economic growth contributed to the labor unrest and popular discontent of the late 1980s. Set against rapid increases in wages and employment, worker dissatisfaction is traced to patterns of income inequality and to nonpecuniary dimensions of working life, including the suppression of labor organizations. The analysis is essential to understanding the labor struggles that continue in Korea today and is highly relevant for other emerging economies that wish to benefit from both the successes and failures of Korea's experience.