Japanese Colonial Land Survey Project and Korean Economic Take-off

Abstract

The mystery of the newly industrialized countries (NICs)s success, including Korea’s take-off, can be addressed by using the concept of a property representation system, as initiated by de Soto (2000). This property representation system, which has been further described as the mystery of capital formation, was supposedly established in Korea during the Japanese colonialization of 1910-1945. The Korean industrialization in this period has been well described by the ‘developmental state’ approach, but the property representation system can reveal the key role of property rights as an institution in the economic take-off, focusing on its incentive function.