I applied to do academic research under the supervision of Howard Pack. My research will focus on government-chaebol relations from the perspective or risk-sharing and capital allocation role of the government. I hope to draw from this research lessons which China can learn from in managing its relationship with its state-owned entities. I will submit part of this essay to fulfill my requirements for my Hist 107 course on comparative capitalist societies.

I also recently received my Hist 107 short paper where I wrote on “Industrial Policy as Necessary Substitute for Market Arrangements in Modernization Process”. I am quite happy with the paper as it allowed me to explore the role of governments in “modernization”. I am also satisfied as the professor told me that I got one of the less than 5 A+ which he has given out in this course since he started teaching it many years ago.

The abstract:

In this paper, I argue that industrial policy exercised by the visible hand of the government is necessary in the ‘modernization’ of societies. This is made necessary by market failures inherent in developing economies, which frequently lack secondary institutional arrangement essential for forming competitive markets. My paper suggests how this is consistent with Rostow’s, Gerschernkron’s, Chalmers’, and Haber’s disbelief in market-led self-coordinating efforts towards modernization. I will provide economic analysis of the examples raised by them, and thus develop further the logic underlying Rostow’s and Chalmers’ support of a government-led process of modernization.

I have posted the paper here. I think the paper can benefit from a fuller explanation and elaboration but I do not have the time for it at this moment.