The Australian (Aus) and South Korean (SK) economies are high-income, developed, mixed-market economies. Their emergence from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007-2009 and SK’s emergence from the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) without stagnation is a testament to their economic stability. Their governments implement several economic policies regarding economic growth, to increase quality of life, environmental sustainability and health care, education and social welfare and result in several similarities and differences between their economies.
Economic Growth & Quality of Life (QOL)
The economic growth of both countries hinged upon the govt policies in the past 50 years.
The Hawke government’s (1980s) economic liberalisation of the Australian economy involved deregulating it, cutting tariffs and floating the dollar. During the 1960’s, Korea’s agrarian-based GDP was lower than Congo’s, however President Chung-Hee’s industrial policy caused its economy to grow substantially and become export-based, emphasising steel production, ship-building, automobiles and eventually electronics, allowing it to become the developed country it is today.
Australia’s recent economic growth is a result of the 1990’s mining boom. The exportation of coal, gold, iron ore and other raw materials to China during the GFC, allowed the country to achieve continued growth decades. Australia’s massive services sector also led to a large domestic market which supported its economy during the exportation drops of the GFC.
Conversely, KR suffered national bankruptcy during the AFC. Consequently, President Dae-Jung’s employed reforms that moved SK from a centrally-planned model, to a more market-oriented one. Subsidies to large corporations were cut and a mechanism that allowed bankrupt firms to exit the market was developed. Therefore SK recovered its growth and surpassed Australia as one of the 4 Asian Tigers and the Next 11.
SK narrowly avoided...