1 Environment and Geography (Myung Soo Cha, Junseok Hwang, and Heejin Park) -- 2 Population (Myung Soo Cha and Heejin Park) -- 3 Labor Force and Employment (Yitaek Park) -- 4 Wages (Myung Soo Cha, Junseok Hwang, and Wooyoun Lee) -- 5 Education (Sun Go and Ki-Joo Park) -- 6 Health (Suk Chul Hong)...

We estimate output and population of colonial Korea to show that per capita output grew 2.3% with population expanding 1.3% per year from 1911 to 1940. Growth accounting indicated that productivity advance accounted for roughly one half of the per capita output growth. Primary production as a...

This paper identifies two distinct types of inequality affecting the advance of the Korean literacy in opposite ways. Literacy improvement in colonial Korea was checked by the presence of landed elite with pre-colonial origins, but helped by the development of profit-seeking land tenancy...

Using evidence on elite presence, land inequality, literacy, and primary schooling in pre-colonial, colonial, and South Korea, I show that inequality may help or check human capital accumulation depending on the nature of inequality and the type of learning. Little affected by the imposition of...