Incluye bibliografía

Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations and currency equivalents -- An Overview -- 1. Trends in the distribution of income: Korean income gains -- Trends in income distribution -- Recent evidence and issues -- Linkages between distributions of income and wealth -- Development lessons -- Appendix 1.1: Reconciliation of KDI and National Accounts Data -- 2. The distribution of wealth in Korea: Surveys of wealth holdings in Korea -- Wealth statistics revisited -- Summary and conclusions -- Policy lessons -- Appendix 2.1: Contruction of a balance sheet for personal wealth -- Appendix 2.2: Further potential sources of data -- 3. Policy issues in the Korean taxation system: Overview: Characteristics of taxation in Korea -- Major taxes in Korea -- Some issues in Korean taxation -- Policy options -- Policy lessons -- Bibliography -- Index

Korea ' s development performance is the envy of the developing world. Its success is largely due to the commonly shared goals of its people, supported by a relatively equal distribution of income over three decades of rapid growth. However, developments in the late 1980s, including increases in real estate and land prices and the expansion of the equities market, have led to a greater concentration of wealth. The perception that income and wealth are becoming more highly concentrated in Korea has fueled public debate on tax policies, housing policies, and expenditure priorities. This book examines recent trends and estimates the effect of rapid appreciation of asset values, concluding that there is evidence of less equality in the income distribution than conventionally reported. The book contributes to an analytical framework for examining wealth issues and aims ultimately at a restoration of the traditional consensus in Korea toward broadly shared development gains.