Abstract
This paper describes and evaluates the impact of spatial policies towards the Capital Region of Korea (the Seoul Capital Region hereafter). Following the introductory section, the second section presents an overview of trends of concentrations of people and employment in the Seoul Capital Region since 1960. The evolution of spatial policies and the major policy instruments employed is described together with an assessment of the validity of the perception of excessive concentration in the Region. In the third section, the impact of spatial polices towards the Seoul Capital Region is evaluated based on new empirical evidence as well as findings from previous studies. The impact of policies on the spatial distribution of jobs and populations between the Seoul Capital Region and the rest of the country, as well as that of specific policies such as green belts, and the new towns project is analyzed. The section ends with a discussion of public opinion on spatial policies revealed through recent surveys. The last section addresses the political economy of spatial policies and concludes with thoughts on the way forward considering the changing environment for spatial policies.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beeson P.E., 1992: Agglomeration Economies and Productivity Growth. In: Mills E.S. and McDonald J.F. (eds), Sources of Metropolitan Growth: 19–35. Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Cheshire P., 1999: Trends in sizes and structures of urban areas. In: Cheshire P. and Mills E.S. (eds), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics: Volume 3 Applied Urban Economics: 1339–1373. North-Holland Publishers, Amsterda.
Cho M.R., 2000: Survey of public opinion on land. In: Coalition for Land Studies (ed.), Symposium on Direction for National Land Management Policy, 15-32, 20 September, Coalition for Land Studies, Seoul (in Korean).
Choe S.-C. and Kim W.-B., 1999: Globalization and urbanization in Korea. Background paper for the World Development Report 2000, The World Bank, Washington DC.
Evans A., 1996: Of growth controls, green belts, and economics. Centre for Spatial and Real Estate Economics, The University of Reading, Reading.
Hannah L.M., Kim K.-H. and Mills E.S., 1993: Land use controls and housing prices in Korea. Urban Studies 30: 147–156.
Henderson V.,2000: The effects of urban concentration on economic growth. NBER Working Paper7503, Cambridge, MA.
Kim C.-H. and Kim K.-H., 2000: Political economy of government policies on real estate in Korea. Urban Studies 37: 1157–1169.
Kim D.H., Ahn K.K. and Chung K.B., 2000: Costs of congestion in Korea in 1999. Korea Transport Institute, Seoul (in Korean).
Kim J.H., Road Transport Externalities and Optimal Congestion Taxation, 2000: Report No. 00-07, Korea Institute of Public Finance, Seoul (in Korean).
Kim K.-H., 1993a: Housing prices, affordability and government policy in Korea. J. Real Estate Finan. and Econom. 6: 55–72.
Kim K.-H., 1993b: Social cost of environmental pollution and increased automobile use in the Capital Region. Businesses and Management 30: 199–224 (in Korean).
Kim T.D., 2001: Balanced development of national territory as a strategy for national development. Symposium on National Development Strategy and Balanced Regional Development (in Korean).
Lambooy J.G., 1997: Knowledge production, organisation and agglomeration economies. GeoJournal 41, 293–300.
Lambooy J.G., 1998: Polynuleation and economic development: The Randstad. Europ. Plann. Studies 6: 457–466.
Lambooy J.G. and Boschma R.A., 2001: Evolutionary economics and regional policy. Ann. Regio. Sci. 35, 113–131.
Lee B.S., 1998: Economics of urban transport policy. Pak-young-sa, Seoul (in Korean).
Lee B.S., 2000: Determinants of manufacturing productivity in the Capital Region. University of Seoul, Seoul.
Lee S.B. and Park K.Y., 2000: Costs of traffic accidents in Korea in 1998. Korea Transport Institute (in Korean).
Lee S.W., 2000: Estimating social costs of transport-related environmental problems. Korea Transport Institute (in Korean).
Mills E.S., 1972: Welfare aspects of national policy toward city sizes. Urban Studies 9: 117–124.
Mills E.S. and Hamilton B.W., 1994: Urban economics, Fifth edition. Harper Collins, New York.
Mills E.S. and Kim K.-H., 1998: Government policies to control the growth and decentralization of large urban areas: international experiences and implications for Korea. Int. J. Urban Studies 2: 131–141.
TheMinistry of Construction and Transport of Korea, 2001: Annual Report of National Land Use 2001. Seoul (in Korean).
Montgomery M.R., 1988: How large is too large? Implications of the city size literature for population policy and research. Econom. Develop. Cult. Change 36: 691–719.
OECD, 2001: Cities and Regions in the New Learning Economy. Paris.
Puga D., 1998: Urbanization patterns: European versus less developed countries. J. Regio. Sci. 38: 231–252.
Richardson H.W., 1972: Optimality in city size, systems of cities and urban policy: A sceptic' view. Urban Studies 9: 29–48.
Son J.-Y., 1993: An evaluation of Capital Region dispersal policies and policy recommendations. Housing Studies Review 1: 87-111. The Korean Association for Housing Policy Studies, Seoul (in Korean).
Son J.-Y., 2001: An evaluation of Capital Region dispersal policies and directions for policy reform. Korean Economic Association, Seoul (in Korean).
Son J.-Y. and Kim K.-H., 1998: Analysis of urban land shortages: The case of Korean cities. J. Urban Econom. 43: 362–384.
Suh S.H., 1997: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Concentration in the Capital Region. Samsung Economic Research Institute, Seoul (in Korean).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kim, KH. Spatial policies towards the Seoul Capital Region. GeoJournal 53, 17–28 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015861315375
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015861315375