The year 2016 marks the 20th anniversary of Korea’s to the OECD. During these past 20 years, Korea has made remarkable improvements in the standard of living of its population, bringing the country very close to the average income per capita in OECD countries. This rise in living standards has been accompanied by a sharp increase in life expectancy and educational attainment, with the share of the population with tertiary degrees now being the highest across all OECD countries. However, despite these remarkable achievements, Korea still performs relatively poorly in some aspects of the OECD Better life Index, and the population reports very low trust in government and in public institutions more broadly. Furthermore, as in many other OECD countries, income inequality has widened over the past decade and poverty has increased, especially among older people, while the share of young people unemployed or not in employment or training is now above the OECD average. The Korean growth strategy, adopted in 2013, seeks fo foster a “creative economy”, in which entrepreneurship and job creation play a key role, accompanied by greater emphasis on social cohesion, including increased social spending. Effective, transparent and collaborative policy-making practices are crucial to achieving the ambitious economic and social objectives of the Korean government.

This edition of Government at a Glance: How Korea Compares presents recent developments in policy making and government performance in Korea compared with other OECD countries. This report aims to strengthen the Korean government capacity to implement evidence-based policy making and improve public service delivery and results in line with its strategic priorities.

The main objective of the Government at a Glance series is to provide reliable, internationally comparable data to compare government activities and their results across OECD member countries. Compared to other OECD publications (e.g. economic surveys, country reviews) the main objective is not to provide detailed analysis and tailored policy advice and recommendations but to present in a clear and synthetic way a set of indicators on public sector activities and performance. Four editions of Government at a Glance have been released (2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015) as well as one regional edition focusing on Latin American and Caribbean countries (2014) and one country-focused edition on Hungary (2015). This publication is the second in this new series of country-specific editions of Government at a Glance.

Over the past 35 years, the Korean population has benefited from remarkable improvements in standards of living. In 2014, Korea’s per capita income reached more than 85% and close to 80% of that in other OECD and G7 countries respectively; compared to slightly more than 20% in the early 1980s (Figure 1). This catching up in standards of living with other OECD and G7 countries has been steady, with the exception of the Asian financial crisis at the end of the 1990s. Public governance has been crucial in supporting an export-driven economic growth model led mainly by very large conglomerates (chaebols companies). income as a share of that in the G7 countries is stagnating. In addition, productivity growth is expected to remain limited in the coming years while income inequalities and poverty are rising (especially among the elderly) (OECD, 2014).

This chapter presents the main trends in public finance management in Korea compared to G7 and other OECD countries. Using the most recent data from the OECD System of National Accounts (SNA), it focuses on key public finance aspects such as fiscal balance and debt, the size and structure of general government revenues and expenditures, production costs and the use of outsourcing, investment expenditures and fiscal decentralisation.

This chapter reviews the trends in public sector employment and compensation in Korea compared to other OECD countries and G7 countries. It provides indicators on the number of public sector employees as a share of labour force and total employment, on the share of total public expenditures dedicated to the compensation of public sector employees and on the composition of the public sector workforce focusing on gender balance in public life.

Based primarily on the Government 3.0 paradigm and objectives established by the Korean government in 2013, this chapter provides a set of indicators on the level of openness and transparency of the Korean government. The analysis included in this chapter focuses on the evolution of perceived corruption in government by age group and compared to the private sector, on the existing mechanisms to combat potential conflicts of interest and foster integrity in the Korean government, on the existing channels for citizen participation throughout the policy making cycle, and on the quality and uptake of digital government services and open government data.

This chapter provides a data-driven overview of regulatory policies in Korea. It starts by providing a set of indicators on the level of administrative and regulatory burden as perceived by businesses and experts in the country. It then continues with an assessment of regulatory practices and procedures used by the Korean government and other OECD countries to design and review regulations. In particular, it focuses on the extent to which stakeholder consultations, regulatory impact analysis and ex post evaluations are carried out to inform regulatory reforms throughout the full policy-making cycle.

This chapter reviews the performance of the health and long-term care system in Korea. After reviewing the remarkable progress achieved in recent decades in increasing the life expectancy of the Korean population, the chapter presents some persisting challenges to further improve access to and the efficiency of the health care system in Korea. Two specific sections are also included on prevention policies and long-term care, due to their particular relevance in the current Korean context to promote healthy ageing and respond to the needs of a rapidly ageing population.

This chapter presents and analyses the most recent data around the governance and performance of the education system in Korea, summarising some of the main findings presented in Education at a Glance 2015 but also drawing on other sources. It provides an overview of public satisfaction with the education system and schools, and then assesses the level of private and public expenditure on education and discusses issues around access to upper secondary education and tertiary education. Using the results from the 2012 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and other data sources, this chapter also presents indicators on the performance of Korean students to international standardised tests on mathematics, science and reading as well as indicators of equity in learning outcomes and on the transition from school to work in Korea.