Monopolies and Politics Workshop Webinar Series - Industrial Policy, Economic Concentration, and Governmental Capture: The Korean Case

Join the Stigler Center for a conversation with Seoul National University professor Sangin Park and Chicago Booth professor Guy Rolnik on the role of industrial policy in South Korea’s economic development, the extent to which national champions such as the Samsung and Hyundai chaebols have amassed political power, and what types of reforms could help mitigate problems arising from this situation.

The Stigler Center’s 2020 Antitrust and Competition Conference (rescheduled for fall 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis) will discuss the interconnection between monopolies and politics. Our new pre-conference Monopolies and Politics Workshop Webinar Series will explore in greater detail some of the conference topics, including the extent to which firms can leverage their market power to capture governmental policy—a topic particularly relevant when bailouts and stimulus programs around the world are disbursing trillions of dollars of taxpayer money in an attempt to help mitigate the disastrous economic consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Sangin Park is a professor at Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Public Administration. He is the author of the book "How South Korea Can Survive a Samsung Electronics Collapse" (2016), and the chairman of the Committee on Chaebol Reform at the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice. A vocal critic of Samsung and other chaebols, he studies South Korea’s chaebol problem through in-depth comparisons with Boeing, Nokia and other companies.

Guy Rolnik (moderator) is a clinical associate professor of strategic management at Chicago Booth and co-organizer of the Stigler Center Antitrust and Competition Conference. For the last 28 years, he has lived and worked at the intersection of business, finance, regulation, politics, and the media. First, as a financial journalist and editor, later as a business entrepreneur and founder of a media company, and in the last decade as a policy entrepreneur—using media as a tool for driving structural reforms in the economy. Rolnik’s work as a founder and chief editor of a leading business newspaper and columnist influenced in a dramatic way the ideas, norms, and values in Israeli political economy and brought about significant changes in regulatory policies and legislation. In this process, he has gained a unique understanding of the interplay of the three worlds: business, regulation, and media.

The webinar will take place from 9 to 10 a.m. CDT via Zoom.

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