Chaebols and firm dynamics in Korea

SUMMARY We study firm dynamics in Korea before and after the 1997/8 Asian crisis pro-competitive reforms that reduced dominance of chaebols. find industries were dominated by chaebols crisis, labour productivity total factor non-chaebol firms increased markedly (relative to other industries). Furthermore, entry significantly all reform. After also dramatically their patenting activity. Finally, markups chaebol declined substantially, especially within crisis. These results suggest had virtue helping move from catching-up growth based on investment existing technologies innovation-based growth.