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Biological Living Standards of Korea during the Port-Opening Period, 1876–1910

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2021

Duol Kim  and
Heejin Park
Duol Kim
Affiliation:
Professor, Department of Economics, Myongji University, 34 Geobulgol-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, 03674, Republic of Korea. E-mail: duolkim@mju.ac.kr
Heejin Park
Affiliation:
Teaching Fellow, School of Economics and Trade, Kyungpook National University, 80 Daehak-ro, Buk-gu, Daegu, 41566, Republic of Korea. E-mail: heejinp@knu.ac.kr.
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Abstract

After several hundred years of a closed-door policy, Korea finally opened its ports in 1876. Historians have traditionally claimed that the port-opening was coerced by foreign countries, deteriorated the Korean economy, and led to Korea becoming a colony. We examined this view by measuring biological living standards and find the opposite. The height of the male Hangryu Deceased, who died on the street but whose bodies were not claimed, increased by 1.1 cm from the 1880s to the 1910s. This also implies that free trade rather than new institutions might matter more for economic growth during the colonial era.

Type
Article
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 81 , Issue 2 , June 2021 , pp. 549 - 576
Copyright
© The Economic History Association 2021

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Footnotes

As a part of the Historical Statistics of Korea project by the Naksungdae Institute of Economic Research, this work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (32A-2010-1-B00035). An earlier version of this paper was presented at SNU, NYU-Abu Dhabi, Lund, Hitotsubashi, Korea, Myongji University, Korean Economic History Society seminar, and The Third International Symposium on Quantitative History. We are grateful to Dan Bogart, the editor, three anonymous referees, Robert Allen, Yutaka Arimoto, Steve Broadberry, Dohyung Kim, Chulhee Lee, Stephen Morgan, Chiaki Moriguchi, Patrick Wallis, Donghyu Yang, and other seminar participants for helpful comments. We are, of course, responsible for all remaining errors.

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