Corruption, Trust, and Occupational Preference in South Korea

Friday, April 14, 2017
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM
(Pacific)
Philippines Conference Room
Encina Hall, Third Floor, Central, C330
616 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305
Speaker: 
  • Yong Suk Lee

One prominent feature of South Korea, as well as other countries in East Asia, is citizens’ strong preference to work for large conglomerates or the government, as opposed to startups or small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Relative to the United States, choosing entrepreneurship or working for a young firm are less desired in Korea, especially among highly skilled individuals. This talk will examine how beliefs about corruption and trust in institutions affect an individual’s occupational preferences. A main challenge of examining personal beliefs and their impact on occupational preference is their relation to a host of other individual characteristics such as willingness to accept risk, optimism, patience, education level and family background. Center Fellow Yong Suk Lee will discuss his research on this area, including his focus on the events surrounding the impeachment of South Korea's previous president, Park Geun Hye, and his surveys of South Koreans before the impeachment rulings by the constitutional court and after impeachment. He will talk about (1) whether the impeachment process changed beliefs in the rule of law and societal trust; and (2) whether and how any change in beliefs and trust affect occupational preference.