South Korea’s regional disparities and the 2018 Winter Olympics for regional development: Big Push revisited

Abstract

Using the Theil decomposition method, this study analyzes regional inequality in South Korea and finds the country’s regional income disparities have been growing over the past two decades. Further group-specific analyses using the between and within group decompositions provide the following findings: (1) the inequality between Honam and non-Honam has been declining, repudiating the claim that Honam has been discriminated against by other regions; and (2) discrepancies between Gangwon and other regions have been growing, which is more serious than the Honam case and which is a priority of this research. In line with this, Gangwon Province the 2018 Winter Olympics is expected to contribute to narrowing this gap. Lessons from the Japanese experiences with the 1998 Winter Olympics will be discussed.