| ID | 179558 |
| Title Proper | Embedded and autonomous markets in north korea's fishing industry |
| Other Title Information | resource scarcity, monitoring costs, and evolving institutions |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Lankov, Andrei ; Ward, Peter ; Kim, Jiyoung |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | North Korea today is a most unusual post-socialist state. Market actors and market prices are integral to economic life, but private property remains illegal, and private enterprise outside the household is de jure non-existent. In such an institutional context, some market processes are more autonomous in relation to the state, while others are more embedded within state structures. In this article, we offer a theoretical account of the shape that North Korea's market economy has taken, developed from a set of fishing industry case studies. We note four broad categories of enterprises: closely embedded, loosely embedded, semi-autonomous, and autonomous. By relative autonomy/embeddedness we mean control over fixed assets, cash flow, and operational decisions such as wage and price setting. We postulate three major determinants of embeddedness/autonomy: (1) relative strategic resource scarcity between state and market actors, (2) monitoring costs, and (3) institutional evolution that reflects these realities, though to varying extents. |
| `In' analytical Note | Journal of East Asian Studies Vol. 21, No.1; Mar 2021: p.53 - 74 |
| Journal Source | Journal of East Asian Studies Vol: 21 No 1 |
| Key Words | North Korea ; Case Study ; Resource Scarcity ; Marketization ; Fishing Industry ; Embeddedness ; Institutional Evolution ; Monitoring Costs |