Biography: Dr. Bernhard J. Seliger

Dr. Bernhard J. Seliger is currently resident representative of Hanns Seidel Foundation in Seoul. Since 1999, Dr. Seliger is senior lecturer (Privatdozent Dr. habil.) at the Institute for Research Into Culture and Economic Systems, University of Witten/ Herdecke (Germany). From 2004-2006 Dr. Seliger was guest professor at the Graduate School of Public Administration of Seoul National University and at the Graduate School of International Area Studies of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. Before, Dr. Seliger was from 1998 to 2002 Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of International Area Studies of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. From 1995 to 1998 Dr. Seliger worked as Assistant Researcher at the Institute for Economic Policy, Christian-Albrechts-University at Kiel (Germany), where he received a doctorate (Dr.sc.pol.) in 1998. Dr. Seliger holds a degree (Maitrise en sciences économiques) from Université de Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne, France). Among the research interests of Dr. Seliger are institutional economics, economics of transformation and integration and the economic development of Korea in Northeast Asia. The topic of Dr. Seliger’s Habilitation (the German academic grade necessary for teaching at the academic level), finished in April 2007, was “Transformation theory and the institutional development of South Korea after the Asian crisis - external and internal institutions, cognitive models and institutional competition”.

As a resident representative of Hanns Seidel Stiftung Seoul, Dr. Seliger carries out large-scale projects on economic and political development funded by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation as well as the first-ever capacity-building project of the European Union in North Korea, part of the Asia Invest II project, the “EU-DPRK Trade Capacity Project”. Each year, with prestigious Korean and international partners (among others, Seoul National University, ASEAN general secretariat, the Korean Institute for National Unification, the Korean Society for Contemporary European Studies, Gangwon province etc.) Dr. Seliger is responsible for co-organizing and –hosting several dozen conferences, workshops and study trips.

Dr. Seliger is associate editor of the North Korean Review, the first scholarly journal entirely focused on North Korean issues, published in the US (McFarland Publishing). Dr. Seliger is also co-founder of “www.ordnungspolitisches-portal.com”, a German language website devoted to the discussion of the economic model of the German Social Market Economy. He is since 2007 member of International Advisory Board, North Korean Investibility Index (East Asia Peace Investment Project), since 2005 co-editor of the series Discussion papers on “European and Intercultural Discourses“, Intercultural Competence Panel, Free University Berlin – Asia Development Institute, Seoul National University, Seoul ASEM Institute for International Relations, Hanns Seidel Foundation Seoul and since 2003 member of the editorial Advisory Board, The Korean Journal of Unification Affairs of the Institute of Peace Affairs, Seoul.

Monograph:

“Transformation theory and the institutional development of South Korea after the Asian crisis - external and internal institutions, cognitive models and institutional competition”

The book project is based on research during Dr. Salinger’s four-year stay at the Graduate School of International Area Studies (GSIAS) of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (1998-2002 as a full time lecturer and assistant professor) and his academic activity as a guest professor at GSIAS as well as the Graduate School of Public Administration of Seoul National University thereafter. The point of depart of this research was the observation that the transformation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) provided economists with a number of comparative cases of transformation on an unprecedented scale. This allowed for some generalizations of transformation theory. Besides more technical factors (like initial conditions in terms of GDP, technology, factor endowment etc.) especially institutional developments emerged as crucial factors in economic transformation. Among the institutional factors of particular interest in all transformation processes toward a new institutional system the relation of external and internal institutions, institutional competition and the role of cognitive models for the stability of institutional regimes were identified.

In 1997 and 1998 the Asian crisis was the trigger of another large-scale transformation process. While being a financial crisis at the onset, the crisis deeply affected the whole institutional structure of a number of East Asian economies, indeed it radically challenged the former East Asian developmental model itself. South Korea was at the core of this debate, being the economy mostly developed of the crisis countries, being most deeply affected by the crisis and being most closely related to the emergence of the East Asian developmental model before the crisis. Therefore, the crisis in South Korea brought the possibility to apply the knowledge gained from economic transformation in CEE to analyze a transformation process in a radically different institutional setting. The outcome of this research in form of numerous articles confirms that indeed there are elements of a “general theory of transformation of economic systems” independently from the initial institutional regime. In the remainder of this overview the second section looks more deeply at the institutional factors in transformation, the third section discusses briefly the outcomes of three case studies on South Korean economic transformation and the last section gives and overview of the research steps and results by publication. The final step will be the summarization of the results gained by research in a comprehensive book as outlined in the table of contents below.

Biography: Sarah Kohls

Sarah Kohls graduated with a German Diploma from the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, in 2006, where she studied East Asian Studies. Within these studies she mainly focused on Japanese language and economy. Furthermore, the course included studies of East Asian politics, geography, history and culture.

During this time, she spent also one year in Japan (scholarship from InWent) and four month in Taiwan (scholarship from DAAD), where she deepened her language skills as well as gained some practical experience.

Sarah Kohls came to Korea as scholarship holder of Heinz Nixdorf foundation in January 2007. After a few months of intensive Korean language studies, she started working for Hanns Seidel Foundation in April 2007. She is currently working on her PhD-Thesis which will be about Korean Regional Investment Strategies.

Monograph: