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Comment on South Korea: the corruption that built its economy (2017)

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In most places in the world, corruption tends to be growth-reducing, but this is much less true in East and Southeast Asia, where it tends to be growth-enhancing.

This is a pretty astonishing claim. The richest place in Asia is famously corruption-free Singapore, and it's blatantly obvious that corruption has held back neighboring countries like Malaysia (billions embezzled from 1MDB), Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand etc.

the claim is also ridiculous. the special benefits given to a few "capitalist" firms could have been done without kickbacks to politicians...

The competition to export more in order win more govt support seems to have been the key. It doesn't require kickbacks to politicians, either.

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