On May 7-10, more than 200
world-renowned scholars are
visiting Seoul to attend the
Korea Mont Pelerin Society
(MPS) Meeting. The MPS meeting was
jointly established by Prof. Friedrich von
Hayek, Professor and Austrian economist
Milton Friedman of the University of
Chicago in April 1947. Its founding members
consist of 39 professors, lawyers, journalists
and businessmen, but most of them
were economists by training.
The goals of the MPS are to facilitate an
exchange of ideas between like-minded
scholars; strengthen the principles and practice
of a free society; and study the workings,
virtues, and defects of a market-oriented
economic system. The MPS has produced
nine Nobel Memorial Prize Winners.
They are Friedrich Hayek (Austria), Milton
Friedman (USA), George Stigler (USA),
James Buchanan (USA), Maurice Allais
(France), Ronald Coase (USA), Gary
Becker (USA), Vernon Smith (USA) and
Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru).
The MPS meets regularly, with the general
meeting held every two years and the
regional meetings held annually. At times
the Society holds special meetings. In September 2014, the
board members of the
MPS unanimously voted for Korea’s hosting
of the 2017 MPS Regional meeting in
Seoul in May.
In fact, the hosting of an MPS meeting by
Korea is long overdue. All economic power
countries in Asia have already hosted the
MPS meetings except the Republic of
Korea. Japan hosted the MPS Conference
in 1988 and 2008. Hong Kong organized
the meeting twice in 1978 and 2014. Even
Taiwan hosted the MPS meeting two times
in 1978 and 1988. Hosting an MPS conference
requires two to three years of preparatory
work. Inviting the speakers, deciding
the venue, and funding the expenses are all
challenging work.
During the first week of May, more than
300 people are coming to the Seoul conference.
The main theme of the Seoul meeting
is “Economic Freedom: the Road to
Prosperity.” According to the MPS program
schedule, there are 10 sessions. The
sessions will cover a number of topics,
including free market capitalism, growth
and inequality, welfare and taxation, global
financial economy, free market and entrepreneurship,
Korean economy in the world
and Korean national security and unification.
There will also be special speakers like
Dr. Vaclav Klaus, former president of
Czech Republic. He is going to speak on
the significance of the Mont Pelerin
Meeting in Korea. In addition, there will be
two Nobel laureates, Prof. Peter Hansen of
the University of Chicago and Prof. Vernon
Smith of Chapman University. Most of the
participants had long admired Korea’s economic
success. They are coming to Korea
with great excitement to see and feel the
remarkable progress Korea has made.
In the plenary sessions, the speakers and
panelist will discuss various issues including
the conceptual relationship between
political inequality and income inequality.
They argue that economic inequality per se
is neither good nor bad and that if the government
aims at more political
equality, it
will raise economic inequality.
Another issue that will catch the attention
of the audience is the adoption of a new
macroeconomic indicator, the GO (Gross
Output) or GDE (Gross Domestic
Expenditure). The idea is to remedy the
weakness of the conventional GDP (Gross
Domestic Product) indicator which fails to
measure entire business activities within a
specified period. They argue that supporting
business activities rather than household
consumption would be a lot more effective
in expanding jobs. They will specifically
demonstrate how to construct a new times
series for the GO or GDE.
The 2017 MPS Seoul Conference overlaps
with Korea’s presidential election. The
participants understand that Korea is now at
a crossroads. Depending on the result of the
presidential election on May 9, the Korean
economy will be able to maintain steady
growth or will fluctuate with great volatility
under increased political uncertainties.
Although the MPS Seoul Meeting has
not started yet, many participants are telling
us that whoever becomes the next president,
they hope Korea will prosper economically
and they will try their best to help us
achieve economic affluence under free
enterprise capitalism.
At this point, I strongly believe that the
MPS speakers will bring special messages
for Korean people. As the Foreign
Investment Ombudsman and co-chair of the
Organizing Committee for the MPS Seoul
Meeting, I would like to extend my heartfelt
welcome and gratitude to them for providing
us with insight, wisdom and policy suggestions
for Korea’s continued economic growth.
