Joel Mokyr, a co-laureate of this year's Nobel Prize in Economics and a professor at Northwestern University in the U.S., on Oct. 13 answers questions at a news conference held at his school in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois. (Yonhap News)

By Lee Jihae

Joel Mokyr, a professor of economics and history at Northwestern University of the U.S. and one of the three joint winners of this year's Nobel Prize in Economics, on Oct. 13 downplayed worry over the Korean economy and called the nation's economic growth "miraculous."

Speaking at a news conference held at his school in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, Mokyr responded to a question on Korea's recent economic slowdown by saying, "I find it slightly ironic that this question comes to me from South Korea."

"To worry about South Korean problems given that it is a wealthy, peaceful country that has miraculously pulled itself from very low income per capita in the 1950s to one of the wealthiest nations in the world today strikes me," he said. "If you worry about South Korea, what do you think about North Korea? What do you think about countries like Myanmar? Those are the countries I worry about."

The professor also said Korea should not worry about its technological level.

"South Korea should continue to do what it has been doing all this time," he said. "It should make sure its borders are open, that it is tapped into the best practice technologies of this world."

"Some people in the audience must be driving Korean-made cars, and I don't think they would feel very much inclined to think of these Korean-made cars as an example of bad technology."

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences that day selected Mokyr, professor Philippe Aghion of the College de France in Paris and professor Peter Howitt from Brown University of the U.S. as laureates of this year's Nobel Prize in Economics.

The academy cited Mokyr for identifying the prerequisites for sustainable growth through technological advancement and Aghion and Howitt for developing a theory of sustainable growth through "creative destruction."

jihlee08@korea.kr