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Although analysts have explored many facets of economic growth of Korea over the last decades, infrastructure investment policies have been discussed in terms of a simple developmental state framework that emphasizes the role of bureaucracy. This paper claims that infrastructure investment is a function of interactive processes affected by demand, supply, politics, and administrative reaction. While the Korean government did invest in infrastructure in advance of the growth of demand for it in the 1970s, it has made its major infrastructure investment since the 1980s. Also, while strong political leadership is frequently lauded, the problems with the Gyeongbu expressway and the four-rivers project suggest that political leadership without adequate rational planning and policy analysis can have undesirable effects. Finally, facing budget constraints and pressure to make efficient use of limited resources, the Korean government has sought to institutionalize a systematic process for managing infrastructure investment. Hence, the development and utilization of relevant policy analysis and evaluation methods is necessary.

SUMMARYGiven the growing controversy over the relevance of Anglo‐Saxon style public administration to developing countries and a greater demand for more context‐relevant theories of public administration in Asia, we should expect that Asian scholars achieve a certain level of knowledge growth in line with this controversy and demand. On the basis of the review of 8810 articles published in nine major international journals during 1990–2011, the author found that the number of articles on Asian public administration is very small, and there is no strong pattern of growth in this regard. In addition, there are very few studies adopting a comparative approach covering multiple Asian countries. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Comprehensive COVID-19 diagnostic testing is regarded as a critical in preventing the spread of the virus, but only a few studies thus far have sought to assess the net benefits that sustained testing might offer, despite the importance accorded by researchers to evidence-based policy making. We performed a costbenefit analysis using the extended SEIR model to assess whether maintaining the current level of COVID-19 testing is an economically rational choice compared with counterfactual scenarios. Our results suggest that the relationship between the net benefits and the level of testing assumes an inverted-U shape, which means that comprehensive diagnostic testing is effective in flattening the infection curve, but it is a financial burden to society. This study provides evidence that comprehensive diagnostic testing would not be a good strategy for countries with scant financial and medical resources, considering the costs. Furthermore, undertaking comprehensive diagnostic testing without implementing other strategies is a limited approach to preventing the spread of infectious diseases. Therefore, this study suggests that policy makers should find ways to improve the effectiveness of tests, not just increase the level of tests.

Why do the Chinese university students choose government jobs instead of private companies? Do they have similar job motivations as those who are seeking private sector jobs? Surprisingly, literature on public administration in China has rarely posed this question despite China's adoption of the civil service system since 1993. Specific examination of public service motivation (PSM) literature also revealed a lack of empirical studies on the public service spirit of potential public sector employees. This article analyzes the differences in job motivations between public and private job seekers using survey data of 329 Chinese university students from the Peking University, Renmin University, Fudan University, and Nankai University. The results suggest that both private and public job seekers commonly rank "stable and promising future," "high salary," "chance to exercise leadership," and "high prestige and social status" as the most important motivators. Notwithstanding the commonality, public job seekers, especially female students, show higher public service spirit than private job seekers.

The relationship between fiscal decentralization and corruption is highly controversial but insufficiently tested with respect to China. This article empirically tests whether fiscal decentralization aggravates corruption in China's local governments. To acquire more robust results, we employ multiple corruption and fiscal decentralization measures and collect data for 31 provinces from 1998 to 2008. Fixed effects panel models estimate the impact of fiscal decentralization on corruption after controlling for gross regional product per capita, the relative wage in the public sector compared to the private sector, political leadership changes, education levels, law enforcement and the number of NGOs. Our findings suggest that China has experienced a trend towards fiscal recentralization rather than decentralization in the 2000s. We also find the moderating effect of the level of law enforcement on corruption: fiscal decentralization in local governments with strong law enforcement deters corruption but the opposite relationship is found when their law enforcement is weak. The implication of our research is that a sound legal system and political will are prerequisites for successful fiscal decentralization. (J Contemp China/GIGA)