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Assembly line at Hyundai's car factory in Ulsan, South Korea, with car bodies suspended above the conveyor
Economy

The carmaker far less efficient than Toyota — and far more profitable

Between 1985 and 1996, Hyundai posted a higher profit rate than Toyota — while being far less productive. A London School of Economics dissertation shows why this apparent absurdity is in fact the rule that organizes global industry — and why Brazil, with equally low wages, was left out.

Sip Dölyn EditorialAug 20, 20267 min de leitura
A narrow street in Jongno, Seoul, its buildings covered with signs for hagwons — Korean private cram schools — in a 1971 photograph
Economy

South Korea didn't get rich because it studied — it studied because it got rich

The most repeated explanation of the Korean miracle says it all began in the classroom. A London School of Economics thesis shows the order of events was the other way around: when Korea started exporting, its people had fewer years of schooling than Brazilians. What it had was something else — and the price showed up in the accident and mortality figures.

Sip Dölyn EditorialAug 17, 20268 min de leitura
View of POSCO's steel mill in Pohang, South Korea, its chimneys stretching along the coast, seen from Songdo beach
Economy

The Steel Mill the World Bank Said Should Not Exist

In 1968, South Korea decided to build a steel mill larger than its own market, against everyone's advice. Two decades later, POSCO was running at 99% of capacity while Brazil's state-owned mills lost money. An LSE dissertation shows where the real difference lay — and it was not managerial competence.

Sip Dölyn EditorialAug 12, 20268 min de leitura
View of the Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional steel complex, with blast furnaces and chimneys, in Volta Redonda, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil
Economy

The Country That Profited Without Having to Compete

A London School of Economics thesis compares Brazil and South Korea across fifty years and reaches an uncomfortable explanation for the Brazilian puzzle: industry here was profitable without being efficient because it lived off a slice of the wealth of the soil. Without competing, there was no reason to learn how to compete.

Sip Dölyn EditorialAug 10, 202610 min de leitura
Brazilian twenty-real banknotes fanned out, showing the golden lion tamarin
Economy

The dollar figure that lies: how to read "labor cost"

Between 2012 and 2025, Brazil's minimum wage rose 144% in reais and fell 15% in dollars. Same wage, same country, same period — and two opposite conclusions about the cost of labor in Brazil. This Sip Dölyn investigation redoes the math from Banco Central data and shows why the currency you measure in decides the answer.

Sip Dölyn EditorialJul 29, 20264 min de leitura

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