aebol, which are credited with building the Korean economy and accused of destroying that same economy, are conglomerates that are characterized by strong family control, authoritarian management, and centralized decision making. Chaebol dominate the Korean economy, growing out of the takeover of the Japanese monopoly of the Korean economy following World War II (Chaebol economy at stake...., 1997).
Korean government tax breaks and financial incentives emphasizing industrial reconstruction and exports provided continuing support to the growth of chaebols during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1988, the output of the 30 largest chaebol represented almost 95% of Korea's gross national product (Lee, 1996, 118).
Nine years later, according to Kahn and Schuman, the debt level of the chaebols are among the highest in the world, with some of the "chaebols staggering under a debt-to-equity ratio of 4 to 1, a burden that would cripple most U.S. or European companies... From the president's office to corpora
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