Interpreting the Korean Crisis of 2008

This paper reviews four different kinds of currency crisis models proposed to explain the Korean crisis of 1997 to examine which model is more relevant to explain the Korean crisis of 2008. According to the author's investigation, the 'Frenkel-Neftci' cycle is more relevant model to interpret the Korean crisis of 2008. In 2008, spreads opened due to, first, high interest rate policy by the Korean government aimed to suppress real estate price increase, and, second, the expectation about exchange rate appreciation, and thirdly stock market returns after recovering the crisis. Then the international capital market catastrophe due to the subprime crises produced the sudden change of expectation of the market participants. Huge capital outflows resulted from the credit crunch in the international capital markets, and the possibility of exchange rate depreciation by the Korean government to promote exports in the course of the global recession.