• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.173-201
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• 2017

This study examined the degree of socioeconomic deprivation in the areas of material hardship, health, housing, employment, and social network among people using debt relief programs. The sample, 209 individuals, was recruited from major agencies offering debt relief programs, including Seoul Bankruptcy Court, Credit Counseling and Recovery Service, and Seoul Welfare Foundation. Data were collected through in-person interviews in 2016. The sample was compared in terms of the level of deprivation with the general population and the low-income group, extracted from the Korea Welfare Panel Study. The debtors group demonstrated a substantially higher level of deprivation on all the dimensions examined. For example, the proportion of people who suffered from hunger was 37.8% in the debtors group compared to 6.7% in the low-income group. The proportion of people who had suicidal ideation in the last 12 months was 57.9% compared to 19.2% in the low-income group and 2.7% in the general population. The level of deprivation was different by chapter choice of consumer bankruptcy. Policy and practice implications of the results were discussed.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.65-73
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• 2019

This study performed Panel Regression Analysis (PRA) with the debt ratio as a dependent variable and the ROE (return on equity), sales volume, current ratio, total capital, and Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) as an independent variable. According to the GLS analysis, the current ratio to liabilities ratio was negative, and for sales, the ratio of liabilities was positive. Capital totals also had a negative impact on the debt ratio. However, ROE, unlike the hypothesis, had negative effects on the liability ratio, and the SCFI index was not significant. As implications of this research, the company confirmed that its sales increased as the debt ratio of global shipping companies rose, achieving economies of scale. However, it was confirmed that the actual size of the economy through the injection of other capital would help increase sales but not affect net profit. Shipping companies should expand their business power and secure large container vessels to secure credibility of shippers. In the future research, an analysis considering exchange rate, global economic growth rate, and manufacturing production index is needed.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.19-34
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• 2022

There are growing concerns about debt insolvency among youth and low-income households. The deterioration in household debt quality among young people is due to a combination of sluggish employment, an increase in student loan burden and an increase in high-interest loans from the secondary financial sector. The purpose of this study was to explore the possibility of household debt default among young borrowers in Korea and to predict the factors affecting this possibility. This study utilized the 2021 Household Finance and Welfare Survey and used random forest algorithm to comprehensively analyze factors related to the possibility of default risk among young adults. This study presented the importance index and partial dependence charts of major determinants. This study found that the ratio of debt to assets(DTA), medical costs, household default risk index (HDRI), communication costs, and housing costs the focal independent variables.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.51-61
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• 2023

Purpose - Since COVID-19, the government's expansion of liquidity to stimulate the economy has resulted in an increase in private debt and an increase in asset prices of such as real estate and stocks. The recent sharp rise of the US Federal fund rate and tapering by the Fed have led to a fast rise in domestic interest rates, putting a heavy burden on the Korean economy, where the level of household debt is very high. Excessive household debt might have negative effects on the economy, such as shrinking consumption, economic recession, and deepening economic inequality. Therefore, now more than ever, it is necessary to identify the causes of the increase in household debt. Design/methodology/approach - Main methodology is regression analysis. Dependent variable is household loans from depository institutions. Independent variables are consumer price index, unemployment rate, household loan interest rate, housing sales price index, and composite stock price index. The sample periods are from 2017 to May 2022, comprising 72 months of data. The comparative analysis period before and after COVID-19 is from January 2017 to December 2019 for the pre-COVID-19 period, and from Jan 2020 to December 2022 for the post-COVID-19 period. Findings - Looking at the results of the regression analysis for the entire period, it was found that increases in the consumer price index, unemployment rate, and household loan interest rates decrease household loans, while increases in the housing sales price index increase household loans. Research implications or Originality - Household loans of depository institutions are mainly made up of high-credit and high-income borrowers with good repayment ability, so the risk of the financial system is low. As household loans are closely linked to the real estate market, the risk of household loan defaults may increase if real estate prices fall sharply.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 1994

This study attempted to investigate the demands of fishing village people and the actual status of their living, to diagnose the problems in fishing villages and to present some basic data for fishing village development. The major findings of this study were as follows ; 1) The problems in fishing village of Korea included fishing village, household debt, big fluctuation of fish prices, children's education, cultural and welfare facilities need to investment for equipment, marriage and health. 2) The respondents said that fishing village household debt was mainly caused by lack of income from fishery(37%), educational expenses(28.5%), excessive fishery expenses(20%), excessive fishery equipment(15%), and government policy(12%). 3) The outlook of fishery development is considered bright by the respondents. They said that fishery would be a prospective industry if the appropriate conditions are given. Considerable research efforts for government policies will be needed to develop the fishery industry.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.1-32
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• 2021

With CB data in South Korea, this study examines whether the credit risk of borrowers changes when the regulation on bank mortgage supply is relaxed. We analyze the effect of deregulation on LTV and DTI limits in the Seoul-metropolitan area in August 2014 with a difference-in-difference approach. We find that the probability of delinquency is lower in the Seoul metropolitan area after the deregulation than in other urban areas. The effect is noticeable among low-income and low-credit borrowers. We also find that borrowers change their debt structure to reduce the interest costs utilizing their improved access to bank mortgages. The findings suggest the necessity to consider the burden of the high interest costs of unsecured loans for debtors with low incomes and low credit ratings in designing housing finance regulations.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.25-48
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• 2023

The current article has explored the effect of productive capacities (as defined by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) and of structural economic vulnerability (as defined by the United Nations) on fiscal space volatility in developing countries. It relies on the definition and measure of fiscal space proposed by Aizenman and Jinjarak (2010; 2011) and Aizenman et al. (2019). To compute the indicator of fiscal space and hence that of fiscal space volatility, fiscal space is considered as the ratio of outstanding public debt to the 'de facto tax base', the latter being the number of years of tax revenues needed for a country to repay its debt. Results based on a sample of 116 countries from 2000 to 2018 have revealed that the enhancement of productive capacities is associated with lower fiscal space volatility, while higher structural economic vulnerability heightens fiscal space volatility. On another note, highly vulnerable countries tend to experience a higher negative effect of productive capacities on fiscal space volatility than relatively less vulnerable countries.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2024

This paper evaluates explanations for China's growth slowdown. The natural tendency for rapidly growing economies to slow down is a major factor, along with problems bequeathed by unbalanced growth, including a declining ICOR, slowing total factor productivity growth, and rising indebtedness. A number of other mechanisms are of lesser importance: demographics, President Xi's centralization of political power and anti-corruption campaign, and U.S. export controls. Sustaining growth in the longer term will require China to step away from investment, debt and export-fueled growth in favor of a balanced growth model with household consumption playing a larger role. Doing so will require hardening of the budget constraints of regional and local governments and restructuring of the nonperforming debts of property and construction companies.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.179-204
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• 2022

This study examines the extent to which policy-based loans to SME exporters affect their export performance (the intensive margin of exports). We also investigate the heterogeneous export effects of policy-based loans that may depend on firm- and industry-specific characteristics, such as credit ratings, debt-to-assets ratios, firm size and age. To do so, we conduct a survey, of 1,000 Korean SMEs, that collect information on firm-level exports and policy-based loans. The main empirical findings strongly support that SMEs that receive policy-based loans tend to increase their export volumes. However, these loans' positive impact on exports are only valid for SME exporters with credit scores of 12 or greater (that is, SMEs that have difficulty accessing the external financial market). The estimation results with respect to SMEs' dependence on external financing imply that policy-based loans for SMEs in sectors that are heavily dependent on external finance are effective in that they are instrumental in increasing these firms' exports. These empirical findings emphasize the importance of the external financial market to SME exporters who face various up-front investments that are related to their exporting activities.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.1-34
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• 2010

We conduct a comprehensive risk analysis of household debt in Korea for the first time using the whole sample credit bureau (CB) data of 2.2 million individual debtors. After analysing debt service capacity profiles of debtor groups classified by the borrower characteristics such as income, age, occupation, credit scoring, and the type of creditor business companies, we investigate the impact of interest rate and income changes on debt service-to-income ratios (DTIs) and default rates of respective debtor groups. Empirical results indicate that debt service burdens are relatively high for low income wage earners, high income self-employed, low income capital and card loan holders, and high income mutual savings loan holders. We also find that debtors from multiple financial companies are particularly weak in their debt service capacity. The scenario analysis indicates that financial companies, with the current level of capital buffers, may be able to absorb negative consequences arising from the increase in DTIs and loan default rates if the interest rate and income changes remain modest. However, the negative consequences may fall disproportionately on non-bank financial companies such as capital, credit card, and mutual savings banks, whose debtors' DTIs are already high. We also find that the refinancing risk of household debt is relatively high in Korea as more than half of household mortgage debts are bullet loans. As the DTIs of mortgage loan holders are already high, under the current DTI regulation, mortgage loans may not be readily refinanced especially when the interest rate rises. Disruptions in mortgage loan refinancing may put downward pressure on housing prices, which may in turn magnify refinancing risk under the current loan-to-value (LTV) regulation. Overall our analysis suggests that, for more effective monitoring of household debt risk, it is necessary to combine existing surveillance schemes based on macro aggregate indicators with more comprehensive and detailed risk analyses based on micro individual data.