• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.580-599
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• 2008

This paper aims at examining the existence and characteristics of regional difference in project finance in Korea. Main results of this paper are as follow. Firstly, regional difference in project finance between capital region and local can be seen partially. However, their characteristics are different from corporate finance. ANOVA tests show significant differences of excess interest rate occur in case of commercial real estate projects and significant differences of contracted terms occur in case of residential real estate projects carried out by local banks. Secondly, key factors causing the regional differences in project finance are asymmetric information for cash flow generated by the project between the capital region and local. Especially, regional differences in project finance are different from those in corporate financing because of local banks$^{\circ}{\phi}$ behaviors. They follow and act as the passive members of nationwide banks in case of the capital region projects. Thirdly, prepaid sale system and the guarantee system depending on construction companies dilute the regional differences in project finance in case of residential real estate projects. Although these systems contributed rapid growth of project finance, they may be the main factors distorting project finance market which lead to financial crisis. In these context, policy implications may be derived in order to solve the confronted problems of project finance market.