• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.31-39
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• 2014

Purpose - This study investigates the following two issues. First, we attempt to find the important determinants of housing investment and to identify their significance rank using survey panel data. Recently, the expansion of global uncertainty in the real estate market has directly and indirectly influenced the Korean housing market; households demonstrate a sensitive reaction to changes in that market. Therefore, this study aims to draw conclusions from understanding how the impact of financial strength of the household is related to house investment. Second, we attempt to verify the effectiveness of diverse indices of financial strength such as DTI, LTV, and PIR as measures to monitor the housing market. In the continuous housing market recession after the global crisis, the government places top priority on residence stability. However, the government still imposes forceful restraints on indices of financial strength. We believe this study verifies the utility of these regulations when used in the housing market. Research design, data, and methodology - The data source for this study is the "National Survey of Tax and Benefit" from 2007 (1st) to 2011 (5th) by the Korea Institute of Public Finance. Based on this survey data, we use panel data of 3,838 households that have been surveyed continuously for 5 years. We sort the base variables according to relevance of house investment criteria using the decision tree model (DTM), which is the standard decision-making model for data-mining techniques. The DTM method is known as a powerful methodology to identify contributory variables for predictive power. In addition, we analyze how important explanatory variables and the financial strength index of households affect housing investment with the binary logistic multi-regressive model. Based on the analyses, we conclude that the financial strength index has a significant role in house investment demand. Results - The results of this research are as follows: 1) The determinants of housing investment are age, consumption expenditures, income, total assets, rent deposit, housing price, habits satisfaction, housing scale, number of household members, and debt related to housing. 2) The impact power of these determinants has changed more or less annually due to economic situations and housing market conditions. The level of consumption expenditure and income are the main determinants before 2009; however, the determinants of housing investment changed to indices of the financial strength of households, i.e., DTI, LTV, and PIR, after 2009. 3) Most of all, since 2009, housing loans has been a more important variable than the level of consumption in making housing market decisions. Conclusions - The results of this research show that sound financing of households has a stronger effect on housing investment than reduced consumption expenditures. At the same time, the key indices that must be monitored by the government under economic emergency conditions differ from those requiring monitoring under normal market conditions; therefore, political indices to encourage and promote the housing market must be divided based on market conditions.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.221-243
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• 2017

In this study, I examine overall conditions and problems of personal asset management processes by the old age people in Korea from the global perspectives. Major recommended policy implications for those are as follows.. First, the IRR (income replacement ratio) of public pensions in Korea is found to rank nearly the lowest among the OECD member countries. The relatively low fund performance compared to that of developed countries as well as this low IRR can be pointed out as major problems of public pension in Korea. It is recommended to reinforce specialty in fund management as a top priority to solve out these problems related with public pensions in Korea. Second, it is needed to set retirement pensions to be mandatory for almost all the firms in Korea to substitute for the above lower IRR of public pensions and to recover from the highest elderly poverty ratio among the OECD countries. Third, it is required to discuss about the expansion of tax refund policy application in the individual pension sector and many financial investment products under the correction of current budget control to motivate voluntary subscription for individual pension planning and to stabilize elderly lives of ordinary people in Korea. Fourth, it is required to induce market mechanism in controling price and longevity risk of reverse mortgages for the long-run sustainability.