An Equity Market Perspective on the Korean Financial Crisis

Abstract

We examine the movement of Korean stock prices before and after the 1997 financial crisis. Unlike in Japan, as documented by Hamao et al. (Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 39, pp. 901-923, 2007), we find an increase in firm-level volatility in Korea, which may make it easier for investors to distinguish low-quality from high-quality firms and thus encourage ocleansingo during recessions. The result appears to derive from government efforts to restructure the corporate sector, which targeted highly leveraged firms and chaebol affiliates immediately after the market crash.