IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/worlde/v33y2010i2p212-238.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Financial Liberalisation and the South Korean Financial Crisis: An Analysis of Expert Opinion

Author

Listed:
  • Kevin Amess
  • Panicos Demetriades

Abstract

This paper provides a novel analysis of the South Korean financial crisis drawing on the findings of a unique survey of IMF/World Bank and South Korean experts. The survey reveals that over‐optimism and inadequate recognition of financial risks inadvertently led to excessive risk‐taking by Korean financial intermediaries. It also indicates that the sources of over‐optimistic assessments of East Asian economies were mainly to be found outside East Asia and included the Bretton Woods Institutions themselves, Western media and analysts. In Korea, weaknesses in risk management were the result of (i) lack of expertise in relation to handling the risks associated with capital flows, and (ii) disincentives to manage risks emanating from a relatively successful history of government‐provided safety nets for both industry and banking. Financial liberalisation widened risk‐taking opportunities, by allowing Korean financial institutions to both borrow from and lend to institutions outside Korea. It also created additional disincentives for managing risk by intensifying competition and eroding bank franchise values. Weaknesses in prudential regulation allowed bank portfolios to become riskier, especially in terms of increased liquidity risk as a result of maturity mismatches between dollar‐denominated assets and liabilities. The liquidity crisis, which followed the re‐assessment of the South Korean economy by international lenders in late 1997, triggered a full‐blown financial crisis because of the absence of an effective international lender of last resort.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin Amess & Panicos Demetriades, 2010. "Financial Liberalisation and the South Korean Financial Crisis: An Analysis of Expert Opinion," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 212-238, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:worlde:v:33:y:2010:i:2:p:212-238
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9701.2009.01225.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9701.2009.01225.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-9701.2009.01225.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Demetriades, Panicos O. & Luintel, Kul B., 2001. "Financial restraints in the South Korean miracle," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 459-479, April.
    2. Corsetti, Giancarlo & Pesenti, Paolo & Roubini, Nouriel, 1999. "Paper tigers?: A model of the Asian crisis," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1211-1236, June.
    3. Huang, Haizhou & Xu, Chenggang, 1999. "Financial institutions and the financial crisis in East Asia," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(4-6), pages 903-914, April.
    4. Herring, Richard J, 1999. "Credit Risk and Financial Instability," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 15(3), pages 63-79, Autumn.
    5. Stiglitz, Joseph E & Weiss, Andrew, 1981. "Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 393-410, June.
    6. Fama, Eugene F, 1980. "Agency Problems and the Theory of the Firm," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 88(2), pages 288-307, April.
    7. Kevin C. Murdock & Thomas F. Hellmann & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2000. "Liberalization, Moral Hazard in Banking, and Prudential Regulation: Are Capital Requirements Enough?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(1), pages 147-165, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Clément Mathonnat & Alexandru Minea & Marcel Voia, 2022. "Does more finance lead to longer crises?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 111-135, January.
    2. Mejra Festić, 2011. "The role of the foreign banks in the 5 EU member states," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 189-206, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lukas Menkhoff & Chodechai Suwanaporn, 2007. "On the rationale of bank lending in pre-crisis Thailand," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(9), pages 1077-1089.
    2. Panicos O. Demetriades & Bassam Fattouh, 2006. "Excess Credit and the South Korean Crisis," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2006-84, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Ernest Dautovic, 2019. "Has Regulatory Capital Made Banks Safer? Skin in the Game vs Moral Hazard," Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie 19.03, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie.
    4. Hakenes, Hendrik & Schnabel, Isabel, 2011. "Bank size and risk-taking under Basel II," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 1436-1449, June.
    5. Suarez, Javier & Sánchez Serrano, Antonio, 2018. "Approaching non-performing loans from a macroprudential angle," Report of the Advisory Scientific Committee 7, European Systemic Risk Board.
    6. Iosifidi, Maria & Kokas, Sotirios, 2015. "Who lends to riskier and lower-profitability firms? Evidence from the syndicated loan market," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(S1), pages 14-21.
    7. Stijn Claessens & M. Ayhan Kose, 2013. "Financial Crises: Explanations, Types and Implications," CAMA Working Papers 2013-06, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    8. Wu, Ji & Guo, Mengmeng & Chen, Minghua & Jeon, Bang Nam, 2019. "Market power and risk-taking of banks: Some semiparametric evidence from emerging economies," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    9. Nazmoon Akhter, 2021. "Assessing the Relationship between Efficiency, Capital and Risk of Commercial Banks in Bangladesh," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 14(1), pages 1-55, July.
    10. Chia-Ying Chan & Iftekhar Hasan & Chih-Yung Lin, 2021. "Agency cost of CEO perquisites in bank loan contracts," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1221-1258, May.
    11. Georges Dionne, 2003. "The Foundationsof Banks' Risk Regulation: A Review of Literature," THEMA Working Papers 2003-46, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    12. Kirti, Divya, 2024. "When gambling for resurrection is too risky," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    13. Olszak, Małgorzata & Kowalska, Iwona, 2023. "Do competition and market structure affect sensitivity of bank profitability to the business cycle?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    14. Bieta, Volker & Broll, Udo & Siebe, Wilfried, 2014. "Collateral in banking policy: On the possibility of signaling," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 137-141.
    15. Monda, Barbara & Giorgino, Marco & Modolin, Ileana, 2013. "Rationales for Corporate Risk Management - A Critical Literature Review," MPRA Paper 45420, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Sylviane Guillaumont Jeanneney & Kangni Kpodar, 2006. "Développement financier, instabilité financière et croissance économique," Economie & Prévision, La Documentation Française, vol. 0(3), pages 87-111.
    17. Batuo, Michael & Mlambo, Kupukile & Asongu, Simplice, 2018. "Linkages between financial development, financial instability, financial liberalisation and economic growth in Africa," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 168-179.
    18. Agoraki, Maria-Eleni K. & Delis, Manthos D. & Pasiouras, Fotios, 2011. "Regulations, competition and bank risk-taking in transition countries," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 38-48, January.
    19. Delis, Manthos D. & Karavias, Yiannis, 2015. "Optimal versus realized bank credit risk and monetary policy," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 13-30.
    20. Alessandria, George & Qian, Jun, 2005. "Endogenous financial intermediation and real effects of capital account liberalization," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 97-128, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:worlde:v:33:y:2010:i:2:p:212-238. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0378-5920 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.