• Korea Trade Review
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.103-120
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• 2022

This paper studies the possibility of options as an instrument for central bank to intervene foreign exchange market. As opposed to spot transaction or forward transaction, which impacts spot exchange rate only once, currency options can continuously resist a directional speculative pressure on spot market due to the dynamic delta hedging of OTC currency options market maker. This research also analyzes whether and how central banks can use currency options to lower exchange rate volatility and maintain (implicit) target zones in foreign exchange markets. It argues that short position rather than long position in options will result in market makers dynamically hedging their long option exposure in a stabilizing manner, consistent with the first objective. Selling a "Strangle" allows a central bank to increase the credibility of its commitment to a target zone, and could have a lower expected cost than spot market interventions. However, this strategy also exposes the central bank to an unlimited loss potential. Therefore these kinds of intervention strategies must be used in the short run and temporarily.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.41-62
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• 2023

Purpose - This paper examines whether the imposition of countervailing duties by the United States on undervalued foreign currency is legally consistent with the WTO's SCM Agreement. Design/methodology - The study uses a methodology that involves analyzing relevant WTO agreements, prior panel reports, Appellate Body decisions, and other legal documents. Findings - The findings suggest that to impose countervailing duties, certain legal requirements must be met, including financial contribution, benefit, and specificity. The paper also notes that when calculating the benefits of undervalued foreign currency, losses from import activities due to currency undervaluation must be considered. Additionally, classifying all exports to the US under specific industries or business groups is likely to be inconsistent with the SCM Agreement. Originality/value - Even the US countervailing measures on exchange rate subsidies may not comply with WTO regulations due to incorrect calculation of benefits and a lack of specificity, however, it suggests that when intervening in the foreign exchange market, the measures should aim to achieve only minimum policy goals.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.239-251
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• 2005

This paper investigates the effectiveness of economic policy on the stock market in Korea around foreign currency crisis and stock market opening. For this purpose, the paper applied SUR technique to a set of monthly data over the period 1982.01 to 2004.12. The study finds the following results. First, for the entire sample period, Korean stock market appears to have effectively incorporated all of the past information about fiscal policy moves. However, the paper finds an evidence that some of the past monetary actions have significant impacts upon current stock returns implying that the information about past monetary moves has been overlooked. Second, there is an evidence to suggest that, after foreign currency crisis, the macro economic policy actions may influence stock market in a different way. In particular, after foreign currency crisis, monetary policy influences stock market in a more delayed pattern while past fiscal policy moves are well incorporated into current stock returns. Third, before stock market opening to foreign investors, some of the past economic policy actions have significant effects on current stock returns. On the contrary, after stock market opening, none of the past macro economic information has significant impact upon current stock returns. The results imply that stock market opening may contribute to the active utilization of economic information for market participants in Korea.

• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.1-15
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• 2018

Purpose - This study investigates the effect of MNEs' characteristics on the use of foreign currency denominated debt in the context of Korean firms. This study examines the relationship between MNEs and the use of foreign debt focusing on the accessibility to the capital market in addition to the motive of hedging against foreign exchange exposure. Research design and methodology - Probit estimation is employed for estimating significant factors in determination of the use of foreign debt by firms. The dependent variable is a dummy variable to indicate whether a firm uses foreign debt or not at the end of 2004. Independent variables include foreign subsidiaries ratio, export to sale, R&D expenditure to sale, and credit rating. Results - The results show that the interaction between the level of internationalization represented by intra-regional diversification and the strategic characteristics embedded in the region of entry affects the use of foreign debt. In case of a high level of diversification within the developing region with a strong pursuit of asset exploitation, MNEs are more likely to use foreign debt, whereas a high level of diversification within the developed region with a strong pursuit of asset seeking, MNEs are less likely to use foreign debt. Conclusions - The differences between MNEs in terms of intra-regional diversification, strategic orientation, and the accessibility to capital markets as well as the hedging motive affect the use of foreign debt.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.221-246
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• 2010

The paper is basically attempted to reveal a mechanism of exchange rate determination in global foreign exchange markets. For a theoretical framework, uncovered interest rate parity(UIRP), covered interest rate parity(CIRP), and real interest rate parity(RIRP) are tentatively adapted, and GARCH-M model is employed for an econometric methodology. Empirical evidence shows that the UIRP is superior to others, and the RIRP is better than the CIRP in explaining how exchange rates are determined in global exchange markets. All of them, however, is not fully supported by economic theories. Following Frankel(1989), country premium, volatility premium, and currency premium are evaluated to see if which premium is a crucial in disturbing the RIRP, and it is found that country and currency premiums are a major components in disturbing the RIRP. To this end, market-oriented and market-determined systems has to be built to avoid currency disputes which is undergoing hot issue in global foreign exchange market.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.163-190
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• 2003

This study tests the hypothesis of market efficiency through the information spillover effects over price and volatility across countries by using open-to-close(daytime) returns and close-to-open(overnight) returns of NASDAQ, KOSDAQ and JASDAQ data from January 3, 1997 to December 21, 2000. Based on Granger-causality and time-varying AR(1)-GARCH(1, 1)-M models we document that the evidence of statistically significant conditional mean and volatility spillovers effects from the daytime returns and volatility of NASDAQ to the overnight returns and volatility of KOSDAQ is observed both before and after the IMF foreign currency crisis but not to the close-to-open return before the IMF foreign currency crisis. We can understand the information spillover effect from NASDAQ to KOSDAQ on the overnight rather than the daytime grows more significantly after the IMF foreign currency crisis. We also find the interactive information spillover effect between NASDAQ and JASDAQ both before and after the IMF financial crisis, in particular, to close-to-open return. In addition, the market efficiency between KOSDAQ and NASDAQ is on an increasing trend through IMF foreign currency crisis.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.19-38
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• 2021

This study aims to analyze the foreign asset leverage effect on Korean oil & gas companies' foreign profits and to maintain the appropriate foreign asset volume for reducing exchange risk. For a long time, large Korean companies, including oil companies, overheld foreign currency liabilities. For this reason, most large companies have been burdened to hedge exchange risk and this excess limit holding deteriorated total profit and reduced foreign currency asset management efficiency. Our paper proceeds in presenting a three-stage analysis considering diversified exchange risk factors through estimation on transformation of foreign transactions a/c including annual trends of foreign asset and industry specifics. We also supplement incomplete the estimation method through a practical hedging case investigation. Our research parts are differentiated on the analyzing four periods considering period-specifics The FER value of the oil firms ranged from -0.3 to +2.3 over the entire period. The results of the FER Value are volatile and irregular; those results do not represent the industry standard comparative index. The Korean oil firms are over the credit limit without accurate prediction and finance high interest rate funds from foreign-owned banks on the basis on a biased relationship. Since the IMF crisis, liabilities of global firms have decreased. Above all, oil firms need to finance a minimum limit without opportunity losses on the demand forecast and prepare for uncertainty in the market. To reduce exchange risk from the over-the-limit position, we must consider factors that affect the corporate exchange risk on the entire business process, including the contract phase.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.111-121
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• 2009

Because of its unique characteristics, the construction industry tends to be affected by economic environment more than any other industries. The domestic construction industry was forced to change its management pattern and system when it went through the foreign currency crisis, and since then, the construction industry has been growing in terms of quality over last 10 years, breaking from the quantitative performance-oriented growth in the past. The study was intended to integrate the financial data of the companies during the period before and after the foreign currency crisis so as to analyze the effect of environmental changes on management performance of the companies. It was aimed at evaluating the changes to the stability, profitability and the growth potential, and collecting the data on variation of the market scale, price of resources such as material and labor and the financial environment, thereby analyzing the correlation with the management performance. The study, to deal with the difficulties which are anticipated, like the foreign currency crisis experienced in the past, was also intended to identify the correlation between the economic conditions and the performance of the construction companies, using the experimental data in the past.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.55
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• pp.185-208
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• 2012

Before and after the Capital Market Integration Act in 2007 is implemented in South Korea, many of small-and mid sized exporting companies in South Korea has been bankrupted or filed for lawsuit claiming mis-selling(KIKO) by the banks. The basic economic structure of KIKO in Korea are part of a business model based on the use or misuse of exotic derivatives whose results are anything but imaginary. 571 mid sized exporting companies have been damaged about $28 billion. KIKO is a currency option product that sells foreign currencies at higher foreign exchange rate when the rate moves within a certain range, but sells foreign currencies at two or three times lower rate than the market price when the rate exceeds the designated upper limit. KIKO, Therefore, is hard to know whether the non financial firms intended to hedge against further strengthening of their currency or merely to speculate. It is also hard to know how thoroughly they understood the risk-return profile of these transactions. It is similarly hard to ascertain whether the derivatives dealers offering these transactions were meeting the demands of their clients or taking advantage of them. These exotic derivatives were inappropriate for either hedging or speculating, and no knowledgeable investor would be likely to enter into these contracts intentionally.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.315-327
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• 2008

According to the Bank Profitabilities Statistics of OECD members, Our domestic banks applying commissions for both exchange and selling/buying foreign currencies are evaluated as much higher than those of other countries banks. The theory indicates an analysis results and comparison in between banks over the world. Our domestic bank assert that, in general, the aggregated banking commission income is lower than those of other countries by comparing in the field of non-interests profits. Viewing by another analysis in details, some commission rate applying to domestic services are far below than cost basis, but other commission rate applying to foreign currency transaction services is abnormally higher. Such unfair rate should be lowered to the similar level to other banks in the world and also the actual cost should be reasonably reevaluated in the reasonable manner. One more thing, The writer suggest that domestic banks should spend efforts to increase their income by improving and diversifying with the various type of new commissions applied to domestic market, such as multi-functional financial services, expanding ATM services, electronic settling technique etc under today's rapidly changing and opening world financial market.