We attempt to identify the population who are vulnerable to emotional shocks by exploiting an unprecedented series of celebrity suicides in South Korea during the last decade, including one of the most famous actresses, as well as a former president. Our conservative estimates show that for 5...

"Korea's households and banks seem relatively sound in terms of their loss-absorbing capacities. However, a number of worrying signs are present. Some of the negative indicators are the rising share of non-bank consumer loans; the large share of real estate out of household assets, borrowing in...

In the wake of an unprecedented health crisis, households who lack liquid assets that could tackle their growing deficit (=income-expenditure) will endure severe financial difficulties. The share of households facing liquidity risk will increase as incomes fall by bigger margins and exposure to...

Korea's household debt continues to be a major economic risk despite countermeasures, necessitating a thorough overhaul of the current macro-prudential management system. - The debt expanded to 1,514 trillion won in 3Q 2018 from a decade ago (713 trillion won in 2008), considerably exceeding the...

We investigate whether herd behavior in the equity market is led by ‘core' stocks or by ‘peripheral' stocks connected to core stocks, which we identify with a technique from network theory. Using non-securities stocks listed in the Korea Exchange from January 2005 to December 2015, we find...