ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

This article presents the results of a study that investigated the financial asset allocationbehaviors of Korean financial consumers and the effects of socio-demographic and financialfactors on the behaviors. The primary purpose of this study is to explain the patterns offinancial asset allocation behaviors and to identify any mistakes or inefficiency problems inrelation to satisfying their financial demands and ultimately maximizing their lifetime utility. Thus the findings of this study could provide meaningful policy implications for enhancedfinancial wellbeing of financial consumers in the future. The analyses presented in this article are based on data from the Survey of HouseholdFinances (SHF) for 2012. The SHF is an annual survey of approximately 10 thousand Koreanhouseholds and sponsored jointly by the Statistics Korea, the Financial Supervisory Service,and the Bank of Korea. The SHF employs a sample design of nationwide-distributed householdsand periodical measure of the microscopic financial soundness of households in order to producebasic data necessary for making various economic, social, and financial policies and carryingout researches in the related fields. This study concerns three aspects of financial asset allocation: socio-demographic, financial,and behavioral characteristics. They are observed through the following variables. Age isgrouped into six life cycle stages: 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s or more. Gender has twocategories: male and female. Education is classified into three categories: middle school diplomaor below, high school diploma, and university diploma or above. Job type, which is introducedto represent income stability, has two categories: regularly employed and others. Financial variables include total assets, financial assets, housing wealth, financial liabilities, net worth,and annual income. Financial asset allocation is an important matter not only for profitabilityof investment but for lifetime utility maximization. In this respect, the financial assets can beclassified into three categories by their demand types: transaction, investment, and protection. Also, they can be reclassified into five categories by their financial instrument types: transactionaccounts, time deposits and savings accounts, pooled investment funds, securities and derivatives,and insurance. The key variables are three allocation-related behavioral variables: transactiondemandweight, risky asset ratio, and diversification index. In order to ascertain the socio-demographic, financial, and behavioral characteristics offinancial asset allocation, descriptive statistics such as simple mean, weighted mean, median,and frequency are extensively used. Finally, the effects of socio-demographic and financialfactors on each of the three allocation-related behavioral variables are analyzed using a Tobitmodel since the dependent variables are limited in their ranges. The results of descriptivestatistical analyses indicate that there exist significant differences in financial status andfinancial asset allocation behaviors among the various groups of financial consumers by sociodemographics,which is also supported by the estimation results of the Tobit models. In particular,age and educational attainment turn out to be the major factors that can account for financialstatus and financial asset allocation behaviors as well. The aged and undereducated are generallyin worse financial condition than the other groups of financial consumers and at the same timetheir financial asset allocation behaviors are more inefficient. The behavioral inefficiencies,which are closely related to the term financial capability, can be summarized as follows. Thetransaction-demand weights of the vulnerable groups are relatively large, whereas their riskyasset ratios and diversification indexes are relatively small. Even if a large transaction-demandweight might be due to the low level of financial assets to a certain extent, it means a failure ofefficient allocation of financial assets. That is, they tend to hold more than an appropriate levelof financial assets in transaction accounts mainly in preference for convenience. As a result,their portfolios become unbalanced and thus the diversification indexes decrease. These behavioralaspects are far from attaining financial wellbeing, which is an outcome of financial behaviors. The SHF includes a special question about the first criterion for investment choice, whichmakes the attitudinal variable of financial decision-making. The answer should be one of thefour criteria: profitability, safety, liquidity, and accessibility, The first two criteria are wellknown as return and risk in finance: return is a measure of profitability and risk includes anopposite concept to safety even though the term risk has a broader meaning. Liquidity, which isdefined as how easily and immediately the asset can be converted into cash, also can be considered another risk factor. Accessibility is a concept close to transaction convenience. The attitudinalvariable represents directly financial consumers' attitudes towards risk and other financialmatters. Even if the observed behavioral variables correspond to the attitudinal variable in aconsistent manner with the conventional relationship between risk and return, the overwhelmingpriority of safety over the other criteria gives an explanation of the low risky asset ratios andonly a small proportion of financial consumers holding risky assets. Some groups of financialconsumers are generally defensive and less active in their financial matters, which dependslargely on their attitudes and weak financial capability. Finally, the main results of this study imply that there exist vulnerable groups of financialconsumers with respect to financial status and financial asset allocation. Further, they arevery likely to make mistakes in their financial decision-making or inefficient financial assetallocation. This is analogous to the argument of Campbell (2006) that many households investeffectively, but a minority, who appears to be poorer and less well educated than the majorityof more successful investors, make significant mistakes. Therefore, the authority should considerempowering the vulnerable groups of financial consumers so that they may be equipped withfinancial capability and behave in such a desirable manner as the successful financial consumers. It should start with the basics about finance and the benefit of increased lifetime utilitythrough it. The other findings of this study and their implications may be the ground for thepolicy to improve the financial condition of vulnerable groups and ultimately to lead them toattain their financial wellbeing.

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