Sustainable Local Currency Debt: An Analysis of Foreigners’ Korea Treasury Bonds Investments Using a LA-VARX Model

Jae Young Jang and Erdal Atukeren
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Jae Young Jang: Seoul Business School, aSSIST, 46 Ewhayeodae 2-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03767, Korea

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 13, 1-23

Abstract: Foreign investors’ interest in Korean local currency bonds, and especially in Korea Treasury Bonds (KTBs) has increased significantly since the mid-2000s. This paper examines the determinants of foreign investors’ KTB investments by means of a lag-augmented vector autoregressive model with exogenous variables (LA-VARX). The model specification includes variables capturing the domestic, international, and risk factors. The risk factors are especially important in the context of South Korea since geopolitical tensions and economic policy uncertainty might adversely affect all investment decisions by foreigners. We find that expected return rates, country default risks, and global economic conditions have a significant impact on foreign investors’ KTB investment, but geopolitical risks have only a short-term negative impact. Our findings not for only provide a better understanding of the determinants of financial investments in South Korean financial markets, but they have broader implications in terms of the economic and social aspects of sustainability in South Korea. This is because KTBs provide a source of funding for the South Korean government for social projects and that KTBs are also held largely by long-term investors such as pension funds and insurers which require stable and sustainable investments.

Keywords: South Korea; Korea Treasury Bonds (KTBs); geopolitical risk; economic policy uncertainty; lag-augmented VAR (LA-VAR) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:13:p:3603-:d:244413

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