Household assets become a foundation of a national in overall as well as the household itself. Therefore, how a household structures asset portfolio is important concern for economists and policy-makers who set the national policies beyond a household...
Household assets become a foundation of a national in overall as well as the household itself. Therefore, how a household structures asset portfolio is important concern for economists and policy-makers who set the national policies beyond a household. Moreover, because assets are major resources of consumption in senior life, in a nation like Korea which becomes an aging society rapidly, asset portfolio is very important.
However, the researches to date on assets have been made mainly focusing on financial assets from the economics viewpoint and there are few researches focusing on real estate assets. Considering Korean household situation in which real estate takes the most part, it is required to conduct researches on real estate assets.
This study aims to review asset portfolio of households and determinants of real estate assets through microeconomic approaches and find out the suggestions from them. That is, it intends to analyze asset portfolio of households focusing on ages and regions and find out the determinants for home ownership rate and the ratio of real estate assets to total assets according to the social demographic characteristics, economic characteristics, real estate characteristics, income risk, etc. The research data are 10-year ones from 1999 to 2008 of the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS) and panel regression analysis was applied with SPSS 18.0 and Eviews 7.0.
As a result of asset portfolio analysis, although the economic lives of households are different household to household, they give many weights on real estate assets in portfolio in common. Reviewing the changes in assets and the ratio of assets by age, it was found that assets․debts, income․consumption are high in their 50s and decrease after then, which is reverse U-shape by age change and coincides with life cycle hypothesis. However, the ratio of real estate assets to total assets are increasing and financial assets are decreasing as their age increases.
And it shows difference according to the regions. Compared to other regions, Seoul․metropolitan zones have high assets․debts, income․consumption and also have high ratio of real estate assets to total assets. There are differences in allocation of household assets according to educational background, job, household form, annual income, net assets, kind of houses, and home ownership, etc, as well as age and regions.
Next, reviewing the determinants of real estate assets, age and total assets had positive(+) influence on home ownership rate while educational background, total debts, monthly saving, living in Seoul․metropolitan area had negative(-) influence on it. And age, having spouse, total assets, total debts, living in Seoul․metropolitan area, and home ownership had positive(+) influence on the ratio of real estate assets to total assets while educational background, one person household, annual income, monthly saving, income risk had negative(-) influence on it. As time goes by year by year, the ratio of real estate assets to total assets becomes higher and the influence of economic variables and real estate variables become high in higher age group.
Through the research results as above, the followings are suggested.
First, changes in household assets coincide with life cycle hypothesis throughout one’s life according to the changes in age but the ratio of real estate assets to total assets continuously increase according to the increase in age. Thus liquidity is concerned factor for senior-age class.
Second, home ownership rate in Seoul․metropolitan area is lower than other regions and it is required to stabilize housing price. On the other hand, the ratio of real estate assets to total assets and debts are relatively high and they are vulnerable to economic shocks such as changes in interest rates, employment, etc. They have to be prepared for such risks.
Third, savings had negative influence on both home ownership rate and the ratio of real estate assets to total assets. It is assumed that they do not afford to save money relatively due to the increase in debts by using debts in increasing assets. The asset structure in which the debts are increasing and savings are decreasing makes both household and national economy vulnerable; thus, the effective measures on the risk are required.
This study has significance to provide realistic and balanced research perspectives in asset-related parts by researching real estate assets in the situation where financial assets take the most part in household assets. Based on our research findings, households can review current asset situation and make efforts for reasonable portfolio selection and the nation can utilize the findings as reference data for establishing economic policies such as interest rate control, housing supply, etc.
Key words : asset portfolio, reverse U-shape, determinants of real estate assets, home ownership rate, the ratio of real estate assets to total assets.