KOR

Research Staff

Research Staff

Park, Hyejin Research Fellow Fund&Pension
Research Field

Profile

TEL
82-2-3771-0645
E-mail
hpark@kcmi.re.kr
Education
Ph.D. in Economics (2017), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.A. in Economics (2009), Ewha Womans University
B.A. in Economics (2005), Ewha Womans University

Publications

Opinion

Importance of Scenario Analysis for Climate Risk Management / Feb. 07, 2023
According to the recent IPCC report, abnormal weather events and natural disasters have become more frequent compared to pre-industrial levels and the frequency and severity of climate change will grow exponentially if the current climate trend continues. Extreme climate events, which follow different patterns every year, entail high complexity and non-linearity inherent to climate change. This implies that existing risk assessments based on historical data or trend analysis are hardly sufficient to address climate risks. In response to this challenge, climate finance-related international organizations including the Network for Greening Financial System (NGFS) and the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) strongly recommend scenario-based climate risk assessment as an alternative solution. Central banks of major economies and global financial services firms have already exerted aggressive efforts to develop scenario-based climate risk assessment models. This shift also requires Korea’s financial services firms to establish a system to proactively respond to climate risks.
A Thought on Regulatory Improvement in Quasi-Investment Advisory Businesses / Aug. 24, 2021
With greater participation of retail investors in the stock market, a growing number of quasi-investment advisory businesses are providing unauthorized stock advisory services via YouTube and the so-called Stock Leading Room, a stock advisory social media chatroom. In response to this trend, the financial authorities in Korea unveiled regulatory improvement measures for quasi-investment advisory businesses in late April of 2021. With such regulatory reform, they made it clear that oversight on illegal, unfair quasi-investment advisory services would be strengthened to ensure only registered investment advisors engage in interactive online business practices. These measures are expected to help prevent damages to consumers by virtually prohibiting quasi-investment advisors from operating stock advisory social media chatrooms. However, the regulatory reform can achieve satisfactory results only when consistent efforts are put into management and oversight. For this to happen, it is necessary to enormously increase the number of investigators responsible for supervising quasi-investment advisory businesses.
ESG Stock Performance amid Covid-19 / Mar. 09, 2021
This article explores the impact of corporate environmental and social (ES) activities on stock returns amid the market crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. A series of analyses carried out here showed that stocks with higher ES scores tend to have a lower price decline. This means that firms with superb ES performance could be less susceptible to an unexpected shock such as Covid-19. Although the academic circle has yet to reach a consensus on the impact of ESG factors on stock performance, the results here show—albeit partially—the importance of non-financial factors such as ESG in investment decisions.
ESG Levels in Korea’s ESG Funds: Analysis and Implications / Sep. 15, 2020
Amid the abrupt increase in the size of ESG investing globally, Korea has seen a rush of ESG-themed funds in its asset management industry. However, there have been persistent claims that funds under the ESG label often fail to differentiate themselves from ordinary equity funds. An analysis on Korea’s equity ESG funds in this article reveals that average ESG levels of ESG fund portfolios are not significantly different from those of ordinary equity funds, and that ESG levels widely differ across ESG fund portfolios. As this could undermine investor confidence in ESG funds and activities in the ESG fund market in a long run, Korea’s financial investment industry should exert every effort to differentiate ESG-themed products, while seeking to enhance transparency in ESG funds.

Research performance