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This study examines whether an increase in foreign ownership affects investment in Korea. Many studies have shown that in an imperfect financial market, a firm's investment depends on the availability of internal funds. If high foreigners' shareholding is a sign of a firm's good financial position, and if foreign investors demand better corporate governance to protect their investments, then cash-flow sensitivity of investment decreases with the level of foreign ownership. Using data from Korean firms, it is found that cash-flow sensitivity of investment is lower in firms with high foreign ownership than in those with low foreign ownership. This finding is regarded as evidence for a potential benefit of open financial markets.

This paper examines whether financial liberalization procedures introduced in Korea in the early 1990s succeeded in relaxing financing constraints on firms. Because external funds are more costly than internal funds in an imperfect capital market, corporate investments depend on the availability of internal funds. As financial liberalization mitigates constraints on firms, the sensitivity of investments to cash flow can be reduced. Using panel data on Korean firms, we found that cash-flow effects on investment spending decreased drastically during the liberalization period. In particular, small, non-chaebol and established firms that were severely constrained gained most from liberalization. Chaebol firms appeared to lose preferential access to credit after liberalization.

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