In this study, we attempt to determine whether or not Korean firms have failed to fully utilize the tax benefits of debt, particularly in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Results suggest that underleveraged firms lost significant tax savings that would have been available had they increased debt levels to their kink. The incremental tax benefit in 2008 is estimated to be as large as 5.2% (2.1%) of firm value prior to (after) the personal tax penalty. These firms' low leverage, however, seems reasonable when we consider the financial distress costs. Increases in expected default costs offset the majority of potential tax savings after the financial crisis.

Shared growth effort, which is also known as mutual growth, has emerged as one of the most important keywords in Korean economy. This study examines whether a conglomerate’s shared growth effort evaluated by the Shared Growth Commission is valued by market investors. Using our full sample, we find that firms participating in shared growth evaluation have a higher firm value. The results from the full sample show that firm’s effort on shared growth is rewarded in the Korean capital market. However, after matching firms by size of sales and return on assets to better control for firm characteristics, we find that neither the participation nor a higher (lower) rating of the shared growth evaluation is associated with firm value. This implies that the result from the full sample may be capturing firm characteristics, instead of the effects of shared growth effort, thus market investors do not consider conglomerate’s shared growth effort as a value-enhancing strategy. Using a recently introduced shared-growth index, the findings in our study provide preliminary but important evidence on how creating shared value (CSV) is related to firm value.

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