The purpose of this research is to examine empirically what kinds of changes the government's debt-ratio reduction policy, strongly promoted since the foreign exchange crisis, has made to the Korean corporate debt structure and the real factors in the decisions. This research examined how the corporate debt ratio, an important issue for the Korean economy in the wake of the foreign exchange crisis, has changed on the whole, by business group and by debt type, and how enterprises reduced their debt ratio. Furthermore, it also analyzed how debt structure decision factors as suggested in financial theory have changed since the foreign exchange crisis.

The following are the key findings obtained this research:

First, the government's corporate debt reduction effort achieved the stated objectives superficially. However, with a considerable contribution by asset revaluation, investment between business group firms, etc., however, substantial improvement of corporate financial structure was not obtained.

Second, the hypothesis －if corporate scale is large, the debt ratio would be higher－ means debts would be concentrated in the large enterprises within business groups: A statistically positive relationship appeared within the top five and top 30 business groups prior to the foreign exchange crisis. Nevertheless, the same positive correlation could not be found after the crisis. －The interpretation is that the positive (+) effect of corporate scale on debt was offset because the debt reduction policy was focused on large enterprises, in particular, among the top business groups.

Third, the hypothesis －the debt ratio would be lower for higher business risks－ could be supported only for the top 30 business group companies and other enterprises before the foreign exchange crisis. No statistical correlation could be found in the top five business group companies, indicating that before the foreign exchange crisis, the debt of these firms had nothing to do with business risks. Meanwhile, since the foreign exchange crisis, no statistical relationship could be found regardless of business group.

Fourth, the hypothesis －the debt ratio of a corporation with many non-debt tax shields would be low as it had to be careful in utilizing debt to achieve a tax saving effect－ was rejected based on the results. The interpretation is that is interpreted that more tax shields played an affirmative role in corporate value and served as advantage with respect to debt.

Fifth, the hypothesis －if profitability is high, the debt ratio would be lower－ was supported in the short and long-term, in domestic and overseas debt ratios and regardless of the period.

Sixth, a consistent result could not be found in the relationship between growth-related variables －such as sales growth, advertisement expense concentration ratio, R&D concentration ratio, etc.－ and debt ratio. Sales growth and advertisement expense concentration ratio showed a discriminant positive (+) sign in and , respectively. Therefore, the hypothesis that growth opportunity would have a negative (-) correlation with debt ratio was rejected. on the contrary, R&D concentration ratio showed a negative (-) sign in both and , appearing to support the hypothesis.

Seventh, the impact of tangible fixed assets on debt ratio showed a positive (+) correlation only for the period after the foreign exchange crisis. The interpretation is that such a phenomenon was caused by the domestic financing environment that had become more conservative after the foreign exchange crisis. In an analysis by business group, however, a statistically discriminant positive (+) relationship appeared only in other enterprises in the post-foreign exchange crisis period. This implies that the significance of tangible fixed assets as security value became higher for other enterprises than those belonging to business groups.

Eighth, it appeared that the impact of affiliation with business groups on debt ratio declined after the foreign exchange crisis. This tells us that the statistical correlation between the top five business groups and debt ratio disappeared after the foreign exchange crisis and that it was a weak factor for the top 30 business groups as well.