출자총액제한정책의 목적과 한계

Restriction on Total Equity Investment and Chaebol Policy

The Fair Trade Law is imposing many restrictions on the behavior of designated chaebols in Korea. One of the strongest restrictions is the limit on total equity investment of the designated chaebols. The law allowed non-finance member firms to invest up to 40% of their net assets in other domestic companies. This limit was lowered to 25% in 1994, and, after another four years, it was removed to facilitate the restructuring of chaebols. However, it was readopted in two years because chaebols abused their power resulting in excessive expansion of their territory. Most recently, the limit was raised to 40% from 25%. Like this, the regulation has varied widely and has been very inconsistent. This paper raised up some problematic points on this regulation and suggests some new ideas to improve the regulation.