The Korean Journal of Economic Studies
Economic Rationality and Economic Performance of Debt Relief Program Users
Jung Min Park (Seoul National University), Jinwook Shin (Seoul National University), Syngjoo Choi (Seoul National University) and Sok Chul Hong (Seoul National University)Year 2018Vol. 66No. 2
Abstract
This paper reports an economics experiment measuring debt relief programusers’ decision making quality by the consistency of choices with utilitymaximization and compares their consistency scores with those of participantsin other studies using experiments of the same form. Consistency scores ofdebt relief program users are lower than those reported in other studies andare strongly related to variables describing their real-life economicperformance. The higher level of consistency with utility maximization anindividual scores in the experiment, the more likely the person is to be ableto work, the higher personal income he or she earns, and the less likely theperson is to go bankruptcy. Our results suggest that the limitation of economicrationality affects individual economic activities and performance and is adeterminant of using debt relief programs.