The Causes of Hanjin Shipping’s Collapse: Is it Market Failure or Policy Failure?

Most scholars and media viewed the cause of the bankruptcy of Hanjin Shipping, which once boasted the world's seventh largest company, as management failure or CEO risk. However, in this study, the cause of Hanjin Shipping's bankruptcy was considered to be the collective action of ship investment from a behavioral economics perspective, and it was pointed out that the Korean government's inflexible fleet expansion policy was the background for this collective action. In short, the cause of Hanjin Shipping's bankruptcy was the purchase of ships during the boom period, and the root cause of the purchase of ships during the boom period was pointed out as ‘collective action in which one feels safe only by following the actions of others.’ In addition, in order to achieve the goal of 'shipping competitiveness = fleet size' set by our government, a policy was implemented to encourage ship purchases during recessions and even boom times, and this policy signaled to the market that 'now is a good time to buy ships'. It can be pointed out that was given.