Unlike Ordinary Households, Fishery Household is an economic entity that produces and consumes simultaneously and is highly dependent on policy funds due to the nature of fishing industry which is unstable, seasonal, and taxable. This led the government to initiate the measures to reduce the debt, but a number of preceding studies found that the policy was ineffective. Moreover, the consumption and export of fishery products in Korea is gradually increasing over the year.

Therefore, this study analyzes the changes in fisheries debt by fishing types using the <Fishery Household Economy Survey> data of KOSIS for five years from 2013 to 2017, and also analyzes the determinants and elasticities of fishery household debt by fishing types through using the Pooled OLS and Tobit Model to find the factors that have the most impact on debt and present the basis for effective policy household debt reduction.

The analysis showed that the financial condition of the fishery household has improved significantly compared to the past, but the debt problem is expected to continue over the long term as the loan was used for unproductive purposes and the debt ratio was higher in the relative younger age group. Overall, the debt problem seems to be improving, but the debt of aquaculture household and fishing with vessel household has increased significantly.

Determinants and elasticity analysis show that there is a close relationship between productivity and household debt as consumption expenditures and non-consumption expenditures are related to debt for fishery and fishery management expenditures are related to debt for household. Particularly, this feature was found to be highly distinctive for type of aquaculture.

Based on these results, it is necessary to increase the income of fishery household so that they can have the ability to repay debts and it can be achieved by expanding support measures for younger fishermen, and providing financial consulting with management support services by establishing an organization for debt adjusting.