Biomass to Fuel: The Case of South Korea

In this report, we investigate the biofuel potential of South Korea and the implications of the introduction of biofuels for the Korean fuel market. Our biomass assessment suggests that (theoretically) biomass can be used to produce a significant portion of the fuel consumed annually in South Korea, with the most promising feedstock being forestry residues. And out of all the technologies considered, the production of cellulosic ethanol from forestry residues could potentially impact the fuel market the most. The key novelty of our study lies in that we consider a broad portfolio of biofuel technologies and carefully examine their potential economic and environmental implications for South Korea given its biomass availability (which we actually estimate). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to attempt this in the context of South Korea

Biomass to Electricity: The Case of South Korea

In this report, we investigate the biomass-based electricity potential of South Korea and the ramifications of the introduction of biomass in electricity production for the Korean electricity market. The novelty of our study lies in that we consider a broad portfolio of biomass-energy technologies and carefully analyze their potential economic and environmental implications for South Korea given its biomass availability (which we actually estimate). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to attempt this in the context of South Korea. Our biomass assessment suggests that (theoretically) biomass can be used to produce a significant portion of the total electricity consumed annually in South Korea, with the most promising feedstock being forestry residues. And out of all the technologies considered, pyrolysis of forestry residues could potentially impact the electricity market the most

Preferential Trade Agreements and Antidumping Protection

Are preferential trade agreements (PTAs) stumbling blocks or building blocks towards multilateral trade liberalization? We address this question by investigating the effects\ of the negotiation and implementation of PTAs on the use of antidumping (AD) (i.e., the most common form of contingent trade protection) by member countries against non-members as there has been a concurrent surge in regionalism and AD\ activity since the 1990s. Theoretically-derived empirical predictions are supported by the empirical analysis based on the 15 most intense users of AD. The results demonstrate that both the negotiation and the implementation of PTAs lead to fewer AD measures against non-member countries, except for members of customs-union agreements in force facing large import surges from non-members. Thus, our results highlight a building-block effect of PTAs on multilateral trade cooperation when it comes to AD protection

Biofuels and Their Potential in South Korea

We investigated the biofuel potential of South Korea and the implications of the introduction of biofuels for the Korean fuel market. We approximated the upper-bound biomass potential from forestry residues, livestock manure, and staple crops and calculated the amount of fuel that could be produced using these different biomass feedstocks. Our assessment suggests that biomass can be used to produce a significant portion of the fuel consumed annually in South Korea, with the most promising feedstock being forestry residues. Out of all the technologies considered, the production of cellulosic ethanol from forestry residues could potentially impact the fuel market the most. The key novelty of our study lies in that we considered a broad portfolio of biofuel technologies and carefully examined their potential economic and environmental implications for South Korea given its biomass availability (which we estimated).1

The Potential Implications of the Introduction of Bioelectricity in South Korea

We investigate the bioelectricity potential of South Korea and the ramifications of the introduction of biomass use in electricity production for the Korean electricity market. The novelty of our study lies in that we consider a broad portfolio of biomass-energy technologies and carefully analyze their potential economic and environmental implications for South Korea given its biomass availability. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to attempt this in the context of South Korea. We first offer a preliminary assessment of South Korea’s theoretical biomass potential from forestry residues, livestock manure, and staple crops and of the amount of electricity that could be generated using these different biomass feedstocks. Our analysis suggests that biomass can be used to produce a substantial portion of the total electricity consumed annually in South Korea. In addition, out of all the feedstocks and technologies considered, pyrolysis of forestry residues could potentially impact the electricity market the most. Next, we simulate different bioelectricity supply shocks while randomly perturbing our model’s demand and supply elasticity parameters using the Monte Carlo methodology. Our results demonstrate that the introduction of bioelectricity could significantly affect South Korea’s electricity market as well as its CO2 emissions.1

North–South Trade Agreements and Agricultural Input Use

We estimate how developing countries’ access to more advanced countries’ markets, proxied by regional trade agreements(RTAs) with such countries affects their agricultural—input use (namely the use of fertilizer and agricultural machinery). Using pooled OLS with country and year fixed effects and alternative instrumental variables, we find that having RTAs with high-income countries is associated with higher consumption of fertilizers relative to those countries who does not have such agreements—about 10 percent more. A Similar result is obtained for the use of agricultural machinery per 100 square kilometre: in particular, relative to those countries who do not have RTAs with high-income countries, those countries who do have such RTAs use more than twice of agricultural machinery per 100 square kilometres

Inequality and Social Identity: Micro-Level Evidence Using a Measure of Perceived Economic Position

Although several theories have it that income inequality shapes social identity formation,there has been hardly any conclusive evidence in large multi ethnic environments. A recent wave of scholarship attributes the absence of such results to the use of objective measures of inequality. Drawing from this strand of the literature, we test the hypothesis that perceived inequality dissipates the sense of belonging to a nation. Employing individual level survey data from 3-7 rounds of the Afrobarometer, we find that individuals reporting higher inequality tend to identify less with their nation vis a vis their ethnicity. The results are robust to accounting for reverse causation as well as to the inclusion of controls and are not driven by unobservables. We get suggestive evidence that violence and negative “sociotropic” evaluations are the mechanisms as to why inequality reinforces sub-national identity

Free-Trade Areas and Contingent Protection between Competing Exporters

This paper investigates the impact of free-trade areas (FTAs) on the use of contingent protection between competing exporters. We develop a dynamic model similar to the competing-importers one of Tabakis (2015), in which countries are limited to self-enforcing cooperative multilateral trade agreements and the economic environment is characterized by trade-flow volatility. Our analysis demonstrates that the findings of Tabakis (2015) extend to our competing-exporters case. In particular, the parallel formation of different FTAs results in a gradual but permanent easing of multilateral trade tensions, especially as far as contingent protection is concerned. Thus, our results highlight a building-block effect of FTAs on multilateral trade cooperation