Fields of interests
International Trade, Environmental Economics, Macroeconomics
Working papers
Green Industrial Policy in a Globalized Economy (Formerly titled: Green Industrial Policies and the Energy Transition in the Globalized Economy)
Excellence Award, 2024 Korea-America Economic Association Job Market Conference
Fumio Dei Award, 2024 IEFS Japan Fumio Dei Conference
Abstract: How does green industrial policy work in a globalized economy where renewable-energy equipment (solar panels, wind turbines) is traded? I build a dynamic trade model with traded capital equipment and learning-by-doing and apply it to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which combines renewable-energy production and equipment-manufacturing subsidies. The instruments differ in pass-through and terms of trade: an energy subsidy increases imported equipment and raises global welfare more than U.S. welfare; an equipment subsidy concentrates production at home and does the reverse. The IRA cuts global CO2 by 0.63% and raises U.S. and global welfare by 0.05% and 0.03%, respectively.
Learning and Expectations in Dynamic Spatial Economies (Supplementary Appendix) (with Jingting Fan and Fernando Parro) NBER WP #31504
Abstract: The impact of shocks in dynamic spatial environments depends on how forward- looking agents anticipate the path of future fundamentals. We develop a framework that incorporates flexible beliefs about future fundamentals into a general class of dynamic spatial models, allowing for beliefs that are evolving, uncertain, and heterogeneous across agents. This framework provides a tractable methodology to quantify the consequences of both ex-ante and ex-post shocks. We apply it to two settings: an ex- post evaluation of the China productivity shock on the U.S. economy, and an ex-ante study of the economic impacts of climate change. In both cases, we study the impact of deviating from perfect foresight on key economic outcomes.
The Carbon Cost of Free Trade: Optimal Carbon Tax as a Trade Policy Disguise
Abstract: This paper examines how the optimal carbon tax responds to tariff reduction and explores its implications for carbon emissions. When the import tariff is set below the optimal level, the carbon tax incorporates carbon leakage and terms of trade motives. Both of these motives lead to a lower optimal carbon tax rate compared to the case under the optimal tariff. Quantitative exercises suggest that while the direct impact of tariff reduction on carbon emission is ambiguous and small, the indirect impact, through lowering the optimal carbon tax, is sizable and exacerbates global carbon emission.
Published journal articles
Selected predoctoral research
Technology Licensing and Environmental Policy Instruments: Price Control versus Quantity Control (with Seung-Gyu Sim), Resource and Energy Economics, 2020, Volume 62, November 2020, 101187 (working paper version)
Selected Refereed articles in interdisciplinary journals
Economic and Air Pollution Disparities: Insights from Transportation Infrastructure Expansion (with Sunbin Yoo, Junya Kumagai, Kohei Kawasaki, Bingqi Zhang, and Shunsuke Managi), Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 2023, Vol. 125, 103981
Covered in Earth-graphy (in Japanese)