Research

Note: Most of articles listed below are linked to the corresponding journal pages. You may open the paper with journal subscription. Journal percentage is calculated using IDEAS/RePEc Aggregate Rankings (Last 10 Years) for Economic Journals

Appeared in top journals

Higher than top 10% economics journals based on IDEAS/RePEc Aggregate Rankings (Last 10 Years) for Journals
Optimal preventive maintenance: Balancing reliability and costs in the electricity market (2024) with SY. Kim, MH, Choi, and DW Kim in Energy Policy (top 1% journal)This study proposes a framework to optimize substation maintenance. Using Cox Lasso regression, we find diminishing returns on preventive maintenance spending. Our analysis suggests that current spending may be insufficient to offset potential outage costs.
Price Bubbles in Oil & Gas Markets and Their Transfer (2022) with Z. Wang Resources Policy (top 7% journal)Research objective of the study is to examine if price bubbles can be transferred between the oil-gas markets. Empirical results show that GSADF statistics for oil prices Granger cause GSADF statistics for gas prices implying that price bubbles in the oil market could transfer to the gas market. ARDL models with GSADF statistics indicate that the impact of oil GSADF on gas GSADF depends on gas pricing mechanisms. Japan gas market has the large impact and chance of transferring price bubbles from Brent while Henry Hub has the small impact and low chance of bubble transfer from WTI. This study contributes to existing literature by confirming that price bubbles in the oil market transferred to the gas market and the probabilities of transfer depend on gas pricing mechanism.
Economics of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles in Korea (2022) with H. Kim and DW Kim in Energy Policy (top 1% journal)This study explores the economics of the public electric vehicle (EV) charging station in Korea to provide insights into the business. In Korea, the public charging infrastructure is typically important for the large scale diffusion of EV because many potential EV buyers live in multi-family residential units with limited off-street parking and thus installing home chargers is restricted. With internal data from the private charging service providers, this study shows that the charging business is hardly profitable with the current charging price of $0.23/kWh with subsidies to mitigate initial investment costs. In addition, many industry analysts have noted that subsidies may distort charging market; building charging stations to get the subsidies without considering economics of stations resulting in very low utilization rate. Removing the subsidies may minimize the market distortion but the economic feasibility becomes much worse. We propose the discriminatory price scheme, that is, different charging prices for the slow and the fast chargers. The appropriate charging prices without subsidies are estimated to be $0.25/kWh for the slow chargers (9% higher than the current charging price) and $0.39/kWh for the fast chargers (70% higher than the current price).
Household differentiation and residential electricity demand in Korea (2021) with JY Ryu and DW Kim in Energy Economics (top 1% journal) This paper investigates the impact of rapid demographic changes in Korea on residential electricity use. Demographic changes in Korea are characterized as i) household differentiation (increasing number of nuclear (one- or two-person) households despite the stagnant population growth) and ii) unprecedentedly fast-paced population ageing. Per capita electricity demand is estimated using a dynamic panel model with the system GMM. Results show that household differentiation has increased per capita electricity use in both short- and long-run; the ageing population has the negative impact on per capita electricity consumption. The impact of household differentiation, which is projected to be accelerated with the persistent low fertility in Korea, is substantial. Nuclear households use more electricity per person, but pay less electricity bill since Korea has the progressive electric billing system. Stakeholders and industry analysts should consider household differentiation to prepare the long-run electricity provision policy as well as the proper billing system. Lessons from the study have wider policy implications in other developed countries with the similar demographic changes.

Ex‐post moral hazard in prevented planting (2018) with Taehoo Kim in Agricultural Economics (top 5% journal)

This article analyzes the existence of moral hazard in prevented planting (PP) in the United States. The PP provision is defined as the “failure to plant an insured crop by the final planting date due to adverse events.” If the farmer decides not to plant a crop, the farmer receives a PP indemnity. Late planting (LP) is an option for farmers to plant a crop while maintaining crop insurance after the final planting date. Crop insurance may alter farmers’ behavior in selecting PP or LP and could increase the likelihood of PP claims even though farmers can choose LP. This study finds evidence that a farmer with higher insurance coverage tends to choose PP more often (ex‐post moral hazard). Spatial panel models attest to the existence of the ex‐post moral hazard in PP empirically. Empirical results show that the PP ratio has a positive relationship with insurance coverage in the case of corn production.

A note on mitigating the adverse scale effects associated with daily driving restrictions (2018) with Arthur Caplan in Environment and Development Economics (top 11% journal)

This paper investigates the role of additional regulation in mitigating the ‘adverse scale effect’ associated with daily driving restrictions, which has become a popular regulatory tool used to control episodic air pollution internationally, especially in developing countries. We find that although an annual vehicle registration tax reduces the incentive to purchase additional vehicles among households whose sole purpose for doing so is to ‘cheat’ the restriction (i.e., the ‘adverse scale effect’), it does so with an external cost. The cost occurs because households whose purpose for purchasing an additional vehicle is not to cheat the restriction are given the same disincentive with the tax. We show how simple one- and two-stage lotteries can be used to not only discriminate between cheater and non-cheater households (in particular, to avoid providing a disincentive to the latter type of household), but also to provide an even stronger disincentive to the former.

Estimating Impact of Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative on Coal to Gas Switching using Synthetic Control Methods (2016) with Taehoo Kim in Energy Economics (top 1% journal)

Fuel switching from coal to much cleaner natural gas in electricity generation is one of significant factors explaining the recent substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) region (northeastern U.S.). Coal to gas switching has been triggered by the recent shale gas revolution, which the entire U.S. has experienced, not the RGGI region alone. If RGGI as a cap-and-trade carbon program did not work effectively, the rate of fuel switching would have been similar to that of other U.S. states. To estimate the effects of RGGI implementation in terms of the fuel switching, we use the synthetic control method for comparative case studies. Results provide a strong evidence that coal to gas switching has been actually accelerated by RGGI implementation. RGGI increases gas share in electricity generation in the RGGI region by roughly 10–15% point higher than the synthetic RGGI.

Land-based greenhouse gas emission offset and leakage discounting (2014) with Denis Peralta and Bruce A. McCarl in Ecological Economics (top 4% journal)

This paper examines leakage from agricultural greenhouse gas reduction programs stimulated by reductions in regional commodity supply. This paper develops an extension of the leakage discount formula in Murray et al. (2004) that incorporates changes in input (land) usage rather than product output (crop or forest product quantity). Additionally the leakage discount developed here allows for land conversion and production replacement involving multiple alternative uses. In an empirical application in the Southeast Texas we compute leakage discounts of 14.8% for the conversion of rice to no-till sorghum and 14.9% for rice to pasture program. Most of the sources of GHG offset leakage come from conversions of cotton to rice and pasture to rice in the other regions.

Wildfire smoke and health impacts: A closer look at fire attributes and their marginal effects (2013) with K. Moeltner, E. Zhu and W. Yang in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (top 2% journal)

Existing studies on the economic impact of wildfire smoke have focused on single fire events or entire seasons without considering the marginal effect of daily fire progression on downwind communities. Neither approach allows for an examination of the impact of even the most basic fire attributes, such as distance and fuel type, on air quality and health outcomes. Improved knowledge of these effects can provide important guidance for efficient wildfire management strategies. This study aims to bridge this gap using detailed information on 24 large-scale wildfires that sent smoke plumes to the Reno/Sparks area of Northern Nevada over a 4-year period. We relate the daily acreage burned by these fires to daily data on air pollutants and local hospital admissions. Using information on medical expenses, we compute the per-acre health cost of wildfires of different attributes. We find that patient counts can be causally linked to fires as far as 200–300 miles from the impact area. As expected, the marginal impact per acre burned generally diminishes with distance and for fires with lighter fuel loads. Our results also highlight the importance of allowing for temporal lags between fire occurrence and pollutant levels.

Does trade liberalization induce more greenhouse gas emissions? The case of Mexico and the United States under NAFTA (2010) with Edward T. Yu and Seong-Hoon Cho in American Journal of Agricultural Economics (top 1% journal)

Abstract

Permanence discounting for land-based carbon sequestration (2008) with B.A. McCarl and B.C. Murray in Ecological Economics (top 4% journal)

One major concern regarding land-based carbon sequestration involves the issue of permanence. Sequestration may not last forever and may either be released in the future or require expenditures to maintain the practices that keep it sequestered. In this paper, we investigate the differential value of offsets in the face of impermanent characteristics by forming a price discount that equalizes the effective price per ton between a “perfect offset” and one possessing some with impermanent characteristics. We find this discount to be a function of the future needs to replace offsets (in the face of lease expiration quantity or volatilization upon activities such as timber harvest) and the magnitude of any needed maintenance costs. We investigate the magnitude of the discounts under alternative agricultural tillage and forest management cases. In those studies, we find that permanence discounts in the range of 50% are not uncommon. This means that in the market place an impermanent sequestration offset may only receive payments amounting to 50% of the market carbon price. Furthermore, we find that in the face of escalating carbon prices that offsets may prove to be worthless.

Not appeared in top journals but frequently cited (citation > 20)

Adopting smart agriculture among organic farmers in Taiwan (2021) with C. Takagi, SH. Purnomo in Asian Journal of Technology Innovation (N/A)

Taiwan's push for Smart Agriculture has led to increased adoption among organic farmers. Key factors influencing adoption include perceived compatibility, ease of use, expected yield increase, and trial opportunities. Socio-demographic factors, however, play a less significant role.

Marketing, congestion, and demarketing in Utah's National Parks (2021) with T. Drugova, and PM. Jakus in Tourism Economics (top 25% journal)

Utah’s Mighty 5 ad campaign boosted visitation at Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef NPs. However, no effect was found for Bryce Canyon and Zion NPs. While these latter parks face congestion, the state is implementing a ‘demarketing’ campaign to manage visitor flow and enhance the visitor experience.

Carbon leakage in energy/forest sectors and climate policy implications using meta-analysis (2020) with W. Pan, Z. Ning, and H. Yang in Forest Policy and Economics (top 18% journal)

This study aims to identify the drivers of carbon leakage and provide policy implications to mitigate carbon leakage using meta-regression. A total of 46 studies are collected, which provide 230 estimates of carbon leakage. Results show that (i) the forest sector has larger carbon leakage of 39.6%; (ii) substitution degree increases carbon leakage, but it is not statistically significant; (iii) contrary to popular belief, coalition size is not always negatively related to carbon leakage; (iv) local economic conditions are key drivers of carbon leakage; and (v) carbon leakage is overestimated in the forest sector.

Wildfire, national park visitation, and changes in regional economic activity (2019) with PM Jakus in Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Applied Economics

This study statistically quantifies the effect of nearby wildfire on tourist flows to each of Utah's five NPs (Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Zion). Results show that wildfire has negative and statistically significant effects on visitation in four of the five NPs. Aggregate annual visitation losses at each park are between 0.5% and 1.5% during a typical (mean) fire year. The negative regional economic impacts of seasonal wildfire at all national parks in Utah are estimated to be between $2.7 and $4.5 million, with an associated loss of between 31 and 53 jobs depending on the extent of area burned.

An assessment of market strategies for small-scale produce growers (2014) with K.R. Curtis and I. Yeager in International Food and Agribusiness Management Review (top 25% journal)

This study examines marketing strategies for small-scale producers by comparing the risk and return properties of direct (farmers’ markets) and wholesale marketing channels. Farmers’ market prices for fresh produce were collected at sixteen markets in Utah and Colorado. San Francisco terminal market prices were used to represent wholesale prices. A simulation model combined price, yield, and market risk to construct probability distribution functions showing the likelihood of differing levels of profit for eleven marketing options. The results show that risk-averse producers prefer a combination of channels (40% direct/60% wholesale), while risk neutral producers prefer to market exclusively through farmers’ markets.

Uncertainty discounting for land-based carbon sequestration (2009) with Bruce A. McCarl in Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics (top 16% journal)

The effect of stochastic factors on soil carbon makes the quantity of carbon generated under a sequestration project uncertain. Hence, the quantity of sequestered carbon may need to be discounted to avoid liability from shortfalls. We present a potentially applicable uncertainty discount and discuss difficulties that might arise in empirical use. We insist that the variance in historical crop yields across geographical areas is used to derive a proxy variance for forming an uncertainty discount for carbon projects. Application of our approach suggests that project level uncertainty discounts would be 15-20% for the East Texas region. Efficiency analysis of the US biotechnology industry: Clustering enhances productivity (2009) with T.R. Harris and S. Vusovic in AgBioForumThis article attempts to identify the factors affecting location of biotechnology firms in the United States. To achieve this goal, the regional efficiency in the biotech industry is measured using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). We investigate the causal structure of the regional biotech industry performance and a set of other locational variables using the Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG). Clustering the biotech industry directly enhances the regional industry efficiency, and the high-tech infrastructure and regional income directly affect the clustering the biotech industry.

Climate change impact on rice yield and production risk (2009) with A. Pang in Journal of Rural Development (top 75% journal)

The relationship among rice yield and weather variables in Korea is explored using a stochastic production function. The results reveal that average rice yield is positively related to temperature and negatively associated with precipitation. Both temperature and precipitation, which are risk-increasing inputs, are positively related to rice yield variability. The widened yield variability can be transferred to the fluctuation of rice production and rice price instability. Larger market risk is expected in the future since both temperature and precipitation are anticipated to increase. An evaluation of climate change impact on rice yield variability reveals that it may increase by up to 10%~ 20%. Reducing yield variability and managing market risk would be the primary goals of the government's farm policy and research.

The agricultural value of information on the North Atlantic Oscillation: yield and economic effects (2005) with Bruce A. McCarl in Climatic Change (top 16% journal)

The North Atlantic oscillation is associated with altered climatic conditions in the United States and Europe. Climate in key agricultural areas is affected. A historically based statistical analysis of crop yield finds that the NAO effect on yields is basically as large as the crop yield implications from the El Niño/Southern oscillation phenomena. In turn an estimate of the potential welfare gains that could be achieved through early NAO phase announcements and subsequent crop mix, storage and consumption adjustments ranges from 600 million to 1.2 billion dollars a year.

The second generation model: Comparison of SGM and GTAP approaches to data development (2005) with Ron Sands and Sebastian Miller in PNNL Report 15467, Joint Global Change Research Institute, College Park, MD

There is a general consensus among economic modelers that information from economic input-output tables should be combined with data on energy quantities for analysis of energy and climate policy. However, at least three different approaches are in use: procedures developed by the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP); procedures developed for the Second Generation Model (SGM); and the GTAP-EG approach documented by Rutherford and Paltsev (2000). Here we provide a limited comparison of the GTAP and SGM approaches

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